Difficulties Transnational Immigrants Encounter - Essay Example

? Difficulties that trans-nationals encounter The Hispanic Americans, who is also known as Latinos, are people whose ancestors originated from Latin American countries such as Dominican republic, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Hispanic Americans have been established as one of the fastest growing ethnicities of minorities in America. Hispanic Americans as per the united states of America census of the year 2000 come to a total of about 35,305818 which is also 12.5% of the population (Nevaer 2010). The Hispanic Americans represent a very assorted group of persons in terms of religion, race, ethnicity as well as socioeconomic status. The larger part of the Hispanic Americans are of young age with the median age being at 26 years of age with the large numbers of them living in the metropolitan areas. Despite the fact that the Hispanic Americans are spread out through the united states, most of them are highly concentrated in a number of states and regions which include the southwest especially California and Arizona, Texas, Florida, and the north east which consist of cities such as new jersey and new York. Hispanic Americans for some reasons tend to be located in the areas that have high numbers when it comes to poverty and unemployment with very little representation in the areas of high income and education. The Hispanic Americans have lived in America for over 500 years. When the European settlers intermarried with the indigenous people, they gave rise to the mestizo culture which is among the Hispanic American groups. Despite the varied nature that the Hispanic share in terms of culture and history, one of the most vital values that they share is the Familismo concept whereby we see that they believe in the maintenance of close relationships with the family members. The Hispanic display a large degree of willingness when it comes to making sacrifices for their families. The Hispanics also have a general sense of responsibility as can be demonstrated by the responsibilities that are played by the mother, father, daughter, son and the grandparents. The latter can be demonstrated by even those Hispanic families that have lived in the united states for quite a while ( Ochoa 2009). Due to the increased job opportunities and education, changes have been realized for the Hispanic Society. Due to the latter changes in the economic opportunities for the Hispanic Americans, the structures of their families have also undergone some changes that includes new types of family structures such as the single parent families, multicultural families who are of cross generations and the immigrant families who normally have to deal with the stress of assimilating a new culture. Due to the generational as well as the cyclical patterns of emigration and immigration, the Hispanics tend to be forced to deal with the with the conflict of the cultural world views that crop up from interactions with the interactions of a group that one belongs. From a historical point of view, we see that the psychology has played a very negative role when it comes to the Hispanic Americans. The clinicians that are not culturally aware may mistake some of the syndromes bound by culture such as the ‘ataques de nervios’ which is an angry response that is found within the Hispanic American women ( Welch 2010). The Hispanic Americans face a couple of challenges when it comes to education. About 54% of the Hispanic Americans graduate from high school, 8.5% tend to graduate university or college. At the dropout rate of 50%, the Hispanics have the highest rates of dropout rates of any ethnicity found in the united states of America. The Hispanic Americans just like the other racial minorities have been diverted from those college oriented programs. Despite all this, the pew Hispanic Center says that profiles of education that are the Hispanics born in foreign countries has improved greatly in the past thirty years. The unfortunate thing is that the Hispanic children are introduced to the idea of not achieving much at a very young age. The education for the Hispanic Americans should be made a priority so as to avoid the high drop out rates that have been witnessed. As a result of this, many Hispanic Americans get jobs that pat low incomes especially to the immigrants that come to the country with very low formal education (Ferna?ndez 2007) . Due to the fact that the fact that they do have good English speaking skills, they are limited to getting better jobs which in turn reduces the chances of success for their children. Another challenge that the Hispanic Americans face is that, with them being the highest growing group in the united states in terms of ethnicity and age, is that the wider integration of the Latinos is hindered. Despite the fact that most of the Hispanic American families have both parents, they often earn low incomes and they are often poor and in areas that are isolated from the better off families. The Hispanic Americans that immigrants to America face many challenges and the challenges may cause an effect on their healths especially in the fitting in. Staying healthy is a vital issue. Looking at the Hispanics that faces higher rates of poverty, they tend to face disparities when it comes to health care in the country. The above is a problem because good health should a minimum condition for the participation of many dimensions in life such as the ability to work and the ability to socialize. The consistent flows of the Hispanic immigrants threaten to divide America into two cultures. One of the main problems that arise when the Hispanics move in the country is that they do not completely assimilate into the American society. The Hispanic Americans are still some of the largest contributors of cheap labour in the country. The fear that they will be deported makes them vulnerable to being exploited by their employers. Many of the Hispanic women work for low wages and in this location that are densely populated with the hispans are often assumed