The social problem our agency is focusing on is acculturation. Acculturation is the adjustment process that an individual experience as they enter a new host culture (Garrett, 2006). Our team has identified research that has led us to investigate the relationship between peer support and acculturation, for refugee teens in the United States (Oppedal & Idsoe, 2011). As more and more refugees begin to resettle into the United States, it is in the best interest of the social work profession to increase our knowledge base on how to effectively assimilate this population (Trickett & Birman, 2005). Our research is guided by the idea that increasing an individual's cultural competence to their new host culture. Our research suggests that refugee teens …show more content…
Similar programs have been designed to aid the refugee population to learn specific skills associated with acculturation (Dwyer, 2013). Our program will be offered to all teens ages 16-18 in the Boise School District, a cultural orientation will be offered but only to the refugee students. By having soccer as a mechanism to use as a source of intervention, participants will the be able to build social support in a safe learning environment (2013). Our method will be to provide the target population with 20 cultural orientations over a span of six weeks. Using the Acculturation Attitudes Scale, we will measure acculturation from refugee teens (Kang, …show more content…
Acculturation is defined as a process that occurs when newly arrived individuals meet the host society (Khawaja et al., 2014). Research has shown that the experience of acculturation can cause many stresses for people. Individuals are faced with an identity crisis when they are working to find their new role in society. Furthermore, the stress that comes with converging two different cultures can challenge an individual's ability to adapt to their new environment (2014). When a person makes a change from their culture to a new host society, it can be unfamiliar and create unique challenges for that individual (Ward et al.,
Currently “first and second generation immigrant children are the fastest growing segment of the U.S population, and there are currently 40 million immigrants living in the United States.” (Stephenson, 2008) According to Sirin, Ryce, Gupta authors of The Role of Acculturative Stress of Mental Health Symptoms for Immigrant Adolescents: A longitudinal Study; a first generation immigrant is someone who was born in another country and then moved to a host country, while a second generation immigrant is someone who was born in the host country but has at least one parent who was born abroad (2013). The goal of this paper is to look at the mental health of second generation immigrants, and how (or if) cultural identity, acculturation, undocumented vs documented status of parents, education and language barriers protect or negatively affect the mental health of this growing popul...
The process of acculturation “a social and psychological process of change when one culture comes in contact with another” does not directly affect mental health but the process can be stressful, even if positive over negative, or a mix of the two. If the process is positive such as “improving one’s life” while challenging may not have a negative effect or be as stressful in the next case where … if the process of acculturation is negative, the process may be stressful making for acculturative stress (Tafoya, 2011). And in the case of a latino/a coming into the United States there are several potential factors leading to stress. Those may include discrimination, whether perceived and/or direct and may come in the form of unfair treatment (Among others) and language barriers. Again, many potentially stressful issues that come with one culture coming in contact with another, and the process of becoming accustomed to a new culture (Torres, Driscoll, & Voell, 2012).
There should therefore be emphasis placed on assessing the mental health of these kids because of the adverse experiences in their home countries and the distress experienced in an alien country or culture in which they find themselves. Weaver and Burns (2001) thus argue that social workers need a greater understanding of the impact of trauma to be effective with asylum seekers in general and UASC. However, many people who are exposed to traumatic experiences do not necessarily develop mental issues so social workers should be cautious about making assumptions as studies shows that most asylum seekers point to social and economic factors as important rather than psychological
Acculturation and assimilation are treated as complex, multifaceted phenomena. The acceptance of new cultural traits or social associations and retention of traditional cultural traits and social associations are viewe...
A sudden change in one’s surroundings can result in culture shock. Culture shock refers to the anxiety and surprise a person feels when he or she is discontented with an unfamiliar setting. The majority of practices or customs are different from what a person is used to. One may experience withdrawal, homesickness, or a desire for old friends. For example, when a person goes to live in a different place with unfamiliar surroundings, they may experience culture shock. Sometimes it is the result of losing their identity. In the article “The Phases of Culture Shock”, Pamela J. Brink and Judith Saunders describe four phases of culture shock. They are: Honeymoon Phase, Disenchantment Phase, Beginning Resolution Phase, and Effective Function Phase. These phases denote some of the stages that exemplify culture shock. The four phases are illustrated in the articles “New Immigrants: Portraits in Passage” by Thomas Bentz, “Immigrant America: A Portrait” by Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut, “When I Was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago, “Today’s Immigrants, Their Stories” by Thomas Kessner and Betty Boyd Caroli, and lastly, “The New Americans: Immigrant Life in Southern California” by Ulli Steltzer, and are about the experiences of some immigrants. This essay will examine the four phases of culture shock and classify the experiences of these immigrants by the different phases of culture shock identified.
... from the Arab world struggle with assimilating into the new host culture for various reasons. Essentially, their collectivistic background and their need for a strong family system contributes to the maintaining of a wide separation between them and their host culture. That, coupled with the feelings of isolation and rejection that result from the discrimination and stereotyping they face, diminish the degree of acculturation and increases the likelihood of the developing of stressors. As evidenced in this section, post-migration stressors uniquely impact the process of acculturation for Arab Americans as those stressors target the core foundations of the Arab individual. As a result of those stressors, the mental health needs of this population and the implications for counselors working with them requires a customization that inherently targets their struggles.
