Why Do Children Of Immigrants Often Feel They Must Lose Their Culture Identity?

For more than 300 years, immigrants from every corner of the globe have settled in America, creating the most diverse and heterogeneous nation on Earth. Though immigrants have given much to the country, their process of changing from their homeland to the new land has never been easy. To immigrate does not only mean to come and live in a country after leaving your own country, but it also means to deal with many new and unfamiliar situations, social backgrounds, cultures, and mainly with the acquisition and master of a new language. This often causes mixed emotions, frustration, awkward feelings, and other conflicts. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, the author

Language is much more than a method of communication. Permeated within it are traditions, customs, and legacies of one’s culture. The identity of an entire population is in the distinct vocalizations of their native language. Unfortunately, as a wave of immigrants enters the United States at young ages, many face language barriers that pose significant challenges. Language barriers affect a multitude of immigrant populations to different degrees. This, in turn, causes many of them to abandon not only their native tongue but a piece of their ethnic identity, as well. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s personal narrative,“The Language of Silence,” she describes the difficulties she experienced throughout her childhood with a language barrier as a

Children tend to have an easier time assimilating than their older counterparts; children are quickly “Americanized,” which can clash with expectations from their own culture. For example, an “Americanized” child may become embarrassed of wearing ethnic clothing once adapting to the designer clothing environment of American youth. Children also learn English at a faster pace than their parents, which taints the parent-child dynamic. Children with disrupted or minimal school education are suddenly thrown in a new educational environment. Various immigrant children struggle to keep up in class, due to different academic standards across different countries. A kid with a poor education may be overwhelmed with an American education, which has a reputation of being top-notched. Those who are unable to speak English, find it impossible to keep up with their peers, parents also may not have the education or language skills to assist their children. When my sister Mavis came to America from Ghana, she was in the 4th grade, she ended up having to repeat 4th grade because she knew almost no English and could only speak

I am a U.S. born citizen. My parents moved to the United States in 1984 without knowing anything about this country. Looking for a fresh start and new opportunities, my parents settled in Houston. With hardly knowing any English, my parents knew this was the place to make dreams become a reality. Luckily, I had older siblings to look up to whenever I needed help. Like Lahiri, I was trapped in between two different cultures while I was growing up. At home, I only spoke Spanish, but in school it was English. My habits and customs were different than others. Life as an immigrant’s offspring can be very difficult. As I grew older, I allowed myself to open my eyes and see the beauty of being an American from Hispanic descent.

The first source that I would be using is “Remaking Identities” a part of the book Children of Immigration by Carola Suarez-Orozco and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco. I choose this source because it contains a study in which children of immigrants develop a sense of identification and their relationship to this new country. In many cases these children have a difficulty identifying themselves, affecting their

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

What is it like to be born in one country and then grow up in another where people speak a different language and follow different traditions? And is it easy to grow up in another country where members of the native country pressure one to be "one of their own"? If anyone wishes to find insightful and interesting answers to these questions, one should go no further than read Lac Su's I Love Yours Are for White People. In this book, Lac tells the story of his child- and adolescent-hood, growing up in "urban" Los Angeles as a Vietnamese living with a "traditional" Vietnamese family. As Lac demonstrates in the book, he once was between two worlds, sometimes unable to figure out who he was, and sometimes rejecting one or the other altogether. After going through difficult and painful experiences, Lac learns to embrace his ethnic identity. He realizes that he is a Vietnamese-American who belongs to both cultures. He learns to appreciate his Vietnamese background but also acknowledges that he is partly American because some Vietnamese habits are so uncommon for him.

“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.” (-Mark Twain) Being a child of immigrant parents who move to American can be hard. There is a lingering feeling of not feeling like a child belongs. They are stuck in the invisible world between where their parents came from, in this specific case, Asia and where the child lives now. It can be difficult to be raised as an Asian American and learning both culture and traditions. Many Asian American kids end up deviating from the Asian culture and embracing the American culture. However, children of immigrants should embrace their own culture in order to keep traditions alive and be proud of who they are.

Growing up the child of an immigrant has given me a unique perspective on life that a majority of kids my age will never have. In my home, I am surrounded by the Ethiopian culture and language, but when I step across the threshold, I am greeted by a culture foreign to my own. I was challenged with learning two more languages than most kids, Amharic and Tigrinya, which classified me as a student who needed ESL (English Second Language) classes. My mom always said, “Ewedeshalo yenekonjo”, meaning I love you, my beautiful. I was immersed in two different communities, and had the impression of living in two different countries. I was faced with the difficulty of not knowing where I fit in since I am one of a few kids who have this reality. Balancing

Another question arises: what is a “narrative of ethnicity” in diasporic context? Choy explains how immigrants are to preserve their ethinic identity, yet they adapt to their social context. The children feel the same resentment and distaste for Chinese. Jook-Liang forces herself to speak English at home in her efforts to be more like Shirley Temple. She speaks to herself in English while practicing her dance routine (Choy, 36) and uses it as a tool to feel less Chinese. The children have jarring associations to learning and speaking

Unconsciously, we all speak different languages; we categorize the way we speak by the environment and people at which we are speaking too. Whenever a character enters an unfamiliar environment, they experiment with language to find themselves and understand reality. For immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation

In “Immigrants” by Pat Mora, they are struggling to achieve acceptance and help their family have a better future. The parents are trying so hard to associate their children with “American traditions” and still are left wondering if they will be accepted in America. In my opinion nothing is worth loosing your actual culture or values. They are literally willing to do whatever it takes to transform heir children into American traditions. “Feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie” (Line 2 Mora). Both Hot dogs and Apple pie are both American food and American culture. Wait there is more they are even considering changing the names of their children. Buying them blonde dolls and football cleats both have typical American

Growing up, I perceived myself as a minority in a predominantly Hispanic and to a lesser extent Asian area based solely on the restaurants in the area and how often I would see Spanish and an East or Southeast Asian script on the sign for a store. The latter is seen in the fact 55.9% of the population spoke Spanish or Spanish Creole and 87% of this group spoke English “less than well,” indicating it may be at least a second language for them. Asian and Pacific Island language speakers makeup 5.2% of the population, however, a greater degree of assimilation was seen in this group with only 64.4% of this group indicating they spoke English “less than well.” Another factor in this is that over 60 percent of the population (61.3%) is foreign born with the vast majority (90.8%) speaking Spanish or Spanish Creole at home. A quarter mile from my house there was an entire plaza of Southeast Asian stores and restaurants and a half mile away was another, larger plaza with mostly Mexican and other Central American businesses and spaces. In spite of this economic activity, the two thirds of residents rented rather than owned their homes and nearly 80% of the total population lived in these units. Additionally, 82.1% of the Spanish speaking population over the age of 25 have earned less than a highschool diploma. Such data are emblematic of the relationship between being a person of color in this country and the barriers to

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

Along with its economic classes, American is known for its freedom, its liberty, and the melting pot of ethnicity. This ethnic diversity comes form the immigrant population in the country. However this perfect country is a major falsehood. These untrue ideals of harmony, freedom, success, and equality are deceptive and do not show the struggles that immigrants face when coming to this class dominated country. The immigrants of today do not come from just Europe, but overwhelmingly from Asia and Latin America. “They are driving a demographic shift so rapid that within the lifetimes of today 's teenagers, no one ethnic group – including whites of European descent – will comprise a majority of the nation 's population’ (Colombo, Cullen, Lisle). These immigrants challenge the social myth that everyone has an equal chance in life. They