The Inability of Migrant Workers - Term Paper Example

Personal and Social Development of Adults: Understanding The Impact Of Career Counseling On Migrant Workers In The United States I. Introduction The United States is considered as the melting pot of several races. Asians, Hispanics, Middle Eastern, Europeans and others come to the country to seek for better future. Unfortunately, not all people who come to the United States to work find the job that they desire. Most of migrant workers who come to the country lack the necessary skills and education to find good employment. Moreover, cultural barriers prevent migrant workers from landing good jobs. Some of the biggest cultural barriers that migrant workers often have to face are the difference in language, family values, religious practices and cultural orientation. Although there some migrant workers who adjust easily to the culture of the United States, there are also many who become disoriented and overwhelmed with their new environment that they find it difficult to manage change. The inability of migrant workers to manage change, often lead both skilled and unskilled migrant workers to end up performing menial jobs in farms and processing plants. For migrant workers to find fulfilling careers in their adoptive country, in this case the United States, they should be guided accordingly through counseling. I firmly believe that career counseling can help people explore, plan and make transitional decisions. With counseling, migrant workers will have better chances of keeping their jobs and become productive in their chosen field. To understand the personality of migrant workers, one has to look into the culture of the place where the person comes. However, culture should never be made as the sole basis is assessing personalities and potentials of migrant workers. One should never overlook the fact there are also other factors that can affect the choices of careers of migrant workers. As Weinarch and Thomas (1998) stated, diversity-sensitive counseling should never transcend any other aspects of counseling. Culture is not static (Swatz-Kulstad et al 1999) and that the basic precepts of counseling is about building a relationship with the client (Patterson 1996). II. Profile Of Clients and Work Environment As a job counselor for migrant workers, I deal with mostly Asian migrant workers coming from countries like China, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and other Asian countries. Note that in the 2000 US census, about 5.0% of the total population of the country comes from Asia and this number steadily climbed in the recent years (Jessica S. Barnes and Claudette E. Bennett 2002). Working with the multicultural Asian community is indeed very challenging. Many migrant workers from Asia countries left their homelands due to the financial crisis of the Asian economy (Pyong Gap Min 2002). The fact that these migrant workers are so eager to find work and earn money to send back to their families in their home country make them very vulnerable to exploitations at different levels. A lot of these migrant workers are forced to work long hours for lesser pay (Pyong Gap Min 2005). Never mind that many of these migrant workers that I work with are highly skilled workers and well educated. A good number of these migrant workers are lawyers, doctors, teachers, nurses, engineers and accountants who used to hold high positions in companies in their countries (Pyong Gap Min 2005). However, since the laws of professional licensing in the United States prevent these professionals from working in their fields, they have no other option but to grab whatever work is available to them. In many cases, doctors coming from countries like the Philippines are forced to get a nursing degree just to work in hospitals and nursing homes (San Francisco Chronicle 2003; CBS News, July 31, 2007). This situation is not only very frustrating to migrant workers; it can also lead to depression in many migrant workers. Although many of these doctors who have become nurses easily adapt into their new roles, there are still many of these doctors who become nurses that find it difficult to conform to their new roles. In most cases, problems arises when the worker lose interest in his or her job. III. Challenges And Joys In Career Counseling Migrant Workers Given the myriad problems that migrant workers have to face when they reach American soils, career counseling is therefore very important. As a career counselor, my role is to help these migrant workers find their way to a better workplace. To do this, I must face a lot of challenges along the way. The first obstacle at this point would be the language barrier. It is often difficult to gather enough data from the client without running into some problems considering that there are many migrant workers who cannot speak good English (Pyong Gap Min 2005). These people uses words that which when strung together, do not really mean what they want to say. In fact, some of the things that they say often do not make sense to me at first. It takes a lot of guess work and a lot of illustrations before I am able to fully comprehend what my client is talking about. This situation can be quite frustrating for both the client and me. To break the language barrier, I usually need an interpreter to help me understand what the client is saying. Unfortunately, the presence of the interpreter creates yet another problem between me and the client. Some clients are reluctant to give information to the interpreter because of fear that the interpreter will not convey the right message to me. In most cases, we waste a lot of time and effort