Immigration and Family
Each year, thousands of immigrant families come to the United States in search of a better income, educational opportunities or to escape difficult circumstances in their home countries. The Unite States is the country that has the most immigrants in the world. Over 40 million people that live in U.S. today were born in another country, which accounts for about a fifth of the world migrants as o the year 2017 (Radford, 2019). As of the year 2017, the population of foreign born individuals in U.S. was at 44.4 million. Today, immigrants account for 13.6% of the U.S. population which has nearly tripled from the 1970s where it was 4.7% (Radford, 2019). Immigration can be incredibly beneficial for families seeking to improve their circumstances, however if not properly planned, it can lead to family separation, negatively affect culture and create a financial as well as legal burden.
Generally, a family might also refer to a group of people who share the same ancestry (Chaloff & Poeschel, 2017). It is thus from making families that people also realize the need to provide for their families adequately. This makes them work tirelessly on the locally available opportunities (Casey, 2013). However, as the population has been growing, opportunities seem to be reduced, which makes an individual search for an opportunity in a different place. This is where immigration comes in, as the way people move into other countries to settle and reside there as residents, and take up employment as a migrant or foreign worker. Family connections are significant and they are upheld across state borders. There are those family associates that may be enthusiastic to migrate; there are those who might not be permitted to migrate or various reasons.
Once persons migrate to a new republic, they start to generate a new family life. This is a family life that is swayed by both the social customs, and the conducts of this new state (Alan et al., 2017). Such families demonstrate integration or bicultural modifications rather than absorption. Unified or bicultural families are probable if there are adequate figures in the indigenous community. This only transpires if migration endures from the country of source and if the indigenous community has associations with their republic of origin. Though a settler’s belief may revolution over time in the nation of origin, the settler can remain to reason that the customs are enduring and deduce the present grounded on his memory of the past (Caldwell, 2016). Such cultural considerations are significant in helping strengthen traditional family principles and conducts. Social inspirations for example close relatives and a stable sex proportion critically help uphold traditional clan life. A good illustration of this is the absenteeism of fitting close relatives for example older families to help nurture the children and to illustrate traditional house roles. These consequences in non-traditional arrangements of husbands taking up these house roles like cooking and caring or the children, to support their companions.
The world is characterized by many elements which work in mutual coordination of one another. Most of these elements are naturally occurring while others are brought in existence by other existing factors. People are the primary elements that characterize the world in existence. People can realize existence, and have made extensive efforts to make the world a better place to live. Their limitless abilities have made them realize the need for teamwork in advancing what is already existing (Casey, 2013). This has been catalyzed by inherent characteristics in each being, which entail their diverse ways of thinking, acting, and feeling which they possess naturally. Thinking has brought logic with which people have so far used to develop the world to the state it is today. Acting has helped people become social beings, by primarily coming up languages which they use to communicate with one another (Bales & Parsons, 2014). Through communication, many enhancements in the humanoid sphere have gigantically developed. From their abilities, people have been able to make organized social groups. Significantly, people make families which are simply social groups that are made up of parents and their children (Bales & Parsons, 2014).
A family can be said to be a baseline by humans receive love, support, and a framework of values from one another. Arguably, a family can be regarded as the first lesson of making relationships with one another. A family, means a lot to an individual in characteristic stages of growth and development, since one feels secure, and can get solutions of solving problems around a family. A family is also a base through which one gains the right skills and attitudes as per the societal expectations. It is through the family that people learn to respect one another and be responsible (Chaloff & Poeschel, 2017). A family is held together by morals, faith, ideals, hope, encouragement, comfort, and understanding between one another. The support offered by a family helps an individual to gain an individualistic form of self-worth, and purpose. A family is the primary roof of any individual, where one learns about self-identity. This is from the fact that when a child is born, it fully depends on its family for protection and other main basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing (Chaloff & Poeschel, 2017). It is through the family’s values that a child gains a basis to develop his code of moral conduct.
The aspect of family presents different viewpoints of an individual to the external world. Arguably, people who spend much time with their families show their value of love, communication, and appreciation. It also depicts an individual’s ability to socialize with other people, make positive relations, and help one another in achieving a common goal (Bales & Parsons, 2014). There exist family traditions which also ought to be followed to showcase ones worth of his own identity. These traditions might be experiences that families may create together regularly. Such traditions provide a family with memories, besides giving family members with a stronger sense of belonging. Nonetheless, many families make society. It is through such societies that common norms, values, and disciplines are set for the common good of all society members (Hardin, 2005). Self-aid values like responsibility, hard work, respect are gained, which in turn helps society live in unity and harmoniously.
Family coordination and organization can be regarded as the basis through which humans have been able to reach their massive developments in time (Booth et al., 2012). Family values should thus be protected for the good of maintaining a smooth code of conduct in the lineage of a particular family to help its future generations. A perfect family is the perfection of a whole society and all its members including, father, mother and the children all have to work together to build a perfect family (Casey, 2013). A failure in any element in a family sums up to a total fail in the family. An optimal family is created by hard work from each member of the society. It is from an individual family impact that society is also able to have an impact on the whole world. It is thus through strong family values that family members gain insights into greater decision-making skills.
Over time, there have been changes in societal values over different societies in the world. People populations have been growing over time which has resulted to scarcity of opportunities. This is the primary cause of immigration, where people move from their countries to other countries, they deem favorable to get job opportunities, besides other benefits (Gulasekaram, 2018). Notably, a lack of a means to provide for a family can lead to failure of the whole family in a societal setting. A failure in a family is a failure of the whole society. In immigration, people may go to other countries in search of timeliness which can let them provide adequately for their families (Gulasekaram, 2018). During immigration, a person may consider moving along with his or her family, or else, go and, make a new family in the destination country.
