Cultural Identity and Immigrants

Culture is an essential part of one's personality. Any terms synonymous with "race" include "immigrant," "ethnicity," and "religion" (Casey and Dustmann 12). An immigrant is a citizen who moves to another country to live permanently. Immigrants come from a wide range of cultures and ethnicities. Ethnicity is the reality or status of being a member of a social community with a common national or cultural tradition. Any minority has the right to practice their faith. Religion is a basic universal collection of beliefs and rituals that are shared by a group of people or sects. Cultural identity covers a broad range of issues including race, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, and sexual orientation (Bhugra and Becker 19). Cultural identity issues deal with the struggle of belonging to a particular group and can have a significant impact on someone’s life. It can be difficult for people to find their place in the world and to feel accepted when their culture differs from others. Indeed, it is not only important to discuss how immigrants face adversity with their cultural identity because it can be difficult for them to find their place in the world and to feel accepted when their culture differs from others, but also essential to highlight the cultural, and religious factors related to the issue.

The question of immigrants and cultural identity is significant because it is still relevant today, in a world defined by globalization, technological inventions, and escalating immigration rates. Cultural identity covers a broad range of issues including race, ethnicity, religion, social class, and sexual orientation (Bhugra and Becker 23). Cultural identity issues deal with the struggle of belonging to a particular group and can have a significant impact on someone’s life. Indeed, there is a desire to understanding more about immigrants` cultural identity to raise attention to the topic, which should be discussed, so people see the adversity that immigrants go through. In some ways, many scholars can relate and hence sympathize with immigrants because meeting the expectations of two different cultures and trying to fit in two different worlds can put a lot of pressure on an individual (Casey and Dustmann 29). On the other hand, cultural identity in itself is unique and desirable, as humanity gets to melt into a blend of social, cultural, traditional, political, business, and diplomatic realities of life the world over.

When an immigrant come’s to live and settle down in a foreign country it can be very challenging. They can have confusion about their cultural identity because lots of times their upbringing will be different from their ethnic and cultural background, or that of their parents. It can be hard growing up different in a majority culture, or not being able to identify with the culture of their background (Bhugra and Becker 21). Meeting the expectations of two different cultures and trying to fit in in two different worlds can put a lot of pressure on the individual. Immigrants and their children can struggle to adjust or experience discrimination in school, work, and other communities. They try to find their cultural identity but are often left feeling ostracized.

Every community has a particular manner in which the code of conduct, values, and ethical virtues are tailored to fit in the mainstream society. It is, therefore, no wonder that different people from different p[arts of the world have diversity in all of these elements. For instance, whereas it could be regarded s morally upright for Christian women to freely shake hands and wear a dress that would be more exposing and revealing on their bodies, it is highly forbidden and unaccepted for their Muslim counterparts (Bhugra and Becker 18). Therefore, it is true that whereas a given people could be at liberty with specific social behavior, others might find it offending and immoral. Consequently, when immigrants move from their motherland countries into other parts of the world, they would typically encounter moral, ethical, and virtuous conflicts with the hosting community. This is because morality is inbuilt right from childhood, and changing it to adapt to a new form of life is usually characterized by mental, emotional, psychological, and even physical imbalances on the part of the immigrants. On the contrary, if immigrants make a minority of the hosting population, there is no alternative, other than to get assimilated and move on with the rest as a whole. A good scenario would be the Muslim ladies and the hijab issue in Europe (Casey and Dustmann 234). Because of the escalating terrorist attacks, most of which are being orchestrated by suicide bombers, it has become a reality that Islam phobia has gained ground, not only the mainstream media but in the society as well. Therefore, Muslim women have found difficulty marinating their hijab outfit while in countries like German, France, and even the Philippines. Such immigrants who value the privacy of their women, and who adore their dress code, typically have hard times maintaining their cultural identity as immigrants in the foreign countries (Phinney et al. 498).

