Week 4: Psychosocial Experience of Immigration

During my first meeting with Sara, she was very timid and spoke softly, hardly even allowing me to hear the Mexican accent that worked its way into her speech.  We played the famous word game, Hangman, as an icebreaker to engage in an activity so as to avoid awkward and inefficient small talk, but still Sara seemed distant and uncomfortable.

Vaughn mentions in "Psychology and Culture" the importance of language mastery in the acculturation process.  She notes that language and culture have a reciprocal relationship and that one must understand language to understand its culture and vice versa.  This concept has presented itself both in and outside my meetings with Sara.

So on that first day, after playing about a half hour of Hangman, Sara was talking a bit more but still at a very low volume.  I figured this to be related solely to the intimidation of meeting a stranger.  At the end of our meeting, I gave Sara my cell phone number and told her she was welcome to contact me whenever she wanted, and I would respond as long as I was not in class or at work.  Sara texted me an hour after I left the school.

We had a short but pleasant texting conversation and she continued to text me almost every day that week after returning home from school.  Turns out Sara is not as shy as I had interpreted.

At meeting number two, I expected Sara to be a different person, enthusiastic to see me and comfortable sharing stories about her week.  This was not the case.  She continued to mumble her words and asked me to spell word after word for her as she wrote responses for math problems on her latest homework assignment.

I relate this experience with the aforementioned concept of language in culture from Vaughn's book.  In a conversation such as texting, Sara is comfortable with her english because she has time to formulate a response and her hispanic accent does not present itself.  However, as soon as she is forced to speak face-to-face, she reverts back to speaking softly and asking for verification on spellings before even attempting to spell the words herself.

This is a new concept for me as I was raised in an area with very few ESL peers and I myself had learned English as my first language.  I grew up loving the language and eager to share my speech and writing with others.  Obviously, AMIS, being a school directed toward immigrant children, is a completely different environment than that, and offers its students the opportunity of sharing their native language with others of similar backgrounds while still immersing them in American culture and schooling.

Week 4- Michael J Harrington

Psychosocial Experience of Immigration

As I have never immigrated, or even moved any real distance away from a hometown, I am certain that immigration is one of the most disruptive experiences possible, especially to a young child.  If one moves to any culture that is significantly different than their own then they will not only have to learn a new language but new mannerisms, niceties, and traditions.  I twice visited New Mexico and both times met natives of the state.  Now, although it is still part of the same country, the culture I saw was very different from what I had grown up observing.  I didn't have time to strictly observe the resident of New Mexico, but I did notice some large differences.  The houses were all pretty different, and the people were all very friendly.  I know that this isn't much to go off of, but even small changes like these can be very different.  Where one lives tells a lot about them, and changes even more.  We all grew up in some sort of house or apartment, and if we had to move to another one then I can imagine that this would severely affect a child's development.  Most immigrant are very poor when they move to the United States, and must live in fairly bad conditions.  Of course, it is much better for any child to grow up in a safe environment where they will have the resources to learn and grow up.  Some people may question how this relates to them, not everyone is an immigrant.  Just because you were born and raised in the US of A doesn't mean that immigration doesn't affect you.  In fact it affects every one of us every day.  Immigrants work in our industries, often in  unsafe conditions or for a very low wage.  If we can raise the working conditions for immigrants they will surely raise for everyone else in the working community.  Also, poorer individuals in bad situations often commit crime, affecting everyone, through taxes, direct violence, and other ways.

My mentees, Jose and Jose, are both immigrants, one has been here quite a while (about four years I believe) and the other has only been here a few months.  There are certain differences between them that we can use to look at how acculturation to a new country affects children.  First of all, the first Jose (the one who's been here longer, I'll call him Jose1) speaks fluent English.  He also can speak Spanish, but seems to have trouble finding the right words to say sometimes when translating for his friend (Jose2).  Obviously, the longer they have been in a country the better they will learn to speak the language, and possibly forget parts of their own (the extent to which this happens probably depends on the extent that English is spoken in their home, and I haven't talked to either about this).  Jose1 is much more open and less shy than Jose2, but this may be due to the fact that Jose2 doesn't speak English, and it is probably hard for him to continually be translated and have everything either Alex or myself says translated for him.  The language barrier may be one of the most difficult barriers to pass when dealing with immigrants, but it is definately not the only one.  Other ways in which immigrating may affect children is through the sudden uprooting of everyone they know, and having to meet new people tat are oftentimes uninterested in being friends with them.  Friendship is an integral part of childhood, and a lack thereof could have serious consequences for children.