Immigration is however illegal in most countries, and one caught can be charged against a court of flaw or deported back to his or her mother country (Hardin, 2005). Particularly, an individual may choose to; eave their home countries due to political issues, natural disasters, economic issues, or even family reunification. This might be in seek of higher wages, better standards of living, employment opportunities, or even better educational opportunities.
A family is united together by ties which bind the interrelation between each family member (Mahalingam, 2006). These family ties are maintained overly across national boundaries. It is from a worldwide perspective that a single family can be said to be a significant figure.
Reflecting on the aspect of family in immigration, some family members may be denied the chance to immigrate, while others may not want to immigrate. Considering that immigration to many people means an avenue of getting adequate medical items, food, clothing, and job opportunities, an individual intending to immigrate may have insufficient finances that he or she will be able to support fellow family members (Mahalingam, 2006). Thus, circumstances may force an individual to leave his or her family behind, where after arriving and settling in the home country, the urge of self-identity may make him or her start looking for new a new family life. Support of family associates is often vital for guaranteeing financial capability of new settlers most particularly those that have narrow monetary resources (Caldwell, 2016). When these extended relations are not present, the immigrants have a habit of replacing and this is where new family systems are formed. Immigrants form families of all unconnected persons of both related and unconnected personalities who begin to consider each other as family (Caldwell, 2016). This new form of life will be influenced by the ways of the host country and past cultural customs of the home country (Booth et al., 2012). In an event where the immigrant still has connections to the home country, then an individual may tend to hang on bicultural adjustment and integration.
Traditions change with time in any country. An immigrant may stick to past customs of the home country, which he or she may compare them with the cultures of the host country (Mahalingam, 2006). The immigrant may lack enough knowledge about feasible changes that the home country has undergone, thus interpreting the present customs based on the remembered past. Preserving and practicing family traditions is considered essential in reinforcing inherent family behaviors and values. However, immigration may affect the social relations of the immigrant such as in maintaining the traditional family life. This is predetermined by factors such as sex ratio, and close relatives (Mahalingam, 2006). For instance, if there is an imbalance between the ratios of men to women in a host country, the aspect of marriage may end up incorporating other ethnic groups in the family lineage.
Booth et al., (2012) points out that women and young immigrants, when compared with men and older immigrants have the highest possibilities of incorporating the new values of the host country. A disparity of men to women momentously disturbs who becomes married and whether partners are from a different cultural group or if they are pursued from the home country (Caldwell, 2016). It is very conceivable for an individual to search for a marital spouse from their home country because they want to preserve their traditions. Young settlers as likened to their parentages and females more than males are more probable to integrate western cultural values commonly because they signify liberation and independence from some of the out-dated gender roles (Alan et al., 2017). Customarily, women are expected to take care of the family and children and teach them to understand ethnic traditions. Even if there are stresses to preserve specific masculinity roles, women have a tendency to have numerous prospects for altering roles (Caldwell, 2016). This is most precisely when they are disconnected from their extended relations and they obtain limited corroboration of ethnic roles from the cultural community.
Women have many chances of changing roles, as well as children. This is because a woman may be separated from one's extended family through marriage to go and adjust in a new family setting. Children and younger people, on the other hand, are considered to be still undergoing the process of growth and development, where they get most of their knowledge through imitation of behavior (Hardin, 2005). United States’ population is significantly characterized by people from diverse traditional cultures. This has been a result of the immigration of people from different countries hoping for a better life for themselves and their families.
There is an approximately 1.8 million refugees within the U.S., this are people living in poverty and most of them are homeless (Booth et al., 2012). Most of the people that undergo challenges as immigrants are the illegal immigrants, these are people that do not have legal documents and so they have problems acquiring jobs. The highest number of immigrants in the U.S. is the Asians and their population is expected to grow in the next years. This shows that immigration is also characterized by difficulties which may act against the immigrant’s expectations. Such shortcomings mostly include; language barriers, lack of the required skills to find a job in the host country, education and cultural barriers, and even discrimination and racism (Hardin, 2005). One has to learn the predominant language that is spoken in the host country, to be able to communicate effectively with others and express themselves. In some countries, professionalism is essential for an individual to be able to get a job, thus, lacking the required skills can lead an immigrant to low pay jobs without benefits. In culture and orientation, an individual having being used to the way of life of his or her home country, arriving in a new country can make an individual feel out of place (Booth et al., 2012). This may be worse where the issue of discrimination and racism has characterized the host country, where an immigrant obviously will not yet be into the new ways of life.
Immigration can generally be argued to be a consequence of the pull and push factors. Some factors make an individual move from one's country to another while other factors or expectations attract a person to a new place. All these factors are all tied on family and support, where individual family members may seek to go extra miles, and this in most cases means moving to another country just to try and ensure that they give their families the best life. Family is that prime element that can essentially cause a person to take risks and explore new areas in other more developed countries like the U.S. it is however for people to understand the challenges that they are likely to face once they have made their choice to migrate. Immigration is characterized by numerous drawbacks for instance language barrier and lack of jobs and place to live which is what greatly discourages most people. When making the choice to migrate to another country to look for better opportunities, it is important to have a plan and conduct the necessary research about the job market of the skills that one has. Immigration can be beneficial to the individuals that have goals in life, these are people who are willing to learn and adopt a new culture in their quest to succeed.
References
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