A language is a tool of communication that to a more significant part distinguishes humanity from other creatures, and hence its indispensable role in everybody’s life, because without language people cannot find community, and even do more than that as much as social needs are concerned. However, immigrants always lose the opportunity to be proud of their language almost automatically, once they set foot in a new territory, where anew language is used for communication (Bhugra and Becker 24). Language influences social relations, privileges extended to particular persons in a given setting, and it even tells more about one’s ancestral background and how they relate to others. In essence, language creates a platform for social interactions, and it makes life meaningful. The problem comes when immigrants are speaking a different dialect end up in countries that do not recognize or understand the language. For instance, many issues with language barrier have been reported in Europe following the millions of immigrants entering the region since 2011 after the Arab spring feuds began in countries like Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Afghanistan (Casey and Dustmann 345). For the immigrants to fit in the new life, get assimilated, and find their lives comfortable, they have to let go their language and learn the hosting community`s dialect as fast as possible to cope. In essence, allowing go one's language often robs one of their cultural diversity and identity as well. It changes the way of thinking and how they perceive the people around them. Therefore, immigrants find it hard to maintain their cultural integrity because of language barriers, when they end up as the minority in the hosting populations (Urban and Orbe 306).

Cross-cultural communication is another significant element that explains why and how immigrants have difficulties with their cultural identity. Cross-cultural communication entails the exchange of formation, sharing ideas, doing business and even striking high stake diplomatic agreements across different cultural settings. While language is limited to communication exclusively, cultural identity goes beyond that level (Bhugra and Becker 20). For instance, cultural identity determines how people talk, how they relate to others, how they judge the world, and how they perceive the environment around them. Therefore, without a point of convergence, where culture can intermingle to achieve a common approach to life, it could get out of hand to correctly and significantly manage human behavior, character, and personality (Phinney et al. 509). A good example of cross-cultural differences is the factor of high-context cultures and the low context cultures. The Americans, Australians, and Europeans are a low-context cultural society. This is because an individual is often at the center of interest, and personal character and habits are the core determinants of social judgment. On the contrary, low-context cultural societies like Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Africa, an individual is judged based on the friends, company or organization, and even the society they work and interact with. While in the US and Europe somebody could point a finger to mean direction, or wave to mean greetings, in Asia that is interpreted as disrespect (Phinney et al. 499). A long stare and a direct eye contact in the West means honest and straightforwardness. On the contrary, in the Middle East and parts of Asia, a long stare implies rudeness, and most people cannot value direct eye contact while making negotiations or talking to each other. People from El Salvador embrace talking in low tones with minimal facial expressions, hence risk being judged as those who lack interest in a conversation. On the contrary, those from Brazil occasionally raise their tones to enhance effective communication and could be mistaken for an angry audience. In essence, immigrants can always have difficulties with their cultural identity because of these cross-cultural elements (Casey and Dustmann 451). Unless and until somebody learns and adapts to the hosting society`s cultural, traditional, and moral way of going about life, it might always prove difficult to maintain one's cultural identity as an immigrant.

Despite the many challenges immigrants face, there are multiple ways in which immigrants often create their own cultural identity. One of the approaches is that immigrants from different destinations in the world who end up at a typical geographical setting tend to work, socialize, and stay near each other (Phinney et al. 501). As such, they have one element common to them, and that is the fact that they are foreigners who have come to a new home. In as much as they might fail to have similar views and values regarding cultural identity, they might be willing and able to compromise more easily than doing the same with the hosting or the indigenous communities (Urban and Orbe 312). What will happen next is that the immigrants will get assimilated to each other, and then blend their traditions, beliefs, habits of life, hence coming up either an all-new and well-adapted culture. It is through this process that immigrants end up forming a new block with similar blends with the indigenous society. Thus they can coexist while clinging to some of their cultural identities. The other way of maintaining a cultural status for immigrants in the twenty-first century has been aided by the availability of social media, internet, and the effects of globalization. People have learned to compromise and embrace cultural diversity, the world has been opened up, and acute misunderstandings in culture are no longer significant and highly prevalent as it were before the internet age. Indeed, immigrants in any part of the world do not meet an all new and strange world; instead, they will often have something to hold on as an identity for their culture. A worldview approach on immigrants and their cultural identity by Buck (2009) creates a picture that the America’s national identity is expressed as a nation of immigrants; an idea, rather than a country (37). He thinks Americans on this view are Americans not by virtue, of being born into a community of Americans and being shaped by an American upbringing and culture. He believes a conservative viewpoint is a more valid and more comprehensive stance on America’s national identity. The US thus serves as a global example of why and how modern-day immigrants maintain their cultural identities (Buck 101).

