Do immigrant families question their way of raising their children without losing their cultural identity and tradition? Assimilating to the American culture without sacrificing their own culture and tradition has been a struggle for immigrant families for decades now. These cultural conflicts often result in children’s rejection of the native cultural identity and adopting the culture of the area where they are growing up. In the article “Should the Past Influence the Future”, the author, Mrs. Nkechi Ondugo, discusses the difficulties she faced in making choices on how she was supposed to raise her daughter. Mrs. Ondugo states that when she first came to United States, she didn’t have a good contact with her family because there was lack of good communication system at that time. She explains that even though she has lived …show more content…
Mrs. Ondugo states that preserving her native culture has helped her in making life decisions and kept her close to her cultural identity. “On the other hand, in my private life, my Ibo identity –the customs that rigidly dictate how the men and women of my tribe live their lives—continues to influence the choices I make” (1). It is clear to see that preserving native culture has helped Mrs. Ondugo to make wise life choices and still kept here close to the customs used by her people in their native culture. In related personal experience, my father’s friend has raised his children in a way that preserved our culture and that did not affect their independence. His children always ask for his suggestion and help in making difficult decisions because their culture has made them interact with the older generation and always get useful information from their heritage. This explains that preserving culture always has more value than being independent and only using your own thoughts in living life. Therefore, the way Mrs. Ondugo raised her daughter was not correct because it has costed her daughter not to preserve and not know deep
...izes that it will not be easy to hear his “intimate family voices” (284). Rodriguez explains the consequences of assimilation through social identity.
For immigrants, reuniting with parents who left them is a huge problem in the U.S. Children who reunite with their parents after many years have a lot of problems with the parents. The parents and children tend to argue, the children have buried anger, and both have an idealized concept of each other. According to Los Angeles’s Newcomer School, a school for newly arrived immigrants which is referenced in Enrique’s Journey, a bit more than half of want to talk to the counselor about their problems. The main problem Murillo, the school’s counselor, says is mostly family problems. Murillo says that many parent-child meetings are all very similar and identical to each other. Some of the similarities are that idealized notions of each other disappear, children felt bitter before going to the U.S., and that many children have buried rage. Mothers say that the separations between them and child was worth it because of the money earned and the advantages in America. However, many children said that they would rather have less money and food if it meant their mothers would stay with them.
Marcus Garvey once said, “A [person] without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots” (Brainy Quote 1). In cross-cultural adoption, many of the children growing up in White families or any other race different from theirs almost always never learn about their cultural background and native language. They grow up without an understanding or connection to their native culture. In Only Drunks and Children tell the Truth, Drew Hayden Taylor focuses on Janice, a woman who knows nothing about her indigenous lan...
Monday morning, Sally, a twelve-year-old American girl, is woken up by her father. As she gets ready to go to school, her mother hands her a backpack and lunch with a quick kiss goodbye. Meanwhile, Zarina, a twelve-year-old Sierra Leone girl, wakes herself up to get ready for work. Her aunt says good morning as they both head from their home to the cassava fields. Both of these girls have a traditional family setting. In America children in a traditional family grow up with both biological parents and any siblings they have. In Sierra Leone, the setting for both The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone, children of traditional families live with aunts and uncles as well as many children from different parents. These different views of what is traditional create uniqe children in many ways. Children who grow up in Sierra Leone are more self-reliant than American children.
At the age of two my parents made the long and devastating journey to bring me and my siblings to the United States from Mexico. Wanting a brighter future for us, my parents fought tooth and nail to give us the world they didn’t grow up having. Ever since stepping foot on the U.S soil, going back seemed impossible. The effects of this life-changing move, couldn’t mask the unforeseen disadvantages. Lacking exposure to Mexico’s colorful culture, little to no bonding time with my family from abroad, and the struggle of trying to blend into an environment that was so different, soon began to interfere with my overall identity. Realizing this, my wonderful parents prepared a transformative trip back to my homeland, and back to the past, facing
Zhou, M. (1997). Growing Up American: The Challenge Confronting Immigrant Children And Children Of Immigrants. Annual Review of Sociology, 23(1), 63-95.