Week 4: Michelle Prinzo

Self Reflection: How does culture socialize people?

Is the woman in this portrait beautiful? If you were to meet her on the street or in a bar would you think she was beautiful? Pretty? In our society, many people would answer "no". Some people might say something like "she has a pretty face" or "if she lost a few pounds then maybe she would be beautiful." I can even imagine a comment like, "Has she ever even seen the sun?"

In all likelihood this woman would not be featured in today's fashion magazines. In chapter 4 of Vaughn's text, she says that, "perceptions are relative and become distorted easily based on sociocultural factors....We now know that based on different cultural practices of socialization and acculturation, people learn to sense certain stimuli and not others and have preferences for familiarity with particular cultural-related images,  smells, tastes, and sounds" (81). What people perceived as beautiful during DaVinci's time  and what we perceive as beautiful now is very different. Girls and women in our society feel pressure to be thin, to be tan, even if it is not a healthy thin or a healthy tan whereas  in the past women who were heavy and fair-skinned were perceived as having the ideal bodies.

Perceptions of beauty are not only between the past and present, but they vary between cultures. Cultures world-wide have differing perceptions of beauty. We hear stories of women who put rings around their neck to elongate them or women who bandage their feet to prevent them from getting bigger. Vaugh affirms this idea as she states, "Peception of what is beautiful offer differs greatly across the globe. Some fads and fashions start at a national level and quickly spread internationally. Other cultures limit the media and thus beauty is often defined for the people without the freedom to choose" (85).

Perception, of course, is not limited to only beauty. If affects every aspect of life. People who are immigrants often face internal (and at times external) conflicts based upon differences in perception. I have chosen to focus this posting on beauty because my mentee is fascinated by fashion and clothing for women. She loves to hear about my purse and my make up and asked me if I would bring magazines for us to look through and use as inspirations for our drawings.

This leads me to the second part of my post: How does a culture socialize people?

My mentee is the child of an immigrant. We have only met twice, but from what we has talked about it seems that she (and likely her parents) have assimilated into Western culture. English is her first language, and the experiences she tells me about---birthdays, bunk beds, make-up-- and the things she draws--peace signs,  flowers, dresses, and fashion accessories-- seem to indicate that her upbringing has been very influenced by American society (and a teenage sister in high school). As she is a very shy child, I am interested to learn more about her home life and family background. Perhaps she focuses on these things to relate to me, or is unaware of differences between the culture her parents are from and the culture she has grown up in. My hope is to explore these areas further as we get to know one another better.

Week 4 : Psychosocial Experience of Immigration - Emma Shreve

Mentor Post:

Immigration is everywhere. Each and every place that we go, we are bound to meet someone who was born in another country or may be a second- or third-generation citizen. I am a fourth generation citizen, so my family's immigration is pretty distant from me. I do, however, come into contact with Hispanic immigrants a lot. At the restaurant where I used work, there were lots of Hispanic workers with whom I interacted with on a daily basis. Almost all of them were men who worked in the kitchen, prepping food or doing dishes. There were two servers from Peru, who were brother and sister. All of my Latino co-workers spoke Spanish and very broken English, but the two servers spoke fluent English. I had so much fun talking and working with the kitchen guys. They would teach me Spanish and I would help them with the English terms, sometimes employing a version of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" to teach them the terms for body parts. I still remember a few years ago when I had attended Ash Wednesday mass at school and still had an ashy cross on my forehead. Hugo kept asking me if I was catolico, but I had no idea what he was talking about until he finally pointed at my forehead and did the Sign of the Cross. Despite the barriers that it sometimes poses, immigration presents us with an opportunity to learn about other cultures and ways of life. It is up to us to decide whether we are going to embrace that opportunity or let it pass us by...

