Immigrant Parents Analysis
The behavior of immigrant parents is unique and stands out in comparison to other groups of adults. Their traditionally high expectations of children and increased respect for education or professionalism are acute, and can be noticed greatly throughout American society. The attitudes and demonstrated abilities of their children therefore are adapted to a variety of circumstances and influences, creating unique patterns of psychological and social development. In this essay, the specific ways that being part of an immigrant family influences a child will be explored. Through theoretical and practical research, evidence of the positive as well as negative influences will be documented. Thesis Statement
The paper explains that the attitude and expectation level of immigrant parents towards their children success in a new country is very high. At first glance it looks fine but the other part of the picture explains that it leaves a bad impact on their children leaving a sense of failure and disappointment if they do not get to the point where their parents desire them to be.
Fuligni (2006) studied the impact of background as well as family attitudes within adolescent development and achievement. A sample of over one thousand immigrant children was identified. The origins of these children included Latino, East Asian, European and Filipino backgrounds. The most significant correlation between these children and their traditional background suggests that their academic attitudes and behaviors were significant reflection of their parents and peer-identified beliefs. Grades in this study were included in order to identify differences in performance for math and English. It was found that higher grades could be seen amongst first and second-generation students all together when compared to other native students. This excellence in achievement was significant and demonstrates key attributes of the immigrant experience that children and parents face within the present economic system (Fuligni 352).
The story described in Two kinds basically explains the situation of the girl facing high expectation of her mother. After losing so much her mother immigrated to America and wished her daughter to become very famous by doing something she want. The high expectation of mother and her forceful attitude towards her for learning piano resulted into failure and sense of not being genius in her. She started to run away from everything her mother wanted her to do. It can be observed from the story that children should be motivated and inspired to become something their parent’s desire but parents should never forget the fact that understanding children abilities is very important, you need to give them some time in understanding the things and adjusting into new environment because a forceful attitude is not going to work ever.
Other studies have influenced the way that identity is formed amongst immigrant families and students. Another model identified the language proficiency of children to their parent’s native languages. These were measured based on peer social values and ethnic identity at large. Not only were parents mentioned as a significant source of cultural and social idealization, but students also identified their interest in maintaining traditional values. Ethnic group proficiency is varied amongst different populations, however themes can be seen in terms of the children’s interest in maintaining cultural integral issues as well as language (Phinney et al. 135).
One study documented the particular attitudes of Korean immigrants and families. The attitude of parents towards their native language was found to greatly influence the interest of children towards learning it. Cultural identity and maintenance was consistent because of Korean communities, churches as well as multiple types of environments where the belief systems could be established. From the study it was further believed that Koreans who were able to maintain a connection to their identity could enhance communication and create better economic opportunities (Sam 240).
Maternal attitudes towards education as well as the parents’ own educational background play a great role in determining children’s behavior and preferences. Supporting education and creating a bridge for those families where education was not a priority is also seen consistently amongst immigrant families. Children are regularly ambitious and often influenced by the educational systems. When immigrant parents participate in the learning of their children it is possible for extracurricular activities and other forms of participation to be emphasized. Amongst Mexican immigrants, it was found that a strong connection with mothers promoted more conversations, daily reading as well as encouragement for playtime activities that would promote the greatest level of success for students (Schaller et al. 352). The way that mothers are able to incorporate their ideas into the early developmental stages of children is vital to the establishment of core social identity. This also contributes to an effective strategy towards incorporating cultural values or ideals. When comparing themes from the story with contemporary experiences of immigrant families and children these can be seen clearly.
The influence of immigration as well as ethnic identity contributes significantly to the ability of promoting cultural retention. The ability for ethnic identity to be continued and propagated amongst children is key towards the development of family ties and for positive social adaptation. In many cases children felt that engagement in celebrations, traditional activities as well as social situations could yield valuable aspects of change throughout the community. These types of experiences promoted a sense of family guidance that was paired with community benefits and management. Not only do these factors influence the way that parents feel, but also stimulate interest amongst parents for key activities (Inman 93). It is evident that immigrant families promote a sense of identity that is based on ethnic origins just as much as other aspects of social interaction are stimulated. These practices suggest that there are significant attributes towards the establishment of cultural identity that are stimulate by parents and can yield differentiated effects for children.
