After reading the book The Leavers, the content of the book, or the actions of the protagonist, raise my interest. There are more and more immigrants in U.S. nowadays. Those immigrants’ children, though become local born American citizens, are still affected by the original culture including their race and ethnicity from their families. Due to this partial culture difference from the original American culture, these groups of young people still feel hard to get into the society. Also, local Americans are unlikely to build relationship with them because they are the “other” group, which is excluded from the friendship considerations.
Another issue faced by these young people, which is what the book exaggerates, is more serious. As the original culture, or the family culture background, is quite different from the local American culture, these groups of young people always have mental psychological issues of their social identities. They might always think which society they truly belong to, and this is also a reason why they feel hard to step into the society.
The inheritance of two or more different cultures is the reason of troubles faced by the offspring of immigrants. I want to talk this topic since there are a lot of people around us who have this kind of troubles while the majority society and U.S. government do not realize the issue, or even intentionally ignores mental suffering of these groups of people. The truth is that the majority don’t have the identity troubles so that they cannot understand the pain.
In fact, the offspring of the immigrants cannot rely on the society, or beg for majority’s understanding and pity, to solve their problems. Instead, they should find their own ways to build their personal identities, and then their social identities. Identity is very important to every single man in the society since it is “used to describe a person’s character and identification with other individuals” (Garcia, 2019). In other words, building identity helps you differentiate yourself from others. After this process, immigrant children will become confident and succeed in the society.
Social identity theory (Abbreviated as SIT theory in the following text) claims that people build their social identities by using “in-group favoritism” and “out-group discrimination”. People compare the different groups by comparing the group levels to ensure which social group they participate. For example, in the last part of the book, The Leavers, the protagonist Daniel felt that he like the New York City much more than China, so he went back to New York after seeing his birth mother and lived in an apartment with his friend Michael. This example illustrates the meaning of in-group favoritism. Daniel feels more comfortable to the society in New York and he is willing to stay with his friends. This makes him like the social group in U.S. much more than that in China.
However, the book does not evidently mention how Denial don’t like the people, or the society in China, so there is no example to illustrate the term out-group discrimination. One thing clear is that by discriminating the members in “other” social groups, people are more determined to their social identities and their belongs to the existing social groups. As a result, when clearing which society is better for staying after comparison, immigrant children, especially the second-generation, will become more confident of being a member of the current society, which also helps them to build their social identities.
Work Cited:
Cardoza, K. (n.d.). Migrant children face huge challenges as they enter U.S. school system. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/2019/08/08/migrant-children-face-huge-challenges-they-enter-us-school-system
Garcia, M. (2019, January 01). [PDF] cross-cultural identity of SECOND-GENERATION immigrant Youth: Semantic Scholar. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/CROSS-CULTURAL-IDENTITY-OF-SECOND-GENERATION-YOUTH-Garcia/64cf861fe4c634f832ce3a67287caa3800cd3c65
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (2004). The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. In J. T. Jost & J. Sidanius (Eds.), Key readings in social psychology. Political psychology: Key readings (p. 276–293). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203505984-16
I think a really important point you hit on was immigrants children adapting to their new surroundings. Having parents who are completely unfamiliar with their new surrounding and having a child to raise seems to be very difficult. Traditionally, parents have been the ones to teach children growing up, but in these cases, it is partly the child’s responsibility to teach their parents American culture they learn while in school . To your point you made in the third paragraph, many children are going through this struggle and it is important to have resources for them.
It can be really challenging for children of immigrant families to adapt to their environment. They face societal pressures to assimilate, but also experience pressures from their families to preserve their culture and values. This definitely impacts the child’s identity as we see this through Daniel. I see your point on how building identity helps you differentiate yourself from the majority. I think something that is important to consider as well is growing up, a child’s peers can view these differences as something negative which can result in that individual resenting their cultural background for example. This is one of the main reasons many people feel the need to assimilate when moving to a new country. This then translates into a more confident individual who established their social identity.
I like the way you addressed the difficulties immigrant children face. It is hard for someone to go from one state to another let alone completely immigrate for a different country. The culture aspect is hard for a child to adopt to because they are young and trying to figure out not only how the world works but now how other people perceive it. They are in positions where they want to fit in but might not necessarily know how. People as well might not accept them and or allow them to completely integrate into their lives which makes it much more difficult for the immigrant kid. The comparison they phase is difficult because they grew up totally different and are almost “stuck” between two worlds.
I liked the connection you made with Immigrant children having a hard life and being stuck between two worlds. Oftentimes a child will be the first one to learn English in the family and have to be the ones to teach their parents the language. The child can also not become fully immersed in their culture and ultimately become a mix of their own culture with American (which isn’t always bad)
I like the connection you brought up with the Social Identity theory. Daniel having a connection with the city of New York rather than China. The difficulties immigrant children face. The confusion adopted children must face when they are sent to other families and in this case Deming becoming Daniel.
I really liked your appeal to the requirement that the individual be ultimately responsible for their own conditions and successes. Such an idea is controversial because it has connections to the ideology of Objectivism, a school of thought created by Ayn Rand after her departure from the Soviet Union when she became a prolific writer. Many dismiss Ayn Rand’s contributions to this school of thought as a justification for greed or carelessness, but a more rational way to view the theories present in this school of thought is to see Objectivism as simply a reflection of the human ability to be self-sufficient even when facing adversity. It is not up to the individual to control the perception society or other groups may have of him or her; rather, the individual must only do what the individual can actively control. This is an unconventional way of analyzing topics such as these, but it is in my opinion an effective method.
This is an extremely prevalent issue in today’s day in age, especially with all of the controversy over immigrants being welcome into the United States. This controversy also adds to the difficulty that immigrants experience once they get into the country, with a lot of people not welcoming them with open arms, making it difficult to adapt and thrive in a country filled with people who don’t accept them.
I really like your explanation about immigrant children. It is very common to see that after staying in America for a long time, many immigrant children would not preferred to go back to their home country. They are more accustomed to the current social environment and group which they have already find their social identity. Just like Deming’s situation, he has already turn himself in to Daniel as his social identity.
I like your connection to the Social Identity Theory, as I think it is really relevant to the topic. This “Out group discrimination” we see has been a common theme throughout the course, for example The Other, and now we yet again see this in play.
I think you really explained some of the difficulties immigrants may experience growing up and conforming to a certain image. I think that the novel has so many great examples of what Deming had experienced was common for others to struggle with. I think a huge think that immigrant children deal with is the acceptance and understanding of their peers because they have a connection to a different culture as well as the environment around them. It can be hard for these children to find their identity and I really liked that you included the explanation of the social identity theory!