The novel “Interpreter of Maladies” included the difficulties for Indians to fit in American culture and how they struggle with their identity between the two different cultures. The author, Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London in 1967, and raised in Rhode Island. Her father and mother were emigrated from India, and Lahiri spoke Bengali with them at home. It was her parents’ immersion in Indian culture at home that made Lahiri never felt fully American. Although Lahiri never lived in India, she had frequently visit to Calcutta and decided to marry there in 2001. They are Indian but not of India, their dress and manners were thoroughly American.

In this story, though Mr. Kapasi and the Dases do share an Indian heritage, their marriage reveals the truth of truly different cultures. Mr. Kapasi was shocked and confused by Dases’ behavior and understanding of marriage so that in the end they could not establish friendship. In his opinion, the culture gap between him and Mrs. Das was too vast which we can see “In different cultural contexts, the values have different weights but in the main the relationship structure between personality types and values is similar.” (Routamma&Pollari, 1998)

People like Lahiri would consider as Third Culture Kids (TCK). They have to get used to new culture or even their original culture when they grow up. “A TCK can create a sense of rootlessness and restlessness, where home is ‘everywhere and nowhere’.” (Kate Mayberry, 2016) instead of receiving the culture of their own country, they have to adapt to a new culture different from that of their parents. But when they grow up, it is also difficult for them to adapt to their traditional culture. This is what made them always struggle with their identity. “the mobility and cross-cultural experiences affect the children’s process of developing who they are, where they belong, and whom to connect with.” (Jungmin Kwon, 2018)

Work cited:

Routamaa, V. and Pollari, A-M (1998) Leadership styles in the cultural context- A comparison of finish and south African managers. Retrieved January 9, 1998.

https://www.univaasa.fi/materiaali/pdf/isbn_978-952-476-749-1.pdf

Kate Mayberry(2016) Third Culture Kids: Citizens of everywhere and nowhere. Retrieved November 19, 2016.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20161117-third-culture-kids-citizens-of-everywhere-and-nowhere

Jungmin Kwon(2018) Third Culture Kinds: Growing up with mobility and corss-cultural transitions. Retrieved July 2018.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326241050_Third_Culture_Kids_Growing_up_with_mobility_and_cross-cultural_transitions

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

In the novel, The Leavers by Lisa Ko we learn about Deming Guo a Chinese American who is the son of Polly Guo. We learn in the beginning of the novel from the perspective of Deming the struggles of being Chinese in the States when living in the Bronx of New York with his mother Polly, Leon, Vivian, and Michael. All these members played a part in Deming’s early childhood life until one day Polly disappears. When the mother disappears, Deming is soon left to foster care. It does not take long until Deming is taken into the custody of the Wilkinson’s family and has his own name changed to Daniel Wilkinson. This becomes a challenge for Deming because now he is having to grow accustomed to a new identity within the American culture. Daniel experiences trouble later on in his life with gambling addiction, lose of self-identity and wondering why his own mother left him.

We learn that when Polly leaves Daniel and he becomes adopted into the Wilkinson family this ordeal affected him mentally. This issue soon led to him to have a gambling problem which then affected his relationship with Angel. He also had an identity crisis too within school and within societies expectations. At times, he would reminisce about the past and living in the Bronx. When this occurs, it reminds him of the self that he lost. In the novel, the aspect of Deming’s mental health I felt was taking a toll on him. Not knowing who he was or what he wanted to do in life. In an article by Madison Park of CNN, she discusses adopted children have a greater risk for gaining mental health disorders than non-adopted children. She states, “children who are adopted may be at elevated risk for mental health disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity, oppositional defiance, major depression and separation anxiety disorders according to Dr. Ronald Federici” (Park 2010).

Deming went through so much challenges from losing his mother to being adopted and changing his culture from Chinese to American. His relationship with his music and Psychic Hearts and the ways the Wilkinson’s wanted him to go back to college. Cultural identity, mental health issues and a sense of belonging were all aspects that played an important part in Deming’s life choices.

Citations

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Chapel Hill, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017.

Park, M. (2010,). Adopted children at greater risk for mental health disorders. Retrieved March   from http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/13/children.adoption.mental.health/index.html#:~:text=Children%20who%20are%20adopted%20may,a%20wide%20body%20of%20research.

“The Leavers” by Lisa Ko is a story about a boy, Deming, and the story of his life after he is adopted. Deming was adopted and raised by a white couple in New York where he is given the name Daniel. He is adopted as a result of his mother, Polly, not returning home from work one day. Polly was an undocumented worker from China. The story follows Daniel’s life growing up and how he deals with his identity crisis after a transracial adoption. As the story continues, the second half of the story focuses on Polly. We learn about the hardships she faced being a Chinese immigrant and an undocumented worker. When Daniel is older, he reunites with his mother over a phone call. As Daniel reunites with his mother Polly, what are the effects that he may experience after a long separation?