The normative values are ideas and beliefs that include norms for behavior and responsibility amongst a community or society. These ideals involve the specific identities based on gender, race or class that are held by many members of a group. Values regarding the specific functioning of an organizational group create good government and other themes in-group management. Much of this is carried over by immigrant parents and can influence their familial development and formation.
The story also promotes several key areas of values that are shown in real immigrant families. Individual systems of practice allow for normative structures to take shape and function within the organizational paradigm of leadership, social acceptance and role fulfillment. These are essential aspects to the way that immigrants retain their belief systems based on years or generations of acceptance through such systems. Ultimately these values and predictable norms converge to create what social capital is related to. It allows for status and advancements to be placed in perspective of the changes a particular locality or community is able to achieve through internal transformation (Leavitt 930). These types of changes are conducive to change within cultural systems. However, the larger implications can be seen in terms of the way that immigrant parents adopt essential beliefs and propagate them for future generations.
The fields of technology and advancement have changed significantly with the influence of western technology. Therefore, there is recurring impetus for immigrant parents to involve the best of their historical roots with contemporary opportunities. For example, new forms of network integration between global players have contributed to policy formation and the internationalization of activities led by government initiatives. Not only does this pose more opportunities but it also requires a multinational identity in order to establish the necessary connections and benefits. These forms of influence converge in thematic emphasis so that environmental, human rights and social development can contribute towards a global agenda that is geared towards change and the integration of development in information and technological access. Underdeveloped areas around the world involve a protest or resistance towards economic or political marginalization. Therefore aspects of society are challenged and perfected based on nationalized organization and approach (Mullick). These are themes that immigrant parents have had to cope with and changed the way that operations have taken place throughout their life.
Migration has had an impact on the development of institutions and social theory throughout history. There are multifaceted aspects towards the optimism towards historical practices from the 1950s and 60s. Empirical and social evidence demonstrate the forms of analysis hat create assertion towards interactions between migration and development. Current politics and procedures can move attention away from structural constrains and focus instead on the way that state institutions shape favorable conditions towards sustainable development (de Haas 229).
Interest in migration and related development policies allows for the best shifts on the issue regarding emigrational development. There is evidence that migration cultivates a broad transformation towards the development of a system or process. This is due to an internal and self-sustaining situation with impacts towards transformation (de Haas 230). In this regard migration and the cultural assimilation of the Chinese contributes greatly towards the way that immigrants retain their perspectives and values. These policies are influential because of the lasting changes experienced by children and progeny.
These trends are influential and prevalent within China as the organization of the national and political aspects relevant to progress have been influenced by these thematic concepts. These historical tendencies greatly effect the way that migration takes place as well as the purpose that many immigrant families have for their children within a relatively new world order. Not only do cultural and social aspects of change define the way that immigrant parents belief they have a place in the world, but there is an underlying need for these tenants to be passed on. Because of the highly institutionalized nature of these teachings in China it is possible to see an example of extremely developed systems of belief and operation.
Another aspect of influence between immigrant parents and their children is present in communication. A high context communication style is one that presents most of the information in a physical context or internalized by an individual. It plays significance to receiving the meaning of a message without direct verbal communication. This is correlated to people who communicate with one another without words in a long-term relationship. Meanwhile, low context communication involves direct or explicit explanation of a message as much as possible. This is favorable in the United States and other developed nations. Still, the prevalence of high context communication is valuable universally and can be seen in many Asian nations as a respected form of communication.
These two elements are distinguished based on the degree of differentiation between a person relying on explicit messages versus the value of context clues and information. In high context situations the receiver of a message is responsible for understanding hidden messages while a direct message may hurt someone’s feelings (Hall).Ultimately there are both positive and negative implications that are found in the development of immigrant families.
Further, elements of direct versus indirect styles of communication also illustrate how high context and low context cultures communicate. In a direct style, messages show the speakers’ intentions, needs, wants and explain their opinion. For example if someone does not want to go to the store then they would just label their sentiment directly in their opinion. Alternatively, in indirect communication a message is designed to mask or cloak the speakers’ actual intentions or desires. In this world, it is impolite to directly address the situation regardless of the speaker's true intentions and therefore the solution would be to simply not attend.