to be immigrants. The Hispanic Americans also have to face negative cultures that have been circulated by the media as well as the popular cultures. The Hispanic Americans tend to be discriminated from the society due to their race, culture, levels of poverty and their use of the Spanish language. There also existed certain periods that the Hispanic Americans such as the Mexican children were forced to register at ‘Mexican schools’ whereby conditions of the classes of study were quite poor with the academic years being shorter with the results of the education quality being poor. Some of the reasons as to why the Hispanic Americans students have been listed as poor include the fact that there are limited resources, poor equipment and building constructions that are not fit. The melting pot is a metaphor that is used in the description of a society that is assorted in terms of race whereby we see that the ‘melting together’ of the different ethnicities create a diverse society that lives in harmony. Cultural pluralism come before the concept of multiculturalism. Many people believe that the assimilation of immigrants is not possible. The reason as to the latter has been defined as being racial prejudice. The multiculturalists support immigration rules and controls that are a bit loose. An example of the latter includes the support of bilingual education as well as other options that are affirmative. The reason as to why multiculturalists support this idea is that they claim that assimilation can hurt the minority cultures through their culture getting stripped away. Some sociologists have developed various theories that explain what happens when different cultures have an encounter. The latter outcomes include: cultural pluralism, assimilation and acculturation. Despite the fact that America was formed by colonialists and immigrants, the immigrants in the use face the pressures that are of a specific paradigm which is that of anglo-conformity. The latter is a concept that asks the immigrants to discard their cultures as well as their languages for the purpose of gaining the mainstream culture and language- English of the Americans. Out of the Hispanic Americans that manage to get a job, they also face some extra challenges. One of the things that have been established is that the typical Hispanic American has more chances of having an injury as a result of bodily harm at the workplace. Over the last couple of years, the injuries have been overrepresented by the employers. Progress has been made however over time and the injuries are dropping day by day which means that there has been an increase in the number of Hispanic Americans that have been working. The language barrier is one of the problems that the immigrants face when they come to America especially if they did not have any training before they come to the country. As a result of the increase in the numbers of the Hispanic Americans, we see that some of the employers are resulting in hiring employees who can speak Spanish as well as English (Remeseira 2010). The latter means that it is very difficult for a typical Hispanic American to get a high level job. Another problem that the Hispanic Americans face include is the rampant hostility from others. An example is how the Latinos face hostilities when they want to buy a house. This with comparison to the early days is better because there was the concept of ‘redlining’ whereby’ we see that the houses in some neighbourhoods were sold on the basis of race. The case did not only apply to the Hispanic Americans that wanted to buy houses but also those that wanted to rent. In some of the neighbourhoods charge the Hispanic members of the community more than they charge the other members of the society with fewer options being given to them. This type of discrimination is humiliating especially for the Hispanic Americans that live in the south. The life for Hispanic Americans despite the statuses of immigrants has become a sort of burden whereby we see that the even the most basic of chores become a burden since one must always be in a constant task of proving that you have not violated the immigration laws. The Hispanic Americans live a life whereby even when it comes to renewing one license, one has to always try and endlessly prove your identification which is an obstacle that the other races do not face. The hostility towards the transnational immigrants is still experienced as they carry out their normal tasks. The hostility includes looks that are disapproving to physical attacks. Two thirds of the transnational immigrants have been made to feel unwelcome in the countries that they go to. An example of some of the phrases that make the Hispanic Americans feel unwelcome include, ‘go back to Mexico’ in case of an argument even for those that are of Hispanic origins but born as American citizens. A conclusion can be arrived at that social, political and economical well-being of the Hispanic citizens depends largely on the opportunities that they have so as to make a living for them to even prosper so that they can empower the economy. So as to have a more diverse America, some policies should be implemented so as to give the Hispanic Americans a chance to prosper instead of them being treated as second class citizens. Such policies can include policy changes in the education and health systems so as to enable them to improve their welfare just as all the other ethnicities are doing. References Nevaer, L. E. V. 2010. Managing Hispanic and Latino employees: A guide to hiring, training, motivating, supervising, and supporting the fastest growing workforce group. San Francisco, Calif: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Ochoa, G., & Smith, C. 2009. Atlas of Hispanic-American history. New York: Facts On File. Welch, S. 2010. Understanding American government. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Ferna?ndez, E. C. 2007. Mexican-American Catholics. New York: Paulist Press. Remeseira, C. I. 2010. Hispanic New York: A sourcebook. New York: Columbia University Press. Read More