The social problem we have chosen to address is the mental health status of refugees. Refugees are exposed to a significant amount of trauma due to fear, war, persecution, torture, and relocating. The mental health illnesses that can affect refugees due to exposure to traumas include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Research indicated that refugees relocating from war-torn countries are particularly vulnerable to mental health concerns because many have experienced early traumas and face further post-traumas after relocation (Cummings, et al., 2011). However, despite the prevalence of mental health issues concerning refugees, mental health needs often go unrecognized and untreated.
Such drastic change, some referred to as “ culture shock”, does not necessary only apply to adults, but also dependent children. Just as an adult immigrant, a child faces similar problems in his new life in this brand new environment. The challenges arise not only because of these difficulties
The Mental Health of refugees is an important factor that can play into how they adjust to, and live in a new area or country. It can be more difficult for a refugee to adjust to a new country if that country is on the other side of the spectrum when it comes to development. Some refugees immigrate to new countries to have a better life; most of those countries are high income countries. Today Syrian refugees are finding different ways to get into better counties in Europe. Many are coming in by boats loading as many people as possible, which results in dangerous journeys for the refugees and a large amount of people flooding European countries. Reported by the news network CNN, as many as 30 refugees are piling onto a small inflatable boat along the Turkish coast just to paddle their way to Greece (Watson). Many are just trying to create a better life for themselves or for their families. Refugees transitioning to these new countries can often experience culture shock once they enter into their host country. Researchers have found that refugees can be affected by post-traumatic stress disorder and
Finding trust and cultural understanding is crucial in securing safe haven; the human category of refugee is inundated with hydrophobic metaphors and imagined “racial markers” delimitating the story of the refugee into numbers and race categories (271).
Australia is a multicultural country where immigrants from all over the world immigrate to Australia. This research is focused on Australian’s immigrants who play a big role in this society. Immigration carries significant factors that affect the process of adaptation on an immigrant. The significant factors discussed further on are social factors, economic factors and cultural factors. To understand immigration and immigrant it would be explained the meaning of it and the types of immigrants. Answering the Research question, it would also be explained what an immigrant aims to reach by explaining the factors that help to feel settled in a new country. As I’m an immigrant in Australia I personally know how factors affect directly the process of adaptation. During this research I aim to prove how these factors affect the process of adaption. It is intended to make useful recommendations to the host country and to the immigrants in order to adapt to a new country easily. It must be said that not everyone experience the same process of adaptation because everyone is exposed to different factors. Moreover, immigrants may experience more than one factor as one factor can lead to the development of other factor.
Teske, Raymond H.C., Jr., and Bardin H. Nelson. Acculturation and Assimilation: A Clarification 1.2 (1974): 351-67. Jstor.org. Jstor.org/journals, Feb. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
As we may all have once experienced, acculturation is one of the most common part of our lives, either by music, language or habits. In many occasions is more noticeable, but they are still a part of our entire lives. Through my own experiences and some of my classmates we were able to identified this topic in our own lives. I being born in USA but raised in Mexico until I was 16 years old, made my acculturation really clear when I came to this country without any previous knowledge of this language or society. Everything was completely different, but I was able to adapt to a new culture in a small period of time, learning a new language and successfully ending High School. Now that I came to college, I feel that I am going to a new acculturation process, not as harsh or obvious. But leaving and having many Asian friends have been acculturated me to their Asian culture little by little. Everything starts when you put in practice small customs as taking your shoes at the door, eating rice with anything and eating specially with chopsticks. I have been presented to this, and in my opinion have become acculturated to this culture. However, not everyone stories are the same. Lizandro Laverman experienced acculturation more indirectly by his parents experiences. His parents, basically, came to the United States to have a better lifestyle. He himself personally considers himself as an American. Although he is actually 75% Guatemalan and 25% German he considers himself to be 100% American. He also speak fluent in both languages, so the English and the Spanish, but speaks English more than anything. He also feels embraced when as Guatemalan dishes. In general, his parents are only used to a lifestyle that comes from Guatemala as train...
At some point in our lives we experience a culture as an outsider by moving from one culture to another.In the world today there are so many different cultures and not one of them is found to be the same.Instead they all have something that makes them unique, whether its language or even the clothes they wear and their behavior as well.The differences they have is what separates them from one another and who ever joins that particular culture must get accustomed to their way of life.In the society today we have many people immigrating to the United States to start a new and better life but what they soon begin to realize is that it’s a whole new world out there and in order to survive they have to get accustomed to the new way of life which is much different from their lives before.
Theoretical Models & Perspectives, the “ABCs of Acculturation” (L5) refers to individual changes during continuous first-hand cultural contact (acculturation). There are 3 main areas of this theory; Affective perspectives, Behavioural perspective and Cognitive perspective, which could all be seen in this story.