The Cultural Competence - Assignment Example

 The Cultural Competence PART A Social workers have the duty to stand for social justice in the society and the population they serve (Brown & Duguid, 2001). They have the duty to challenge discrimination to avert negative segregation. For this reason, social workers need to have an excellent comprehension on how their professional values and practice are affected by their cultural identity. For instance, at the age of five, I recall my mother holding me tightly as she carried me and ran through the jungle. I would not see anyone, but I would hear people crying out of desperation for help, for their family members and others agonising in pain. A number of South Vietnamese were fleeing desperately in the jungle to small boats that were awaited to take us to the land of safety and freedom where we would eventually call home. During that period of darkness, I walked along a lonely road with limited family support as culturally mental health people like me were not recognised in the Vietnamese culture (Vaage et al., 2010). Problems are kept within the family rather than being shared with others and a facade often presented to the public to show a happy family life. When the social work profession does not solve the issue of understanding my culture, I would easily oppress the disadvantaged groups as a social worker, for exazmple, those who try to share their problems. This is due to misunderstanding of cultural differences. It is fair to say as a social worker, I must gain cultural competence to understand people's cultural differences and the impact of social injustices on their wellbeing and to go beyond race and ethnicity (Healy, 2000). By implementing cultural care and as a social worker, I can more effectively address social injustice issues faced by vulnerable people in our community and tailor to the appropriate needs of clients empowering them to live life with dignity, respect and values. PART B Diversity refers to the characteristics that make people different from each other. Such differences set in as a result of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Omoniyi & White, 2006). In Canberra, the diverse communities bring vibrancy, innovation, new ideas, economic development, resources and sustainability. The Australian Census of Population and Housing is a source of data about Australians and their culture diversity. Census carried out in 2011 indicated that approximately a quarter (26 percent) of Australia’s residents was born in other countries, and a further 20 percent had an average one overseas-born parent. Previously, a big number of migrations had originated from Europe. There, however, is an influx regarding the amount of Australian residents who were born in Asia and other countries in the world. The arrival and incorporation of these residents in Australia represents a typical situation of cultures in conflict. In 1975, there was totally no Vietnamese presence in Australia. Over a period of twenty-five years, the Vietnamese community increased to approximately two hundred thousand populates. Australia, being a participant at the conference regarding the Status of Refugees decided to relocate its portion of Vietnam-born immigrants in the late 1970s. As a result of the takeover of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese communist government in April 1975, there was a second Immigration peak between 1983 and 1984. This migration was most likely due to the accord between the Australian government and Vietnamese government. The agreement was known as the Orderly Departure Program, which permitted families of Vietnamese Australians to migrate from Vietnam and move to Australia. Lastly, in the late 1980s, the third migration was as a result of Australia's relatives’ reunion plan (Phillips & Spinks, 2013). In 1982, the Immigrant Convention legislation that had provided universal blanket right of entry underwent restructuring, especially during the leadership of ALP in government in 1983. Between the years 1985 to 1989, the efforts by the Western nations to establish humane deterrence gave rise to a renewed rush to migrate from Vietnam before migration was barred. The 1989 July global convention put in place a detailed action plan that would result in a reduction in rates of acceptance, an increase in delays, and leaving out an approximate 40,000 unaccepted immigrant applicants in refugee camps who were not willing to go back to Vietnam. Due to this condition, the boats started to disembark again but the conditions they faced had significantly changed (Phillips, & Spinks, 2013). This was occasioned by detention of arrivals in camps in the remote parts of Australia and facing arduous checks on their bonafide. By 1996, Vietnamese immigration had effectively ceased new tough legislations on family reunion. This legislation was created by the Howard government which was elected in 1996. Such legislation implied that there was a net increase of less than 4000 over the 1996/2001 Census period. In 2011, the Vietnamese language was spoken at home by 224,236 people in Australia. Vietnamese is the sixth most widely spoken language in Australia after English, Chinese, Italian, Greek, and Arabic. Approximately 0.8 percent of the Australian local population was born in Vietnam; making Vietnam the fifth largest source of immigration to Australia behind the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China, and Italy. In the 2011 Census, 155,000 people of Vietnamese ancestry were first or second generation Australians; first generation Australians whose ancestry is of Vietnam origin (74%: 26%). A small number of locals with Vietnamese ancestry, approximately 6 percent, claimed they belonged to another ancestry. Among the ancestries that were leading, the number of locals who spoke a language that was not English at places of residence was highest, with approximately 96 percent, for people with Vietnamese ancestry. Whereas the initial generation of Vietnamese had been exposed to exploitation, racism, and poverty, those of their children who have been able to utilise the education system in Australia are steering clear of the restrictions that locked in majority of their parents and a good number of their age mates. Second generation of Vietnamese has empowered themselves with voices that reflect the complexity of cultural collision, interaction, engagement, and adaptation. As Australia move into the 21st century, our nation more than ever embraces cultural diversity and eradicate racism and prejudices yet the deeply embedded disadvantage experienced by so many Vietnamese families is unlikely to disappear (Correa-Velez, Gifford & Barnett, 2010). At the points of cultural interaction - cultural transformation are occurring. The challenge for sides of the cultural collision equation remains how to keep the pathways to communicate open and the continuing along the boundaries a creative and productive force. References Brown, John Seely, and Paul Duguid. "Knowledge and organization: A social-practice perspective." Organization science 12, no. 2 (2001): 198-213. Correa-Velez, Ignacio, Sandra M. Gifford, and Adrian G. Barnett. "Longing to belong: social inclusion and wellbeing among youth with refugee backgrounds in the first three years in Melbourne, Australia." Social Science & Medicine 71, no. 8 (2010): 1399-1408. Healy, Karen. Social work practices: Contemporary perspectives on change. Sage, 2000. Omoniyi, Tope. "2 Hierarchy of identities1." The sociolinguistics of identity (2006): 11. Phillips, Janet, and Harriet Spinks. "Boat arrivals in Australia since 1976." Department of Parliamentary Services, Canberra< http://www. aph. gov. au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/BoatArrivals> Accessed 23 (2013). Vaage, Aina Basilier, Per Hove Thomsen, Derrick Silove, Tore Wentzel-Larsen, Thong Van Ta, and Edvard Hauff. "Long-term mental health of Vietnamese refugees in the aftermath of trauma." The British Journal of Psychiatry 196, no. 2 (2010): 122-125. Read More