Mentee Post:

Immigrating to the United States is probably one of biggest changes Dayana will ever experience. She moved from a place where everyone spoke the same language and, probably, looked somewhat alike to a place where different languages can be heard everyday and looks are much more diverse. Our country has been referred to as the 'great melting pot' where different cultures blend together to create a big pot of American-ness. I like to think that each person brings a little something to the pot and that all the flavors complement each other, while staying distinct. Dayana and her family bring their own heritage and culture to Cincinnati and that will only the melting pot richer. Even though she has lived here for only a year, Dayana has already been influenced by American culture. I am glad that she is able to go to school at AMIS, where she can learn English and learn about our culture without being thrown into a typical public school where she will be lost in a sea of people who do not understand her. She gets to experience American life but keep in touch with her Hispanic roots at a place where people will understand her, regardless of the language she is speaking. The school you attend will shape who you are and all the students at AMIS are lucky that they go to a school that fosters acceptance and openness in such a normal way...

Week Four: Psychosocial Experiences

Contrary to how it appears,
Jose was happy to see me.

This week Jose seemed extremely excited to see me. He rushed up with a huge smile on his face and told me all about his visit to the circus on Sunday. This reminded me of Vaughn's section about happiness in which she states that forty percent of our happiness levels are controlled by personal actions and attitudes. Jose’s trip to the circus was enough to make him happy for days; Jose allows himself to be happy and seems to approach day-to-day life with a positive attitude, which I am sure has helped him to adjust and grow in a healthy manner.

Cultural Distance

I would tend to say that I am pretty even-keeled. I obviously get excited about things and have both good and bad days, but things never tend to get me down. I guess this more constricted range of emotion can serve as both a detriment and an advantage. While I may not be excited for days by a happy experience, I also tend not to allow things to get to me as easily.

This week was also the first time that I saw Jose working on school tasks. Helping him with an English worksheet and reading an Arthur book with him showed me that he still does have a few difficulties in school. Once when he misspelled a word and I corrected him, he explained to me that he used the incorrect vowel because they are pronounced differently in Spanish. It does seem that being a part of an immigrant family that speaks Spanish at home. Vaughn also talks bout the importance of language in the same chapter and notes that it is an important component of culture. I would imagine that it is hard for Jose to feel completely “American” while he is still learning the intricacies of the English language.

Week 4-Psychosocial Experience of Immigration; Maureen Rooney

          

       I believe culture is a very important element in our world today. This is because there are so many different aspects that can define one’s culture and I think that it is the combination of all of these aspects that makes a culture unique. The world is fortunate to have so many different cultures living on earth because it allows individuals to experience many different ways of living. When people share a culture, it allows them to connect over the same topics and ways of living. For example, culture can include our religion, language, food and ways of interaction which we have learning from the readings in Professor Vaughn’s novel. People in a culture will see each other at the same church and share recipes on their traditional meals. These interactions socialize people because they have the same interests.

It is difficult for many cultures to come together because not everyone is always open to adapting to a new way of living. However, with the increase of immigration in America, people are learning to adjust and become more welcoming to new cultures. I feel that I am becoming more open to trying new things too. Since I did not attend a diverse grade school and high school, I was not exposed to other ways of living and different types of beliefs. However, at college, I can see many different ethnicities and practices just from walking through campus. I was open to new cultures before I came to college but I just did not experience them in my everyday life. Now that I have seen many different types of living, I feel that I am more open to new ideas, foods and topics which allows me to socialize more with diverse groups of people.

