Alienation as a Painful Experience for Immigrants - Essay Example

assignment is due Alienation is familiar to humanity since the very beginning of the world. Individuals have been facing alienation in their societies since time immemorial. Society always demands conformity to its standards and norms. Any individual who fails to conform to this standard would be alienated from the society. Alienation appears in different planes for different societies. Race, Gender, abnormalities, intellectual disabilities, nationalities, creed, and ethnicity etc are few of the themes of alienation. Alienation causes pain, frustration, disappointment, rebellions, fights and several other problems. The society’s strange demand of conformity has destroyed the life of thousands of individuals. Alienation is one of the weakest natures of human society. Alienation has destroyed the life of immigrants in America. Alienation closes the door of opportunity for people of color in different parts of the world. Few are not the negative consequences of alienation. It is high time that alienation be rooted out from all societies. Alienation has been the leading theme of several literary works. Pat Mora’s ‘immigrants’ tells the story of a helpless family seeking acceptance in the new land where they reached. Parents are trying to feed their child with the notion of materialism. They desperately want to teach cultural American traditions to their child. Event though they make hard attempts to transform their children they are not still sure whether American society will accept them. Children loses their natural and cultural personality and at the same time fails to acquire the culture of the new land where they reached. In the poem ‘Sonrisas’ we find the images of living in two world. Through the poem Mora presents some of the experiences she encounters in her life in the two worlds. Mora describes her working place that is strict, dull and boring. The term “quiet clicking” explains the quietness of her office. Mora’s words like “black coffee” and “budgets, tenure, and curriculum” makes the readers understand how boring her office is. Mora is indirectly presenting the alienation she suffers in her work place. The poem heritage presents before the readers the painful experience of a man of color who suffers ill treatment being an alien. He is ridiculed because of his dark skin. An alien in the American land will have the same experience. The poem refugee ship also tells the story of the unfortunate speaker who suffers because of her identity. The speaker presents her sorrow, being alienated from her American and Mexican cultures. Literary works include the theme of alienation to highlight the importance of eliminating alienation. Alienation is a painful experience for immigrants. Alienation disturbs the immigrant children in several ways. The effect of prejudice on immigrant children in public schools is not negligible (Takaki 10). Abuse influences the personality of children. According to Karen Horney, experience in the early childhood influences the character development of a person. Hurting experiences can prepare children with criminal attitude. The childhood experiences create the self or character of child. Children may undergo defective self-development because of the abuse that they undergo in their early life. Abuse negatively influences children’s construction of self. They are thus susceptible to various wrong habits and practices. The practice or attitude of showing discrimination towards an individual belonging to a foreign race, ethnicity and nationality is very common in the United States. It is highly prevalent in work places and educational institutions. These attitudes are quite unhealthy and unjust and are extremely intolerant (Simmel 375). Individuals are discriminated on the basis of nationality, race, ethnicity, color and various other factors and are not allowed to exercise their constitutional rights even (Simmel 375). In the educational institutions in US, students and teachers who are considered inferior are reluctant about revealing their attitudes and expressing their opinion publicly as they are afraid that their opinion may contradict the prevailing norms. Alienation and segregation should be discouraged in all educational institutions. Educational institutions have a moral obligation to ensure a peaceful, respectful learning environment for all students (Thompson 14). It is therefore necessary to take proper action against speech code offenders. Employees, students, student organizations or anybody who violates this policy should be subjected to necessary disciplinary action (Takaki 10). This will finally eliminate racial speech and discrimination from educational institutions. Alienation and prejudice should be discouraged in every spheres of life. Immigrant children are found to be highly affected by racial speech. A restriction on free speech is very essential on school campuses. Harassment codes do not violate students' First Amendment rights. According to immigrant children, campus racism segregated immigrant children. They say that slang plays a major role in the segregation and isolation that prevail in schools and other educational institutions. Experiences of students reveal that ethnic speech negatively influences the interpersonal relationships. Ethnic jokes hurt certain group of people thereby destroying the good relationship that they maintain. Ethnic jokes are much prevalent in school campuses. Ethnic jokes and hate speech exploit racial stereotypes. They are often racist and frequently offensive. Ethnic jokes are very popular and prevail in almost all societies. They do also play a great role in arising ethnic differences, exploitation and segregation. Ethnic jokes are targeted towards immigrants, possessing typical characteristics. The usage of these kinds of jokes upgrades or degrades the value of a group in general and ignores the importance and uniqueness of the individual. Ethnic humor hurts the feelings of immigrants. Immigrants who are aliens in foreign land should be offered a world free from segregation and ethnic speech. Segregation now represents the life of immigrants in America. Immigrants are surrounded by nothing but problems in the United States (Takaki 10). Children of immigrants are segregated in schools, colleges and work places. Immigrants never get preference in any offices in America. Economically, poverty gets concentrated in the places where immigrants reside. Segregation results in poor resources and infrastructures in immigrant neighborhoods. Segregation against immigrants has thus destroyed the very notion that ‘all men are created equal’ (Thompson 14). Immigrant children, being aliens in their new land experiences nothing but segregation in all spheres of life. Children of immigrants encounter discrimination in schools and colleges. Ethnic speech and other activities of segregation make them feel odd in America. Their parents attempt to Americanize them do not bring the desired consequences. Children of immigrants struggle to manage their lives in two conflicting worlds. Children face a different world when they meet their peers. Hispanic and Asian children who attend metropolitan area schools suffer from various kinds of discrimination. Social workers and immigration professionals can help the children who encounter alienation problems. They must try to understand the difficulties faced by immigrant children. They must learn where these children are coming from, and what they are really interested in. Children should be offered extra academic help as they cannot often reach the standards of native people. Children of immigrants opine that they are insulted by their peers, teachers or other school staff. Children suffer humiliation from their classmates. Language difficulties prevent children from successfully integrating to their new culture (Vertovec 576). Children follow their native culture in their homes. They are at the same time trying to follow the culture of their new land. Being in this two worlds makes them unfit for both worlds. The forceful attempt of acculturation to mainstream the immigrants to a strange ideology is unpleasant for children as it demands a severe denigration from their original culture. Acculturation pushes the children into a strange world that seldom treats them well. Being brought up in a different environment, a sudden brutal thrust into a new set up makes them feel odd. Children being brought into a new education set up lacks the expertise for excelling in a new environment and their chances of succeeding in the ‘new world’ is far less compared to the native children (Vertovec 578). Immigrant children are not able to follow their native identities and maintain the unique and exceptional practices followed in their native cultures. Children suffer in the context of the new scenario and are often ill-treated and abused. They are detached from their culture and feel odd in the new world. References Simmel, Georg. “How is Society Possible?.” The American Journal of Sociology, 15.3 (1910): 372-391. Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993. Thompson, Warren S. “Population.” The American Journal of Sociology, 34.1 (1928): 3-15. Vertovec, Steven. “Transnationalism and Identity.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 27.4 (2001): 573-582. Read More