arguing some points which in the end proved to be useless in solving the employment problems of the client. Moreover, the language barrier does not only affect the ability of the migrant worker to communicate with us counselors but it also affect their ability to find a job and to keep the job once he or she is already employed. Communication is not the only problem that can cause a lot of anxiety in migrant workers. Many people come to the country without proper documentation. In my line of work, I often encounter people who do not have the right work permits. Since these people do not have the right work permits, they cannot get a suitable job. For instance, there are many college degree holders who come to the country as skilled workers. Since it is easier to get a Guest worker Visa such as the H-2A visa for temporary agricultural workers, the H-1C visa for nurses, the H-3 and H-2B visa for temporary worker, skilled and unskilled, people tend to go for these types of visa (www.unitedstatesvisas.gov). Unfortunately, these types of working visas restrict the holder thereof from getting any other types of jobs other than those stated in their papers. Aside from the language barrier and improper work permits, as a career counselor for migrant workers, I often have to deal with different cultural orientation. Most of these migrant workers were raised in an environment that adheres to certain cultural and traditional norms. We must understand that in many Asian countries, the influence of culture and tradition is still very strong. In many cases, the influence of the culture and tradition of the country where the migrant worker came from can also affect his or her choices of a career. Asian countries are known for their patriarchal and matriarchal family systems where the father or the mother exerts great influence over the career decisions of their children (Pyong Gap Min 2005). In many instances, the parents make decisions in behalf of their children when it comes to choosing careers. Many migrant workers who come to our office have college degrees but do not really want to use these college degrees to get a job. Most of them say that it was their parents who chose the degree for them and now they do not want to work on this field anymore. Given the many problems that beset migrant workers, finding the right career path may not be easy. There are a number of things that need to be considered in deciphering which career path the client should take. For this purpose, the career counselor should go back to the basic principles and theories of personalities. There are a number of counseling theories that can be applied to the case of migrant workers. However, since the case of migrant workers involved multicultural approach, there is a need to modify the applications of these counseling theories. One of the theories that can be applied when counseling migrant workers is the trait-and-factor theory. Basically, the trait-and-factor theory in psychology requires that the counselor assist the client to have clear understanding of him/her self, his/her interests, aptitudes, ambitions, resources and limitations (Kassin, S. (2003). In determining the traits of the client, I need to study his or her cultural background. We must understand that the culture of the place where the migrant worker comes from help shape his or her views in life. To understand these things, a career counselor should recognize the limitations that culture may set upon given groups of people. For counselors like me who am working in a multicultural setting, getting the correct profile of the clients is very important. Aside from the application of trait-and-factor theory, John Holland’s Theory of personality is also very useful. According to Holland, there are 6 types of personalities that can be the product of an interaction between the social class, the physical environment, the culture, the personal view and the peer views (Matthews, G., Deary, I.J. & Whiteman, M.C. (2003). The assumption here is that the choice of career of the person is an expression of his or her personality thus, the person will most likely to gravitate towards the kind of career that suits his or her personality best. By identifying the personality type of the client, it will be easier for me to predict which type of career is suitable for the client. This way, I can help prevent career and personality mismatch among my clients. Job counseling for migrant workers is not exactly what you may call an easy job. However, the good news is that counseling migrant workers can also be very rewarding in terms of job satisfaction and if not financial rewards, considering the fact that most migrant workers come to the country with little money. The joy of helping people find the right career and become more productive is something that every job counselor lives for. Seeing a migrant worker rise in the ranks of employees is indeed one of greatest reward that one can derive in this type of job. Moreover, the friendship that is born out the interaction between job counselor and client is often lasting. Deep friendship in itself is already a form of reward. On the intellectual side of things, working as a job counselor gives one the chance to learn more about different cultures and understanding different groups of people. This understanding can open a lot of opportunities for intellectual advancements that could break new grounds in the field of counseling. Being able to contribute to the advancement of the counseling profession is indeed something that one can truly be proud of. IV. Modifications Needed Counseling migrant workers, who come from different cultural