Immigrants face adversity with their cultural identity in a multifaceted approach. When immigrants come to live and settle down in a foreign country, it can be very challenging. They can have confusion about their cultural identity because lots of times their upbringing will be different from their ethnic and cultural background, or that of their parents. It can be hard growing up different in a majority culture, or not being able to identify with the culture of their background. Culture can be a considerable part of one’s identity, which has to do with the theme of “identity.” There is much controversy as to whether immigrants should culturally assimilate into the host society or preserve their cultural norms. An expert survey-based measure of the longevity of national identity by Dimitrova-Grajzl, Eastwood, and Grajzl (2016) first shows an adverse effect on the strength of individual preferences in favor of immigrants’ cultural assimilation, and second, shapes the effect of individual-level characteristics on their beliefs (3). Typically, an individual perception about the immigrants’ cultural assimilation of the native people versus preserving their cultural norms reflects a historical sense of a national identity. Indeed, by and large, immigrants, due to differences in cultural identity with the hosting society, the two parties will often undergo cultural conflicts. Once the social misunderstandings tend to calm down, people will often blend to get adapted to each other. Eventually, while the immigrants lose some of their identities, they usually would have three or more elements of their culture left to them as an identity (Dimitrova-Grajzl, Eastwood, and Grajzl 6). In fact, the immigrants can go as far as influencing and changing the culture of the native people so that they gain dominance in the new region of settlement.

The issue of cultural identity and immigrants is not exclusively for the two parties. Instead, there are many external factors that influence directly how cultural identity is perceived and embraced, one of which is religion. Researchers like Kim (2011) have delivered evidence-based data on how the religious literature in Sociology remains disconnected from the ethnicity and immigration literature, despite connections between religion and ethnicity (316). She shows how exploring the theoretical relationships between the two can advance our understanding of each social phenomenon. Indeed, her work serves to explain why America remains so religious and why America’s religious congregations continue to be divided along ethnic and racial lines (Kim 323). On the other hand, the presence of immigrants would always come in handy with the mode of worship and prayer, plus the deity recognized as the stronghold of faith. In the presence of Muslim, Christian, and Indian immigrants, for instance, the availability of a mosque, a church, or a temple would conspicuous define the cultural identity of the people. On the other hand, religion is a significant player in the central issues that influence the world order (Urban and Orbe 316). For example, there are hundreds of millions of Catholics the world over, billions of Christians and Muslims alike. Consequently, these religions are influential enough to create a formidable umbrella of culture across the world. Due to the high support and populous support the element of religion enjoys in the world, it is true of religion affects cultural identity directly. Right from the aspects of personality, dress code, the day of worship, eating habits, and social interactions, and political as well as traditional affiliations, religion is at the center of cultural identity (Kim 314). Therefore, since time immemorial to date, religion has been and remains to be a critical player in cultural identity.