The subject of this paper is Liz, a 52-year old, 1.5 generation female immigrant from Hong Kong. What this means is that she immigrated to the United States when she was a child, around 7-years old (Feliciano Lec. 1/4/2016). As a child of a family that consists of five siblings and two parents that did not speak any English prior to immigrating, the focus of this paper will be on the legal processes that the family went through to become legal immigrants and the various factors that aided in her path towards assimilation.
I am not a child of immigrants, but maintaining one’s culture is a universal struggle in a land far from one’s ethnic origins. Lahiri suggests that without cultural connections such as family and friends, one’s culture can simply vanish if they are not in the land of ethnic origin. I have found this to be true within my own
In John Barker’s Ancestral Lines, the author analyzes the Maisin people and their culture centered around customs passed from previous generations, as well as global issues that impact their way of living. As a result of Barker’s research, readers are able to understand how third world people can exist in an rapid increasing integrated system of globalization and relate it not only to their own society, but others like the Maisin; how a small group of indigenous people, who are accustomed to a modest regimen of labor, social exceptions, and traditions, can stand up to a hegemonic power and the changes that the world brings. During his time with these people the author was able to document many culture practices, while utilizing a variety of
The type of parenting style used by parents may be determined by the parent’s own cultural heritage. As immigrants move to a new country, it will take time to learn the new culture and to be accustomed to their ways. Therefore, it would not be surprising if first generation immigrant parents place the hardest strain on their children. Since they have not yet been accustomed to American culture, they will be more likely to adhere to their traditional ways. Immigrants who have been in the country longer may have slowly compromised traditional views with new
In Ashanti tribe, family and the mother’s side are most important to this particular group. This tribe believe that child often inherit their father’s soul while flesh and blood is received from the mother. “Instrument such as talking drums are used for learning the Ashanti language and spreading news and used in ceremonies. This instrument is very important to the Ashanti and there are very important rituals involved in them”. (Vollbrecht, Judith A., 1979).
Ruth Benedict’s anthropological book, Patterns of Culture explores the dualism of culture and personality. Benedict studies different cultures such as the Zuni tribe and the Dobu Indians. Each culture she finds is so different and distinctive in relation to the norm of our society. Each difference is what makes it unique. Benedict compares the likenesses of culture and individuality, “A culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thought or action” (46), but note, they are not the same by use of the word, “like.” Benedict is saying that figuratively, cultures are like personalities. Culture and individuality are intertwined and dependent upon each other for survival.
Universality in parenting is arguing that even with different ethnic backgrounds and parenting styles, child development outcomes turn out to be similar. Phinney, Ong, and Madden (2000) wanted to find out if there were commonalities in developmental processes among immigrant and non-immigrant groups. They studied those groups to see if living in America caused them to change their collectivist values over to individualistic values. They observed patterns among three immigrant groups: Vietnamese, Armenian, and Mexican. They also had two non-immigrant groups, the Europeans, and the African Americans. They separated the immigrant groups into two cohorts, cohort one being U.S.-born adolescents and parents who have longer residence in the United States, and cohort two being foreign-born adolescents with parents who have not lived in the U.S. that long. Participants were given questionn...
Before I begin contrasting my home culture to the host culture at Friends of Refugees, I must explain some social norms of my culture. As I previously stated, I come from a mostly typical American family and display at least five of the norms presented in Craig Storti’s book, Figuring Foreigners Out, A Practical Guide. One norm discussed is Individualism, where identity is found in oneself (Storti, 1999). I experience individualism through the choices I am presented in daily life and through the expectations of others, particularly my family and school. For example, my parents did expect me to go to college, but they imposed little influence on the major I selected, that decision was mine alone. Apart from college, my parents, like most other
Several important themes emerged through this study. These themes are gender and family roles, family structure, and the effect of culture on the quality of family interactions. They will be discussed in the follow pages.