Italian Immigrant Families and Aboriginal Families in Canada - Essay Example

College: Italian immigrant families and Aboriginal families in Canada Both the Italian immigrant family and aborigine familyhave faced alienation and discrimination from both the government and other Canadian native communities over a long period of time. The injustices directed towards the two communities date back to the colonial period. The family units from both communities are seen as disintegrating units succumbing to the forces of assimilation in the Canadian society. However, difficulty with change comes in because have tried to use force to have the communities abandon their cultures without giving them efficient channels to adopt a new culture. Inside the primary unit of the family, parents are faced with the challenge of juggling children who have acquired the Canadian norms and culture, and desire to maintain their own traditional norms and beliefs. Children born to the immigrants socialize and learn the current cultural norms while the parents are alienated because they cannot let go of their native belief systems (Johnson 342). In addition, Aboriginal families have been denied the opportunity to bring up their children because of programs like residential school programs which forced children to leave their homes hence leading to separation and tearing of the family unit. Italian immigrants are given negative characterization and this has forced the young generation to ignore old norms and beliefs and adopt a Canadian belief system so as to be accepted in the current society. Original subcultures give a family a sense of belonging and enhance the process of socialization through which parents can instill values, beliefs and attitudes of their children. For the aborigines, the government considers their culture non-functional and has had several initiatives to abolish the nomadic system and assimilate them into the big Canadian society. The community's resistance to change has led to isolation and stereotyping, leaving the community in abject poverty in a country that is considered one of the best destinations in the world. Both Italian and aboriginal families are forced to live in poor urban shanties because of lack of acceptance and poverty levels in the Canada. For Italians, the family is a resourceful and dynamic structure that is forced to compromise because of the different demands in the bicultural and bilingual Canadian setting. To adapt the two cultures and survive in Canada, the family is forced to adapt cultural and linguistic aspects and develops a synthetic culture made up of cultural elements from both societies (Colalillo 120) . On the contrary, the Aborigine family has refused to let go of their traditional cultural systems to maintain their identity. However, they find it hard to maintain their lifestyle and customs because of aggravating poverty and lack of government support. Because of its inability to provide for the basic needs of its members, reports from child welfare society indicates that an estimate of more than 80% of their children being raised in poverty stricken families. Literature indicates Italian immigrant families have experienced alienation that has led to breaking of families, disruptions of family life as laid down by the Italian culture and moved to unfamiliar territories. (Colalillo, 123). On the contrary, Over the years, literature indicates that the aboriginal people have undergone suffering and poverty because of their adamancy to get rid of their nomadic cultural system. In the Canadian society, aborigines are stereotyped and their relationship with other communities is tainted by mutual mistrust and misunderstanding. The Italian families have benefited from a little positive reception as immigrants and therefore their children are able to get basic education. However, the generation and knowledge gap created between these two groups socialized through different systems strains the family set up because of differences in world views. On the contrary, Because of the state of poverty and government alienation, the aborigines have been forced to move to urban centers and because they lack basic survival skills, they are forced to engage in crime to support their families. Moreover, the community's poverty makes it vulnerable to victimization and assault sexually and physically. Contrary to the ideal family values held dear by the Italian society, the Aborigines have been labeled as bad parents because women perpetrate violence towards their children and men are unable to provide for the family's basic needs (Ing 154). On the contrary, the Italians uphold the need to socialize their children in the best way and ensuring that they acquire the basic cultural aspects that will enable them to become responsible adults. The Aborigines continue to experience a push from their government to abandon their lifestyle and become civilized and productive members of the society. For instance, the government has taken over the propriety land right title to resources and victimization over their cultural practices and forceful community relocation (Dazinger 243). These efforts are oriented towards tearing the community’s cultural fabric which is considered non functional. On the contrary, although the Italian immigrants feel the pressure to adopt Canadian beliefs to fit in the society, they are allowed to socialize their children and use more different languages at both the public and domestic sphere thus having the advantage to pass and maintain their cultural heritage. The aboriginal families have faced continuous humiliation and injustice from the Canadian government through the government's efforts to assert and dictate individual rights of the community members. Naturally, when an individual is denied his or her right of identity, it also strips off other associated rights and this has probably led to increased crime rates and unemployment among the aborigine urban residents. On the contrary, the Italian families have been accorded rights as immigrants and their second generations have residency rights as Canadian citizens hence being bale to go to school and work to realize their potentials and improve their lives. The irony of the comparison is that the aboriginal culture is highly criminalized though the community resides in its home country. The community lacks support from the government and experiences a push to leave its cultural practices which are considered non-functional in the modern society. On the other hand, although the Italian family experiences forces to be assimilated in the Canadian society, its receptive is better and they have a better place whereby they can pass down their cultural practices across generations. The aboriginal group has continually recorded a high population growth in the country's census statistics and this has made it difficult for the group to develop economically because of the push to meet a family's basic needs. On the contrary, according to Johnson (7), the Italian group’s population is controlled because of the need to attain social status and probably because they have a basic education on family planning. Although the two groups come from different cultural and geographical backgrounds, they both live in Canada and are affected by the country's way of governance. Both communities have been victims of alienation over a long period of time, probably from the colonial era. It is evident that the Italian family has received better treatment and reception than the Aboriginal one from the Canadian government. The government has tried severally to abolish the Aborigine culture but the Italian family has not been subjected to such cruelty. The aborigines struggle to gain an identity and residential rights which have been stripped of them by the government that took over the responsibility of conferring these rights to the individuals. Works cited Brant, Clare. Native ethics and rules of behavior. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 35 (6), 534-539, 1990 Danziger, Kurt. "Differences in Acculturation and Patterns of Socialization among Italian Immigrant Families." In R. M. Pike & E. Zuriek, eds., Socialization and Values in Canadian Society, vol. 2. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1975, pp. 129-57. Danziger, Kurt. "The Acculturation of Italian Immigrant Girls in Canada." International Journal of Psychology. 9(2), 1974, pp. 127-37. Hamilton, Alvin., and Sinclair, Murray, Report of the Aboriginal justice inquiry of Manitoba: The justice system and Aboriginal people, Vol. 1. Winnipeg, MB: Queen’s Printer. 1991 Ing, Rosalyn., Dealing with shame and unresolved trauma: Residential school and its impact on the 2nd and 3rd generation adults. Vancouver, BC: Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of British Columbia, 2000. Johnson, Lewis. "Parental Variation in the Transmission of Ethnicity among Italian Americans." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Conference on Family Relations, New York, October 1976. Read More