Oppression or Anti-Oppressive Practices as It Relates to New Immigrants - Essay Example

? Oppression Introduction Every year, immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees cross the United s boarders, and the number continues to increase every day. The main challenge is that persons moving into the United States do not automatically adapt to the US culture. Experts handling the immigrants should not only pay attention to the time the immigrants spend in the US, but should also try to understand the reasons for migrating into the US, their experience in their new place, their resources that are essential in operating in the host country, and the nature of reception in the new country. In addition, the experts should be aware that immigrants are faced with the challenge of duality of cultures and must operate with the standards and expectations, but it usually cause conflicts (Balgopal, 2000). The norm in the US is to group immigrants and refugees together. Despite the fact that refugees are immigrants and are able to acquire the status of immigrants after a year of stay in the US, the psychosocial profile of many refugees varies greatly with that of majority of immigrants. For immigrants, moving into the US is by personal will, and many are usually attracted by the living standards in the US. At times, some of the immigrants carry with them some of their assets while the rest are left at home. Without considering the reason for migrating into the US, moving into the US may seem preferable, but the move may turn to be dangerous or traumatic (Balgopal, 2000). In the case of refugees, the decision to move into the US is usually influenced by conflicts in their homelands. However, the US is not usually the first country of visit, but instead prefers to move to countries bordering their homeland, and then later migrate to the US. There are guidelines that outline how refugees are going to be resettled in the host country. Most of the refugees migrate from their countries due to unavoidable circumstances and are always willing to return home once there is safety in their country. They migrate from their homes without any plan, and most of them leave without carrying anything. In addition, majority suffer from inconceivable atrocities in the form of violation, degradation, and persecution. In general, refugees face destruction of their basic rights and lifestyle (Lim & Wieling, 2004). In the recent times, disproportionately high numbers of immigrants into the United States has been ethnic minorities from South America, Asia, and Africa. The majority of the immigrants make the US their permanent residence. Adjusting to a different society causes significant difficulties to many immigrants. Other than difficulties in adapting to the new society, acts of xenophobia are prevalent among people living in the United States. This phenomenon leads to the emergence of conflicts towards the newcomers (Lim & Wieling, 2004). Overtime, trends of immigration have changed significantly since the 20th century and still continue to change to date. Despite the numerous improvements on immigration laws, most immigrants continue to suffer from discrimination and oppression in their host countries. For a long time, immigrants have been denied fair treatment in host countries due to their skin color, accent, and at times due to the clothes they wear. Despite the many challenges, lack of resources, and discrimination within institutions, most immigrants continue to stay in the host country, establish a living, and bring up their children in such countries. The most surprising thing is that many people continue to feel that the United States has more opportunities and freedom without considering the cultural conflicts, marginalization, language challenges they are likely to face once they migrate to the US (Balgopal, 2000). Gaining cultural competency As mentioned earlier, persons responsible for handling immigrants must have an understanding of the immigrant’s culture and the immigration experience. In relation to this requirement, the experts should identify the reasons why the immigrants left their home countries, and the type of resources brought by the immigrants. In addition, the experts should also be aware that the immigrants left behind a lot of familiar things such as culture, friends, family, language, social system, environment, and standards of behavior. For example migrating women may leave their professions in order to follow their husbands, and are required to reestablish the professional and social networks to higher levels than their spouses. The other point of consideration by persons handling immigrants is the fact that, despite the US continued will to accommodate immigrants, much of what is offered is unknown (Lum, 2003). This implies that whatever the US has set aside for the immigrants is either inaccessible or the immigrants lack the knowledge on the existence of such provisions (Lum, 2003).Therefore, stresses experienced by a high number of immigrants are enormous. The most common traumas that are experienced by immigrants are culture shock in a foreign environment. Factors such as expectations, language, values, norms, and social structure differ significantly from those that have been common in the immigrants’ life. In the US, properly understood roles and relationships can transform, and the emerging ways of interaction remain questionable. In situations where immigrants have the psychological ability to cope with arising stressors and those of relocating to unfamiliar cultures, it is clear that they have the potential to adjust and gain control over their lives (Lum, 2003). It is also likely that immigrants might suffer from post traumatic stress disorders. Therefore, without enough and relevant social and emotional support, immigrants may fail to get satisfaction from the immigration. This is likely to make the immigrants unhappy, resent their lives in the host country, and even engage in unacceptable social behaviors. Therefore, persons handling immigrants not only need the social skills and cultural competence, but should also be familiar with the level of the immigration experience (Lum, 2003). Cultural competence entails knowledge acquisition, inductive learning, cultural awareness, and skill development. Cultural awareness entails the awareness of one’s personal life experiences in relation to culture and interaction with other cultures. This must include a conscious evaluation of how the experiences developed personal prejudices. On the other hand, knowledge acquisition entails studying about other diverse groups, paying attention to their culture, demographic characteristics, and experiences