There is another significant difference between self-enhancement versus self-effacement. Enhancing styles are inclusive of the self or ego and promotes a person's own abilities as well as accomplishments. This is demonstrated when parenting styles are based on a general sense of empathy and warm regard that encourages children to pursue their activities that provide enhancement. On the other hand, self-effacement involves humbling activities through restraints, modest discussion and hesitation or the use of self-deprecation.
Ultimately, there are various ways that immigrant parents incorporate traditional standards and modes of authority in the lives of their children. The idealization of societal and psychological difference contributes significantly to the way that children are raised and expected to perform in society. Further, the differences between cultural norms across the world are emphasized through psychological and social tenants within the family. There are some noticeable positive influences of this type of behavior. These include advanced performance amongst children and interest in extracurricular activities.
Further, there are tendencies towards higher graduation rates as well as performance in academic and professional environments. Immigrant families also provide some negative effects on children. The heightened expectations and traditional systems have also contributed to a high degree of mental illness and social adjustment requirements for children. Other negative consequences are less documented, yet prevalent throughout the lives of children in terms of identity and psychological adjustment to their multinational status.
Conclusion
Immigration concept is studies a lot in the world and is becoming the debate subject as well. In America more than one million immigrants reach and they are leaving a significant impact on the life of Americans. The children of immigrant families are also an important part of American society. The immigrant’s families have much strength like strong family bonding that benefit their children but some risk factors like adjusting into a new environment, stress of a new life and culture, maintaining their religion and culture values etc.
The attitude of immigrant parents is observed to be very different from the other parents. They usually have high expectation from their children that can leave negative effects on their children and results into mental illness and other social problems for children. Usually parents force them to be what they desire and if children fail to reach that level then a sense of disappointment and failure In children breaks them and results in mental illness. The right way can be to understand the children and their abilities then motivating them to get to the desired position.
We can find three key themes in the story, it is not surprising that immigrant parents have several differences with local parents, obviously they have other language and other history, therefore other culture, but when the time comes to pass the teaching to their children there is when the issues comes to life, there is a lot of differences and situations that may cause stress to second generation of children but here we can find this three key themes.
First, parents’ expectation for their children are usually high and although it influences positively it also carry a mix of fear to the failure in the children’s side. Research has shown that parental expectations for children’s academic achievement predict educational outcomes more than do other measures of parental involvement, such as attending school events (Child Trends Databank. 2015).
We also can find “communication” is a subject that clearly represents a challenge for children of immigrant parents, "The communication was half of what it should have been," says Sue, a psychology professor, sitting in his office at the University of California, Davis, one warm morning. (Janie Har 1998). And we can find Tan representing it each time her mother tried to make her learn something, or in the most repetitive expression, “You Watch” when her mother wanted her to pay attention to something specific on the TV.
And for the third key theme we find that family culture if is left unattended or parents stresses too much about it, it can leave to psychological issues for children and their relationship with their parents. The challenge is on the parents to adapt and find reasonable strategies to support cultural expectations in view of the greater likelihood that their children will be affected and changed by the new host culture. (Direnfeld, 2016)
Works Cited
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Hall, Edward Twitchell. Beyond culture. Anchor, 1989.
Inman, Arpana G., et al. "Cultural transmission: Influence of contextual factors in asian indian immigrant parents' experiences." Journal of Counseling Psychology 54.1 (2007): 93.
Levitt, Peggy. "Social remittances: Migration driven local-level forms of cultural diffusion." International migration review (1998): 926-948.
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Phinney, Jean S., et al. "The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families." Journal of youth and Adolescence 30.2 (2001): 135-153.
Sam, David Lackland. "Acculturation attitudes among young immigrants as a function of perceived parental attitudes toward cultural change." The Journal of Early Adolescence 15.2 (1995): 238-258.
Schaller, Ana, Lisa Oglesby Rocha, and David Barshinger. "Maternal attitudes and parent education: How immigrant mothers support their child’s education despite their own low levels of education." Early Childhood Education Journal 34.5 (2007): 351-356.
Child Trends Databank. (2015). Parental expectations for their children's academic attainment. Available at: http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=parental-expectations-for-their-childrens-academic-attainment
When words fail: Some children of immigrants face language barriers in their own homes. http://www.csus.edu/owl/index/read/sacbee/wrds_fail.htm
Issues for Immigrant Parents and Their Childrenhttp://www.yoursocialworker.com/p-articles/immigrant-family-adaptation.pdf