Feelings of anger are brought to mind when children are reunited with parents after a long separation. Often children may not understand the situation and thought process behind the familial separation. Especially after a long separation, a sense of moving on can both be found in the child and parent, but that is not the case for everyone. A huge issue with parental separation is the trauma that children have for a long time. Often children can be ripped away from their parents if the parent is undocumented. This trauma often leads to separation anxiety, post- traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and more throughout the child’s life (Wan 2018). After reuniting with their parents, a sense of blame and wonder can engulf the child. The child can often blame the parent for the life that they could have had with each other.

Although Daniel struggled with finding his identity throughout his life, reuniting with his mother allowed a sense of moving on. They both seemed to noticed that the other had moved onto better with the way their lives turned out. This is not the case for every parent and child. Parental separation can lead to many issues in the child’s life and reuniting can lead to many of these issues resurfacing.

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Chapel Hill, 2017.

Wan, William. The Trauma of Separation Lingers Long after Children Are Reunited with Parents. 21 June 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-trauma-of-separation-lingers-long-after-children-are-reunited-with-parents/2018/06/20/cf693440-74c6-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html.

Child Separation came into the spotlight during former president Trump’s no tolerance policy to control the border migration crisis. Families crossing the southern border of the United States, were separated from their children. The children who are held back in the United States are subject to harmful psychological effects, which will stunt their physical & mental development. Parents are huge part of a child’s life; they provide care and love kids needs for their healthy development. Removing parents from the lives of children makes them vulnerable to psychological diseases such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, etc. Author Miller and her team state that, “separation form a family member was significantly related to children’s depression/anxiety symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms” (Miller et al.).

Not only the mental health effects, but children will be exposed to extreme emotional stress, where they will blame themselves as the reason that their parents left them as it was stated in The Leavers, where Deming was thinking that he was a good child, and that was the reason why his mother abandoned him. On the other hand, children may blame their parents for leaving them behind as reaffirmed by Sue Coyle who lectures that, “the child has been uncertain about what was happening—uncertain even of the mom—and has said things such as, ‘Why did you leave me?’ That is concerning because they are not sure why this happened and may be blaming the mom or the dad” (Coyle, 8). Such effects can cause children to become more insecure of their relationships with others, which will make it harder to function in society. As insecure children are more prone to bullying and other types of harassment.

Children who are very young that their brain is still not fully developed are also being separated at the border. Such young children need their parent’s constant care and support to ensure a healthy well-being. Separating parents from them will lead to dramatic effects as “children’s stress levels remain high during separation, which may lead to inflammation, genetic changes, and abnormal physiological functioning. Alterations in the brain caused by trauma may be irreparable, placing children at an increased risk for anxiety, depression, and substance abuse during adulthood ” (Riley). The psychological effects established by the mentioned studies coincides with Deming’s life as he also showed a lot of symptoms that define effects of trauma on his psychological development and the cause of his gambling addiction.

Works Cited

Coyle, Sue. “Children and Families Forum: The Impact of Immigrant Family Separation.” Social Work Today, 2019, www.socialworktoday.com/archive/SO18p8.shtml.

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Little, Brown, 2018.

Miller, Alexander, et al. “Understanding the Mental Health Consequences of Family Separation for Refugees: Implications for Policy and Practice.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, vol. 88, no. 1, 2018, pp. 26–37., doi:10.1037/ort0000272.

Riley, Hurley. “The Impact of Parent-Child Separation at the Border: The Pursuit: University of Michigan School of Public Health.” The Pursuit | University of Michigan School of Public Health, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 7 Sept. 2018, sph.umich.edu/pursuit/2018posts/family-separation-US-border.html.

Migrating from another country to the United States for a better life can be very rewarding. However there are many unforeseen challenges in moving to the United States, the biggest one being employment.  More often than not immigrants have a very hard time finding a job in the United States, even if they had good jobs in their respective countries. Not only are the hours bad, they pay is very minimal, and according to the Quinn Law Firm, a few of the common struggles for immigrant workers are working long hours without being paid overtime and oftentimes paid below minimum wage. These struggles make it very difficult for someone to assimilate in the United States.

I bring up this topic because it seemed relevant in The Leavers when Polly first moved to America and got a very bad job in some factory that worked long hours and did not pay well. Along with horrible pay and grueling hours, immigrants have to overcome language and obstacle barriers according to Washington Technology. When someone moves into a large city in big country like the United States, not being able to communicate with co workers and employers is a major obstacle to career success and will likely lead to getting a very poor job instead of one they might be qualified for.

These struggle make me think of the self versus the other theory we have been talking about throughout the semester. Immigrants are often thought of as the other in the workforce. The Chicago Tribune had a really interesting article that talked about how highly skilled immigrants face many obstacles when finding a job in the United States and often have to settle for lower level jobs than what they are used to.  They are thought of as the “other” since it is assumed they don’t know anything, even if they are qualified. Given the language and cultural barriers, lack of significant job opportunities, low pay and long hours are just some of the reasons it is hard for an immigrant to live a successful life in the United States.

Works Cited

Alison Bowen, Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz. Skilled Immigrants Often Struggle to Put Degrees, Credentials to Use in U.S. 27 Mar. 2017, www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-merit-immigration-brain-waste-20170326-story.html.