backgrounds, call for some changes and modifications in my practice. Unlike children who are mostly ready to embrace changes, most adults are not really very open to changes. To help migrant workers manage the changes in their lives and their careers, there is a need for me to understand how the cultural experiences of the client influences the way he or she functions. Note that cultural differences may bring about different sets of behaviors in people. Given the complexity of the situation, a specialized method of assessment and intervention must be conducted, taking into considerations that cultural background of the client. In my practice, I will need to use the Cultural and Contextual Guide (CCG) process. The CCG uses both cultural and contextual factors to examine the responses of the person to his or her present environment (Swatz-Kulstad J. and Martin W. Jr. (1999). It involves the assessment of the different levels of correspondence of the individual with his or her environment and his or her psychosocial adaptation thereof. The dynamic process of correspondence between the individual and his or her environment is something that a job counselor must study closely. The CCG, as method, allows the counselor to look closely into the broader picture of the life of the client and validate the influence of culture by putting things into the right context. Since this process delve deeper into the cultural and contextual factors that affect the individual, it can greatly help me assess and predict the behavior of the client in a given context or situation. In practice, the CCG will not actually replace the standard structure that is used at the initial stages of the counseling but rather, the CCG will enhance the process. During the information gathering stage of the counseling, the CCG will help me understand better the unique cultural background of the client and build a stronger rapport between me and my client. Furthermore, by studying the culture and norms of the place where the individual comes from will help me, as a job counselor, to point my client to the right direction. Yes, adopting the CCG method in my practice will make my work more complex and may even prolong the counseling process but adopting this method can also bring better results. V. Conclusion Change is something that all migrant workers coming to the United States have to face. The uncertainty and the anxiety wrought by the many challenges that these people have to face in their adoptive country are often overwhelming. As job counselor of migrant workers, my task is to make things less complicated for these people. Given the many barriers that migrant workers have to contend with, working with these multicultural group of people is never easy. Working with adults whose personalities have already been shaped by the environment and culture of the place where they grow up can pose a lot of formidable challenges. The culture and values of the place where these migrant workers come from are already deeply ingrained in their personalities that it is often difficult for them to adapt to their new environment, especially in the workplace. As a job counselor for migrant workers, it is my duty to guide these people and help them achieve their career goals in life and be truly happy in their adoptive country. To do this, I must help these people define who they are and the only way to do this is to understand the culture of the place where these migrant workers come from. The process of understanding people through the cultures and values that shaped will take time and a lot of hard work. In the course of the practice of my profession, there will be times when I will have to modify my strategies and redefine my courses of action. There will be times when I will fail in the task of helping a migrant worker find his or her place but there will also be times of triumph. References Barnes, Jessica S. and Bennett, Claudette E. (February 2002). The Asian Population: 2000 Census Bureau publication c2kbr01-16. Bradberry, T. (2007) The personality code. Putnam, new York Cambridge: Cambridge University Press CBS News July 31, 2007 “From Doctors To Nurses: In The Philippines, Some M.D.'s Are Counseling and Development, 74, 227-231 Engler, B. (2006) Personality Theories. Houghton Mifflin Eysench, H.J. (1997) Personality and Experimental Psychology: The Unification of instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52, 81-90 Kassin, S. (2003). Psychology. USA: Prentice-Hall, Inc... Matthews, G., Deary, I.J. & Whiteman, M.C. (2003). Personality Traits (2nd edition) Melissa Howell Alipalo (November 5, 2003). Doctors leaving Philippines to become nurses -- for the money San Francisco Chronicle accessed October 30, 2007 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/05/MNGOD2QBN81.DTL Patterson C.H. (1996) Multicultural counseling: from diversity to universality. Journal of postmodern class of values. Journal of Counseling and Development 76, 115-122 Pyong Gap Min (2002) Mass migration to the United States: classical and contemporary periods. AltaMira Press Walnut Creek, CA Pyong Gap Min (2005) Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues Thousand Oaks, Ca. Pine Science Press Ryckman, R. (2004) Theories of personality. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth Swatz-Kulstad J. and Martin W. Jr. (1999) Impact of Culture and Context on Psychosocial Adaptation: the Cultural and Contextual Guide Process. Journal of Counseling and Development 77, 281-293 Weinrach, S.G. and Thomas K.R. (1998) Diversity-sensitive counseling today: A postmodern class of values. Journal of Counseling and Development 76, 115-122 Read More