Typically, religion means a lot as far as cultural identity is concerned, and it is very indispensable because it defines the way of life of more than 95 percent of the people in the world (Casey and Dustmann 78). Because of this massive following, religion influences cultural identity exclusively. People are recognized for their ability to interact with others, and what they hold as morally upright in their respective communities. In this regard, religion dictates behavior and creates a platform for general lifestyle. Technically, culture could make people uncomfortable in a way; it could be a sense of pride and confusion. The issue of Islam phobia in Europe and the US, for example, shows how much immigrants of Muslim descent would have problems with religion. Therefore, religion is a crucial measure of how people view others, and most likely cultural identity thrives on faith in most parts of the world (Phinney et al. 505).

Cultural identity change over time changes over time. Studies by Mao and Shen (2015) explore the relational patterns of expatriates’ social networks, and their impact on immigrants change in cultural identity while working abroad. Normally, strong ties in dense networks are conducive to helping expatriates stay attached to a national culture. Cross-cultural connections within an immigrant`s social network contribute to the development of multiculturalism in one’s cultural identity. Consequently, cultural status can change over time. On the other hand, because of advancement in technology, globalization has gained root on the planet. Political, social, cultural, traditional, economic, and corporate meetings around the world happen daily, involving different and distinct people in ethical and moral perceptions (Mao and Shen 1544). Social media, the internet, and worldwide websites as well have played a role in spreading and diluting the effectiveness of culture and concretive beliefs of specific communities. As such, cultural identity has changed in the present world to a great extent because new blends have been created (Mao and Shen 1539). What appeared unique to a specific community in the eighteenth century, for instance, is no longer a preserve of that particular community, preferably, it has been blended into different cultures, and people can almost relate to any tradition of beliefs of a given society. On the other hand, the political instabilities in Sub Saharan Africa, Islamic state in the Middle East as well as North African Arab spring uprisings of 2011 have caused much immigration across the world (Casey and Dustmann 233). The millions of immigrants have brought a new culture of religion, politics, social interactions, eating habits and dress code; hence they have influenced the cultural identity of native communities. Typically, over time, cultural identity changes, depending on the environment, the population density of immigrants, and even the political and religious issues in the mix.

In conclusion, therefore, immigrants and their children can struggle to adjust or experience discrimination in school, work, and other communities. They try to find their cultural identity but are often left feeling ostracized. They sometimes have to deconstruct their cultural characters to create their own. Religion and political landscape of a people usually influence cultural identity on the other hand. While immigrants would in most cases assimilate to the natives` way of life, blending and modeling of new cultural habits would typically define most cases of massive immigration. Over time, however, cultural identity changes, like is the fact apparently, following the influence of globalization, technological inventions like social media, and increased civil wars the world over.





























Works Cited

Bhugra, Dinesh, and Matthew a Becker. “Migration, Cultural Bereavement and Cultural Identity.” World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) 4.1 (2005): PP. 18–24.

Buck, Christopher. “Religious Myths and Visions of America : How Minority Faiths Redefined America’s World Role.” 2009: xii, 324 . Web.

Casey, Teresa, and Christian Dustmann. “Immigrants’ Identity, Economic Outcomes and the Transmission of Identity across Generations.” Economic Journal 120.542 (2009): PP. 1-542.

Dimitrova-Grajzl, Valentina, Jonathan Eastwood, and Peter Grajzl. “The Longevity of National Identity and National Pride: Evidence from Wider Europe.” Research & Politics 3.2 (2016): PP. 1–9.

Kim, Rebecca Y. “Religion and Ethnicity: Theoretical Connections.” Religions 2.3 (2011): PP. 312–329.

Mao, Jina, and Yan Shen. “Cultural Identity Change in Expatriates: A Social Network Perspective.” Human Relations 68.10 (2015): PP. 1533–1556.

Phinney, Jean S. et al. “Ethnic Identity, Immigration, and Well-Being: An Interactional Perspective.” Journal of Social Issues 57.3 (2001): PP. 493–510.

Urban, Ewa L., and Mark P. Orbe. “Identity Gaps of Contemporary U.S. Immigrants: Acknowledging Divergent Communicative Experiences.” Communication Studies 61.3 (2010): PP. 304–320.