Disadvantages Of Acculturation

The Effect of Different Levels of Acculturation on Immigrant Health.
The “Latino paradox” implies that poverty does not always associate with poor health and lower life expectancy because, despite their lower social economic status, the Latinos have the lowest mortality rate. One of the hypotheses of the paradox is the acculturation which states that although new immigrants of Hispanic origin have an equal or better health when compared to non-Hispanic whites, their healthy behaviors tend to decline as they adopt the attitudes, morals, and values of the country. In one hand, some scholars believe that immigrant populations lose their health advantage because of their adaptation to the mainstream American culture. According to them, immigrants’ acculturation creates a conflict between their old and new cultural values, and consequently, results in the loss of their family social and moral support that is very important in shaping a definite ethnic identity. In the other hand, others argue that in today’s diverse society, acculturation is beneficial as it removes barriers such as language and provides immigrants, the means necessary to function effectively in their host culture. It promotes immigrant mental and physical development while improving their educational attainment, which translates by a higher social and economic status

Although family support and language are major contributors to immigrant’s health outcomes, several other factors such as racial and ethnic prejudice, stereotype, and discrimination, social economic status, and physical environment influence immigrant health status. Addressing those factors will eliminate immigrants behavioral health change due to the acculturation stress and empower them to seek a better health care, thus, ameliorate their overall quality of life, and reduce health disparities in the