        Vivianna must have experienced many changes already in her short life due to immigrating to a new country. First, I can look at her emotions which are “universal or culture specific or [can be] a combination” of the two (Vaughn 80). Immigrant children can be confused on what is culturally acceptable for their display of emotion. People in Mexico can display their emotions often and do not mind having little personal space, where people in the United States might prefer to have more personal space when communicating with another person. Therefore, Vivianna may be confused on how to talk and react to a situation when it is presented to her because she does not know what is socially acceptable. Then, Vivianna is learning english because some people think “that without understanding the language of a culture, the culture itself cannot be fully understood” (Vaughn 86). Vivianna, like other immigrant children and adults, has to learn to adapt to the culture in the United States and learn a new language so that they can communicate with others in their new culture. On the other hand, people in the United States need to adapt to immigrants’ culture because they need to be patient and understanding when trying to communicate with an immigrant to is attempting to learn english for the first time. However, even though immigrants introduce their culture to the people already living in the United States, they can also connect with other immigrants who have moved here from their same home country. The connection can be created because their similar interest in music, food and language. Vivianna connects with the other students in her school because they are immigrants too and they can relate to each other. Another problem Vivianna might experience it her rate of adaptation to her new culture in relation to her parents. Her parents, who have lived in their past culture for a long time, may have trouble adapting to their new way of living. Vivianna, on the other hand, has only experienced her previous culture for a few years so she will be able to adapt faster than her parents because she does not maintain as strong of bonds to her home country. All in all, I think Vivianna and her family will be able to adapt and teach many American’s new ways of living. 

Week 4; Jonathan Hilton

Week 4: Psychosocial Experience of Immigration
Jonathan Hilton

Children in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, eating oranges.
I worked at a school/orphange in 2008 & 2009; now, I have
 noted that several children at AMIS are from Honduras.
The children pictured have experienced significant shifts
in most of the levels of Bronfenbrenner's model.

How is a child’s world turned upside down through the process of immigration? Every time I see my mentee, Jadier, I stop and ask myself how this 8-year-old has found the courage to face the everyday struggles that come with living in an entirely new world. When I was talking with Jadier this week, it occurred to me that all four layers of Jadier’s “‘layers’ of environment” (Vaughn, page 46) in the Bronfenbrenner model have been shifted in some significant way. Obviously, his macrosystem has changed dramatically with his move to the continental U.S. The change in language is one major change in Jadier’s macrosystem that affects all three other layers. Jadier’s exosystem has shifted because of the change in workplace environment his parents have undergone. Notions that would be far too abstract for Jadier to understand, like changes in social status due to having immigrated, are now a part of his everyday reality. The mesosystem has gone from one of the traditional Puerto Rican barrio to a Cincinnati apartment complex, complete with a new mix of peoples, races, religions, and customs. And finally, at the microsystem level, Jadier may eventually experience that role reversals mentioned in Chapter 4 of Suarez-Orozco.

What is it like to have so many layers of one’s existence peeled away and replaced with new ones? I suppose that I have had a few experiences in which all four of Bronfenbrenner’s layers underwent a significant change, but none of them were ever as challenging as Jadier’s experience. For instance, although all of my “layers” shifted when my family moved from South Carolina to Ohio when I was six, not all of the layer shifts were detrimental. My family moved because my father was leaving academia for a good job at Procter & Gamble here in Cincinnati, so at the microsystem and exosystem levels, I experienced increased familial resources coupled with a rise in socioeconomic status, whereas many immigrants experience some sort of social demotion.

Even with the changes, I managed to make
friends quickly in the Cincinnati area and
I learned to fit in. Integration for me
was easier than it will be for Jadier.

Meanwhile, although there was no language barrier for me per se, I suddenly had an “accent” and my new friends sometimes questioned me about it or poked fun at it. I soon learned how to emulate “Yankee speech,” however, and the questions stopped. I made new friends and joined a new church, so my mesosystem stabilized rapidly. Finally, what about the “culture shock” of moving to the North? My macrosystem had changed from “Southern U.S.” to “Northern U.S.,” but honestly, for the most part the kinds of worldview shifts that went on as part of the move simply went over my head. I did notice that people in my new home comported themselves somewhat differently and talked differently, but I adjusted quickly. Within a couple of years, any thoughts I had of moving back to South Carolina or returning to the South had stopped. (At least, until I began looking at colleges many years later.) I look forward to learning more about my mentee and his experience, and I hope I will be able to do something to help him emotionally process the powerful shifts he has undergone since coming to the continental U.S.