related to oppression. In addition, the subject may also include understanding of peoples’ unique strengths, and then analyze the knowledge critically (Lum, 2003). Skill development calls for the integration of interventions derived from social work with knowledge on self assessment and cultural diversity. This requires people handling immigrants to develop nontraditional skills offered in learning a client’s culture. Inductive learning refers to the knowledge and experience acquired from the other components of cultural competence. The acquired knowledge and experience can be applied beyond clients and used to educate other experts in cultural competency (Lum, 2003). Creating a professional relationship There are a number of issues that affect effective service provision and making interventions when dealing with immigrants. Examples of factors that contribute to this include communication barriers, family background, resistance, and ethnic, community identity. In some occasions, immigrants tend to guard information due to fear of exposure, lack of trust with the authority in charge, and effects of experience on oppression. There are some immigrants who come from countries where there is no freedom of speech, which hinders the process of acquiring information. Lack of trust with the authority, which is associated with possibilities of deportation; usually create barriers against investigating into the immigrant’s life, feelings, and experience. Despite the numerous barriers, persons handling the immigrants should develop credibility and expert authority applying directives and the necessary self disclosure (Short, 2004). Regardless of the type of expert handling the immigrants, all the experts must understand the conditions that are likely to affect their working relationship with immigrants. Therefore, it is essential for experts to develop rapport, knowledge regarding general and specific immigrant experiences, and community culture. It is also necessary to have an understanding of the implications of services, resources, and interventions before providing them to the immigrants. Immigrants are usually willing to offer sufficient and credible information after the people handling them establish rapport, credibility, and sensitivity. Therefore, self disclosure must apply in order to boost credibility and authority while understanding must be applied to create the relationship (Balgopal, 2000). Despite the fact that a majority of immigrants fear authorities, and always want to avoid it, immigrants from a majority of nondemocratic countries are always willing to respect the authority. The United States emphasize that people should be allowed to make their own decisions, but a number of cultures wait for clear directives once there is rapport and trust. This is considered as the most effective approach in solving immigrants’ problems. Immigrants believe that the social workers are the best people to provide them with answers regarding their situation. Therefore, advice, directives, and instruction can work best (Short, 2004). The challenges facing persons working with immigrants are high when dealing with new immigrants. However, the challenges may remain throughout the lives of the first generation immigrants. It has been noted that the culture of silence and privacy is common among the majority of the immigrants. Immigrants who usually seek for assistance usually go for authorities that have the knowledge and skills are useful to their life. For this reason, adopting directive approach can be the most effective strategy. Sharing of personal experience related to that of immigrants should be done in a prudent way. Self-disclosure in relation to the expert’s credential and work to related immigrants is useful in creating credibility and authority. However, a personal experience that is likely to generate an empathic understanding of the immigrant is likely to generate suspicion that the expert is undergoing through similar problems and is not the best to offer assistance (Salaff & Greve, 2004). Identifying the problem One notable thing is that, even after reducing the resistance and creating a healthy rapport, identification of problems may prove to be complex. Social work demands that the practitioner should remain focused to the client. Therefore, practitioners’ initial intervention explorations should establish whether the problem arises from the individuals’ issues or are as a result of societal or organizational problems. Issues contributing to the emergence and persistence of the problem can either be socioeconomic or bio-psychosocial. However, the problems can also result from environmental factors. An ecological view is essential since it offers a complete picture of a person’s experience. Family members, important persons, the community, organizations, and the larger society have influence on individuals in various ways (Lum, 2003). Conclusion Much of what I have learned in this topic of oppression towards immigrants is on how to improve my cultural competency and developing a professional relationship in handling immigrants. I find these two topics interesting because one of the biggest challenges faced by immigrants is cultural shock. Secondly, cultural competency exposes a social worker to a diversity of cultures, which is essential in handling persons from different parts of the world. On the other hand, developing a professional relationship provides a social worker with sufficient skills that are essential in solving problems that may arise in line of duty. Dealing with immigrants proves to be a difficult task due to the numerous challenges provided by the immigrants’ circumstances. However, with cultural competency and excellent professional relationship, a social worker is good enough to handle immigrants. Therefore, I intend to apply these strategies in my career as a social worker dealing with immigrants. References Balgopal, P. R. (2000). Social work practice with immigrants and refugees. New York: Columbia University Press Lim, S-L., & Wieling, E. (2004). Immigrant Chinese American women: Negotiating values and perceptions of self in the cultural borderlands of east and west: A qualitative study. Family Journal- Counceling & Therapy for couples and families 12 (2), 14 Lum, D. (2003). Culturally competent practice. Aframework for understanding diverse groups and justice issues. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Salaff, J. W. & Greve, A. (2004). Can women’s social networks migrate? Women’s studies international forum 27(2), 149-160 Short, R. (2004). Justice, Politics, and Prejudice regarding immigration attitudes. Current research in social psychology 9(14), 193-208. Read More