Keeping My Infinity in the U.S - Essay Example

Write an argument for or against keeping culture tradition alive in anew country, keeping your indinty in U.S, and how to keep old cultural and new The erosion of traditional cultural values is a common phenomenon among immigrants in the United States. The immigrants are keen to continue cultural traditions while their future generation is not fully willing to carry on the values of their ancestors due to circumstantial changes to values and practices. Americanized immigrants are anxious as to whether their children will continue their ancestral cultural values based in their home country. The tradition of praying for ancestors is one such value which the aged population fear may not continue in the future and there would be no one to pray for them when they are gone (Lam 2003). In the light of the above, it may be argued that it is necessary to keep cultural traditions even if a person has moved into a new country because old culture has its own relevance in an individual’s life. Americanized immigrants like Vietnamese believe that their children will not keep their traditions alive because they do not understand why the rituals are performed on occasions. They believe that the tradition will culminate with the present generation. The children of immigrants have no idea about the prayers to be made to long departed souls. Though the old generation makes it a point to perform all the cultural traditions in varying occasions even if they live in the United States asking for the protection and guidance of the departed souls, their children are only interested in worldly matters of studies, degrees and recognitions. The agrarian ethos of family and worship has given way to the obsession of individual’s glories and ambitions. Keeping tradition alive, however, does not move away from the responsibility of the Americanized younger immigrant generations because at some point of time they regret and feel guilt for not carrying forward their cultural values (Lam 2003). It may be noted that there is not such element as timeless tradition because immigrants consider life of their ethnic society from a different perspective in a foreign land. To keep the tradition alive, immigrants usually build up their version of tradition by re-conceptualizing their past in the new foreign society to discuss issues and dilemmas. The invented tradition has a significance of its own because immigrants interpret and function in the present society according to the cultural models of the past. Factors that help immigrants to keep their cultural traditions of their home country alive are strong immigrant institutions and communities, ethnic networks and transnational relations. In several cases, immigrants can continue their ancestral culture by being a part of multi-local bi-national families comprising children and parents scattered in households across the national borders. These families may have different living arrangements but they can use modern transportation in the United States to visit relatives and participate in family decisions and event by traveling from distant places. Continuing traditional values is an individual’s choice but people ought to keep the values alive because there are immense opportunities to stay in touch with home communities even in a foreign country. Continued close communication with their communities will strengthen the attachment of immigrants to their family orientations and values of their home society. It is true that while living in a country like the United States it fosters a intricate cross fertilization process because they follow the values of home communities and are influences by the practices and values of the foreign country. Cultural values that accompany immigrants even when they live in the United States can have some impact in their family life. A research on Vietnamese families living in Philadelphia reveals that the collectivism ideology of Vietnamese family promotes cooperation between relatives in economic practices that supported these families to survive and cope in the immigrant environment. The ideology of the families that the group of families is more significant than the individual has its roots in the Confucian ideology comprising the significance given to ancestor worship. This is one reason why Vietnamese households display the photographs of deceased relatives. They also commemorate the death anniversary of their ancestors by performing rites. Ancestor worship ensures that the unity and sacredness of the group of relatives and the familial obligation to keep the tradition indicates that the Vietnamese gives importance to their entire family over the significance given to the self. The ideology and importance is given to kinship because the Vietnams feel that it an effective method to overcome economic scarcity and uncertainty. The cultural values of Vietnamese in the United States have reconstructed the kin group when the ties between relatives were absent. Thus distance relatives were elevated to the positive of close kin through marriage and non-kin Vietnamese with close relationship was elevated to the position of kin through kinship terms. The continuous influence of pre-migration cultural traditions and social practice is evident among South Asian immigrants. They keep up the cultural and traditional values through arranged marriages. When children complete their students, the details are circulated through friends and families to find a suitable match from their cultural background (Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, Qin & Qin-Hilliard 2005 p.159). South Asians prefer arrange marriage because it has a positive factor on their children. Parents tend to avoid frightening American culture of dating, premarital sex and possible rejection. Moreover, children of South Asian submit to their parent’s demands due to parental pressure of being severed from the family. Immigrants continue to practice their values and memories of the past through which they continue their lives in a foreign country, it is obvious that their culture changes due to the new circumstances, values, cultural symbols and beliefs and behavior patterns. Therefore, certain social instincts and former beliefs continue intact among immigrants with some changes to the function and form. When it is argued that immigrants change, it is not a complete assimilation into the American culture. Segmented assimilation is prevalent among immigrants based on the economic and social conditions of their settings where they mix with white middle class Americans or integrate with inner city underclass. For example, native born Americans and immigrants may have similar values regarding conjugal relations but they tend to conceptualise the values based on varying folk histories (Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, Qin & Qin-Hilliard 2005 p.160). It may be concluded that cultural values can be kept alive by immigrants even if it is in a modified manner due to the changes in the cultural settings. Traditional culture of various ethnicities has an impact on their social and economic life due to the support and reverence given to individuals at times of need and in normal settings. Therefore traditional culture can be kept alive in a new country by modifying the values according to the circumstance through inventive tradition. Reference Lam, A. May 7, 2003. Who Will Light Incense When Mother’s Gone? Available: http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8b694d5af2cc87958e3b20b30543f2f0 . Accessed on May 4, 2009 Suárez-Orozco, M.M., Suárez-Orozco, C., Qin, D.B. & Qin-Hilliard, D. 2005 The new immigration: an interdisciplinary reader New York: Routledge Read More