Always An Immigrant Analysis

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Once an Immigrant, Always an Immigrant. Going to live in a foreign country is one of the human experiences ranked highest in the scale of stress. Nowadays many people choose to leave their country of origin to start a new life in another place in the world, and many are the reasons for such decision. For example, the prospect of a better life, better economic opportunities, career advancements, new studying prospects, refuge from war, natural disasters or persecution, etc. Whatever the reasons people have to move away from their home country, immigrants all around the world face several repercussions. The process of adaptation to a new country and its culture involves several different stages, and experiencing them generate profound changes…show more content…
This is the crises or culture shock phase, where immigrants begin to miss everything from their homeland, even those things that were insignificant to them or those never noticed before. The differences between their home country and the new one begin to emerge and even the slightest ones result in intense contradictions that create a lot of frustration. All the new things that at the beginning were exciting and wonderful start to make feel immigrants uncomfortable and discouraged. Everything is foreign, smells, climate, attitudes, faces, and customs. For this reason people make endless comparisons between their country of origin and the new place, and always, always, the new place looses the battle. Consequently, immigrants may start isolating themselves, moving into neighborhoods where other immigrants from the same country as they are live, and making friends only with those that share their origin, language or culture. Listening to radio in their language, watching television channels from their country of origin, eating only their food are also desperate efforts to holding onto everything that reminds them of home and the familiar. Therefore rejecting anything new or different is a normal reaction in this stage. Arredondo-Down compares this stage of cultural adaptation to the second phase of loss and…show more content…
This is the time when immigrants start claiming local customs as their own. They enjoy the food, the weather, the culture, etc. People feel completely comfortable and secure in their host country. Therefore it is common for them to acquire several local friends and stopped isolating. Immigrants might maintain their believes, cultural traits, and a profound love for their motherland, but what is very distinctive in this phase is the acceptance of the cultural differences and the willingness to live in their new home participating in their community despite such

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