Immigration

4 Pages 1024 Words

In education of immigrants, English as a second language teachers are often among the first people available to help refugees and other immigrants cope with a new cultural and linguistic environment. Although the identified role of the teacher is to teach English language skills, the teacher's role as a cultural broker is very important as well. One can focus on how teachers can help adult refugee and immigrant learners make significant progress in adjusting to a new life in an unfamiliar culture. It discusses the qualities of mental health, stresses faced by refugees, and three things that teachers can do to help their students
Concepts of mental health are laden with cultural bias. For example, one of the most important ways that cultures differ is that the societies where many of the refugees and immigrants to the United States come from tend to be more collectivistic, whereas U.S. society is more individualistic. In the United States, parents are generally encouraged to rear their children to be independent and self-reliant, to leave home early, and to be responsible for their own happiness and well being. In collectivist societies, parents raise their children to be interdependent and to be responsible for others, within a system of relationships where others in turn care for them. Americans may see behavior of people coming from such cultures as overly dependent and dysfunctional. However, behaving in individualistic ways could be seen as dysfunctional within the context of these other societies. Because of these cultural differences, U.S. teachers of refugee adults must be cautious in passing j!
udgment on behaviors they may not understand.
Teachers of adult refugees can promote cultural adjustment and mental health by learning about the challenges facing refugees; by providing material and activities in the classroom that will address some of the individuals' particular needs; and by becoming an integral part of a larger ne...