The spectrum of influence that the United States has on countries and cultures around the world is surprisingly strong, so imagine the influence that American culture has on people living within its borders. The push to become ‘American’ is overwhelmingly present in every aspect of life, from the Pledge of Allegiance said every day at school to white bread, Old Navy tee shirts and the ‘American Dream’. While to people whose families have been in this country for generations, these simple facts of life seem to be irrelevant, to new citizens, these traditions can seem abrasive or irrational. The immense patriotism in this country, to some, is the only way of really being an American, so for some who seek to simply exist, it can be a challenge to try and get them to be ‘more American’.
Immigrants that come to the United States are at the mercy of the country. They are unaccustomed to the ways of this country and come bearing their previous traditions, but over time, are pressured to become truly ‘American’ and drop all former affiliations. In their previous countries, they had lived their lives a certain way In order to reap the benefits of their new home, they often do assimilate and act in a traditionally American way, beginning with the education of their children and then intruding into the other aspects of their lives.
In the United States, there is an idea of ‘equal opportunity, in which every person has the same ability to reach success, which in our country, is material and economic wealth. In order to see this to fruition, either for themselves or for their children, there are certain measures many families take to ensure the ‘Americanization’ of their families.
One of these is pointedly not teaching their children their ‘mother’ languages, in hopes that instead, the child will be able to fully master the language of the country- in this case, English. Many of the immigrants feel inhibited by their lack of ability in communication with native English speakers, and hope that their children would have more of an advantage in social situations and in the workplace than what they endured as non-native speakers.
Another example of how immigrants lose their native cultures through the superiority of the pre-established culture is by losing touch with customs that had been practice by their ancestors for millennia. One is food- many times, foods and ingredients that are prevalent in many countries are not widely available in the United States, or otherwise, are far too expensive. For example, Latin America is rich with foods such as avocados, papayas, and mangoes all year round. In the US, however, those are pretty expensive fruits, unaffordable to immigrants, and to be quite honest, Americans in general. Therefore, the diets of people change, and the native palettes of people shift to one more suited to that of the United States. Additionally, Religious customs, such as dressing up for religious services or celebrating religious events in big, elaborate ways, are simply not possible sometimes in the United States due to the cultural diversity of the country, and the largely secular nature of the government institutions. This is how the extremely religious nature of certain immigrant families who come to the United States begins to dwindle over time.This has extremely detrimental psychological effects for the immigrant populations.
Due to the cultural differences between immigrants and those who are from the United States, and the intolerance ignorant people hold for people are different than themselves, immigrants begin to hold extremely unhealthy images of themselves. While they do try and completely embrace the new culture, sometimes even to the point of losing identifying parts of being, immigrants are distinguishable many times by physical appearance, accents, or other factors. People who are ignorant about immigration, immigrants, and life in general can be completely awful to immigrants to this country, demeaning, and if you’re Donald Trump and his dim-witted supporters, wish to deport them all back to Mexico, apparently disregarding people’s true ethnic backgrounds.
In the United States, the way that this small group of irrational people sees immigrants and expresses their feelings and beliefs regarding them ingrains itself into the minds and spirits of those they are condemning. This is the reason that amongst immigrants’ children there are higher rates of dropping out of school and joining gangs- society sees them one way and after time, they begin to see themselves that way too.
To tie this all together, it is important to remind ourselves of two things. The first is that having a culture different than the typical American culture is nothing to be ashamed of, but something to celebrate, and be proud of. It is part of your identity, and gives you a place to belong in the world. If, however you are on the other side, it is extremely important to be accepting and encouraging of the choices people make in regard to their culture and how they choose to express themselves. Allowing people be themselves without fear of reprehension or of being made into social pariahs is exactly how to create a society that is able to make use of people for what they bring to the table that is new and exciting, rather than one that expects uniformity.
