Intergenerational Cultural Dissonance in Immigrant Households
Children of immigrant parents are encouraged to pursue higher educational attainment to increase their prospect of achieving employment status that confer prestige and esteem, as well as improving their family’s collective standing within the ethnic community (Somerville & Robinson, 2016). First-generation students are also subjected to the “model minority myth,” a stereotype that upholds first-generation Asian students to higher educational standards and achievement. As they face both social pressures from their peers and parental unit to excel academically, they are left questioning the value of their self-worth in conjunction with their academic success rather than their personality. Immigrant children also face stressors in relation to social inequality embedded in institutional structures, as well as the consequences of the intersectionality of race, gender, and socioeconomic status that produce their unique lived social experience.
Intergenerational cultural dissonance is associated with higher levels of parental conflict; immigrant parents with lower acculturation tend to assert authoritarian parenting styles (Kane et al., 2019) that values obedience, respect, and adherence to tradition based on the parent’s country of origin (Lia & Rinat, 2022). On the contrary, as first and second-generation students tend to assimilate into the Canadian culture, the cultural dissonance experienced by both parties shifts the parent -child relationship, inducing conflict that increases the risk of depression and lowers the self-esteem of immigrant students (Kane et al., 2019). This reflects the complex dynamic and relationship between immigrant parents with their children; immigrant parents tend to relocate to give their children better educational opportunities, and children are expected to use every chance they get to bring meaning to their sacrifices by succeeding academically and obtaining a high-income career (Somerville & Robinson, 2016). In combination with cultural differences with a high emphasis on education and the influence of filial piety, immigrant children tend to carry the emotional and physical burden to support their family as they witness the financial struggle of their family while also being subjected to harsh disciplines by their parents (Moon & Ruiz Casares, 2019). Immigrant children also describe their experience in having to grow up faster than their peers as they take on household responsibilities, either in caretaking duties of their younger siblings, an all-common experience shared by the eldest daughter of immigrant families, offering linguistic support for legal purposes and even managing the household finance (Lia & Rinat, 2022). Consequently, most immigrant children grow up anxious, but emotionally detached and internalize a wide range of psychological distress that may continue to be passed down intergenerationally unless they acknowledge that they need to emotionally unpack their hardship, heal and grow from their experience.
Feelings of resentment against their parents are common in immigrant children as they transition to adulthood, given that the state of their mental health is often dismissed by their family and replaced with narratives of their sacrifices and their lack of understanding of mental health. There is a strong stigma against mental health in ethnic communities due to negative associations with psychiatric disorders, which deters immigrant children from accessing support compared to their native-born peers (Kane et al., 2019). Interestingly, while children of immigrant parents tend to stress their negative experiences growing up in a strict household, research found that they feel a sense of respect for their parents and account for their sacrifices as vital to their success later in life (Salami et al., 2020).
Western philosophy might argue that immigrant children did not ask to be born to fulfill their family’s dream in search of their independence and autonomy, but we all know that no culture or philosophy is inherently superior to the other. It’s about how we navigate the thin line between respect for cultural differences and advocating for personal fulfillment in life in the context of immigrant families. Additionally, much of the existing social research tends to focus on the negative experiences of immigrant children, but the mental health of immigrant parents tends to be disregarded. Immigrant households tend to be in the lower-income threshold, and parents often settle in low-paying jobs with no benefits and uncompensated long hours. Capturing the experiences of immigrant parents may invite more compassion and understanding of the psychological complexity that runs in an immigrant household.
Sources:
Kane, J. C., Johnson, R. M., Iwamoto, D. K., Jernigan, D. H., Harachi, T. W., & Bass, J. K. (2019). Pathways linking intergenerational cultural dissonance and alcohol use among Asian American youth: The role of family conflict, parental involvement, and peer behavior. Journal of ethnicity in substance abuse, 18(4), 613–633. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332640.2018.1428709
Liat, Y., & Rinat, M. (2022). “I Don’t want my children to work so hard”: Perceptions of parent-child relationships and future parenting among immigrant young adults. Journal of Cross - Cultural Psychology, 53(5), 451-470. doi:https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1177/00220221221093813
Moon, J., & Ruiz-Casares, M. (2019). Family’s migration experience and distress among asian-canadian immigrant youth. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 50(1), 7-7–32. doi:https://doi.org/10.3138/jcfs.009-2017
Salami, B., Alaazi, D. A., Yohani, S., Vallianatos, H., Okeke-Ihejirika, P., Ayalew, T., & Nsaliwa, C. (2020). Parent–Child relationships among african immigrant families in canada. Family Relations, 69(4), 743-755. doi:https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1111/fare.12454
Somerville, K., & Robinson, O. (2016). Keeping up appearances within the ethnic community: A disconnect between first and second generation south asians' educational aspirations. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 48(2), 99-117. doi:https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2016.0015
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