Week 4, Psychosocial Experience of Immigration; Allison Miller

We finally took a picture!

This week I met with my mentee, Lizbeth, and helped her with her homework.  When we were finished with that, we made small talk as I asked her how her week had been going.  She mentioned playing with her siblings and neighbors over the weekend, which is something I’m sure most kids did with they were younger for fun.  After our talk, I focused on answering the questions assigned for this week’s photo journal entry, the first being “what kind of developmental changes did Lizbeth probably experience due to immigration?”  Since this isn’t something I can really ask her about, I’m just going to have to make assumptions based on what I do know about her as well as what I’ve learned from the reading assignments.

Lizbeth and her family came to America from Mexico when she was around 4 or 5 years old.  This move more than likely disrupted and changed most (if not all) of the ecological systems that Bronfenbrenner describes (Vaughn, p.47).  Since Lizbeth was just entering the stage of childhood when she immigrated, she was probably more affected by the move than her parents, who already have developed their self-concepts.  Her macrosystem was undoubtedly affected—she went from the only society that she’s ever known to a foreign one, and her family’s economic status probably changed due to the move.  While her immediate family may not have changed, Lizbeth has told me that many of her family members still reside in Mexico.  Her peer group changed from children that look and speak like she does to children who may not look like her or speak her language.  I believe it was in Suarez-Orozco (x2) that I read about how many immigrants who had esteemed careers in their native land (doctors, lawyers, etc.) come to America and are forced into lower-status jobs like restaurant workers.  This goes along with the changes Lizbeth most likely experienced in her exosystem, which includes her parents’ workplaces.  

I feel as though her mesosystem was greatly impacted by her family’s move.  This system includes the connection between immediate environments.  Seeing as how Lizbeth speaks Spanish at home and more English at the schools she has attended, there has to be some gaps in this connection.  She has told me that her mother speaks no English at all, thus Lizbeth had to get used to going from English to Spanish depending on the situation and her environment.  The innermost layer of Bronfenbrenner’s figure is the microsystem, or the individual’s immediate environment.  This would include Lizbeth’s relationships as well as interactions.  Since “each system contains roles, norms, and rules that are powerful shapers of development,” (Vaughn, p. 47) I think it’s safe to say that immigration has had a huge impact on Lizbeth’s development.  She went from growing up beginning to learn her roles, norms and rules for each of her environments, to having her world flipped upside down, entering situations where everything that she was used to was now entirely different.  

I think that immigration affects everyone in different ways, depending upon the reasons for immigrating, the method, and the overall experience.  People who immigrant because they honestly want to do better for themselves and see more opportunity in a country other than their native one would be affected by immigration differently  than those that leave due to persecution.  People who drive or fly over will have different experiences and reactions to immigration than those who choose less luxurious/more dangerous means.  Immigrants would also experience immigration differently depending on who is traveling with them, who they will be living with, and who they have left behind.  Suarez-Orozco (x2) talks about separation and reunification, the role reversal that children and their parents experience, and the many stresses that immigrants face before, during, and after their journey.

Culture has many ways of socializing people.  Every culture has its own particular norms, rules, and roles, and in order to fit in with the mainstream, most people subconsciously follow these rules and adhere to these norms and roles.  People are taught growing up how to act in the many roles that they take on, and each generation passes on these rules to their children.  Since culture is different across the world, many immigrants experience culture shock upon their arrival into the new land.  All the norms that they’re used to are now changed, and they have no longer have any guidance on how to act in society.  Thus they may be perceived as weird or different, probably causing them to feel excluded from their new environment.