CULTURE AND ACCULTURATION

Culture and Acculturation: An Immigrant's Story and Analysis of His or Her Experience



Culture and Acculturation: An Immigrant's Story and Analysis of His or Her Experience

Introduction

In the book “The World of the Immigrant Child”, Christine Igoa explains the different stages of uprooting that immigrant children experience. She describes the range of emotions and different behaviors of immigrant children through her experiences and observations. Due to increased mobility, migrant English language learners may experience uprooting to an even higher degree as compared to the immigrant children she explains in her book (Igoa, 1995).

Discussion

Stage 1 and 2

It is essential to discuss the stages of uprooting to have a clear understanding of an immigrant's experience. The first two stages are mixed emotions and excitement, and fear of journey. Klitschko, was 21 years of age when he migrated to the United States with his family from Russia. Since he was a child, he had seen difficult times in his country. His mother always told him stories how the government always rolled its people with its tail whenever it wanted. Leaving the native land was still a difficult decision. There was no one in the United States to welcome the family as they had no relatives or friends over there. Therefore, it was not a reunion but a fearful journey to a different land and culture. Klitschko was excited though. He was young and he always wanted to go to the United States. He wanted to see the Americans and visit all the places which he had only seen on Television. Klitschko along with his family had a very optimistic approach and a positive perception about United States. They thought that United States was the nation of opportunities and resources. As a result, Klitschko was extremely excited about the new land and his future. However, he was also depressed as he had to leave his home, friends and memories behind.

Stage 3

After the first two stages of uprooting, the third stage is curiosity stage. According to this stage, the immigrant becomes curious about the new country. Klitschko recalls his moments as the plane landed on the runway of John F. Kennedy airport. Klitschko was nervous and confused. He did not know how to react or how the local people would react to see him and his family. He was from Russia and he knew that Americans had a dubious perception about the Russians. As he passed by the local people in the airport, he was amazed to see how similar they looked to the Russians. However, he found the accent very fascinating. He observed that the local women were very beautiful and men were also good looking. As he stepped out of the airport to look for a cab, he noticed how everything seemed organized even when there were so many people. On his short stay to the airport, he observed people from different ethnicity. There were black, blond, white, Mexicans and other people from different cultural ...