In Lisa Ko’s novel The Leavers, Deming Guo is forced into the foster care system after his mother mysteriously leaves him. Deming is adopted by Peter and Kay whom decide to change his name to Daniel Wilkinson. Even though Daniel is saved from a longer stay in the foster care system he still endures common issues of an average child within the foster care system which makes a reader think of the quality of life for children after foster care.

Daniel dealt with many struggles in his life after the foster care system like his gambling addiction. Most of these struggles can be pointed back to mental health which studies presented by Springer Science & Business states, “High rates of mental health problems amongst children in home-based foster care have been reported by Tarren-Sweeney and Hazell found that 57% of a sample of 347 children in home-based care had mental health problems and Sawyer reported that 61% of 326 children in home-based care had mental health problems” (Springer 2). These rates are heavily inflated when compared to the children of the general public given normal circumstances. Because of statistics like this children in the foster care system struggle from making great decisions once out. The children that do not get adopted before becoming adults often report feeling “unwanted” by society as if they don’t belong.

In another study performed by the Journal of Child & Family Studies they found that emotional intelligence is a significant predictor of a foster child’s quality of life once they “aged out” of their respective foster system. The lower scores in this area tend to be vulnerable to issues like poor education success and homelessness. Through this study it is clear to see that the foster care system has a failure in ensuring a quality life for children given up by their parents often times leading to the foster care alumni with nothing but a dead end in life. In conclusion the foster care system in America sadly often leads innocent children like Daniel down a path filled with poor decisions.

Works Cited:

Kennedy, T. D., Flach, Y., Detullio, D., Millen, D. H., Englebert, N., & Edmonds, W. A. (2019). Exploring Emotional Intelligence and IQ as Predictors of Success of Foster Care Alumni. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 28(12), 3286–3295. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/10.1007/s10826-019-01503-8

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Chapel Hill, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017.

In The Leavers by Lisa Ko, Deming Guo is the son of Polly who immigrated from China. Growing up in New York City, Deming faces the challenges that many children of immigrants face: feeling ostracized by peers in school, overcoming a language barrier, and assimilating to American classrooms. After being adopted by a White couple, Deming now Daniel Wilkinson, struggles to adjust to his new life and family. He has trouble communicating with his adoptive parents and he is treated poorly by the students and principal at his school, in addition to being the only Asian child in their community. His adoptive parents also are concerned that they do not know how to communicate with him, and this makes them initially question their choice to adopt Daniel. In the book Daniel, thinks of himself as an alien because his environment makes him feel distant from his fellow peers, illustrating the lack of diversity and lack of awareness in his community.

Daniels’s experience is shared by many Asian-American children in the foster care system. Even though the percentage of Asian foster children is lower compared to other demographics, there are still not enough Asian-American foster families to take in children. Since the majority of Asian-American kids in the foster system are children of immigrants, placing them in non-Asian foster homes can be traumatic and cause them to feel like an outcast in their own home, due to language and cultural differences. In order to prevent the potential harmful outcomes that come from a traumatic foster care experience, it is necessary that children are placed in homes where they are understood and can feel apart of the family. For Asian-American children in the foster care system, this means taking efforts to increase the number of Asian-American foster families in the system.

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Chapel Hill, 2017.

Luhar, Monica. “Nonprofits Search for Asian-American Foster Parents to Fill Culture, Language Needs.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 24 July 2017, www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/nonprofits-search-asian-american-foster-parents-fill-culture-language-needs-n785036.

In the novel The Leavers by Lisa Ko, Deming Guo is taken into foster care after his mom Polly disappears. Eventually he’s adopted by a white suburban couple Peter and Kay, however, he does experience the foster care system of America before adoption. Through Deming’s experiences in the system readers can see his struggles that are representative of struggles that many children in foster care deal with, and the effects of those struggles.

Although foster care usually isn’t seen as a prominent part of American society, in reality over 400,000 children are in the foster care system per day. There is a large age range for foster children ranging from infants to 18 years of age, with the average age about nine years old. Children usually stay around a year in foster care, with more than half reunified with previous caretakers and a quarter adopted. Nevertheless there are around 20,000 who have to leave the system due to no adoptions/caretakers and who have reached legal adult age. Some children go from foster home to foster home with all their possessions in trash bags, an experience that can cause psychological trauma. The older children are, the smaller the chance for them to be adopted as well.

The foster care system is flawed, with limited funds and many problems that will take years to fix. Multiple sources and articles have reported serious problems such as the much higher number of children of color that enter foster care, 70% of kids end up in juvenile justice systems, or that kids in foster care are four times more likely to commit suicide compared to other children. Other outcomes include much higher rates for dropping out of school or not completing higher education such as college. Readers can see some of these issues in The Leavers such as Deming (who is renamed Daniel) struggling in school and with a gambling addiction that leaves him in heavy debt.

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Chapel Hill, 2017.

Julieburdick. “Foster Care in America: Realities, Challenges and Solutions.” KVC Health Systems, 2 June 2020, www.kvc.org/blog/foster-care-in-america/#:~:text=On%20any%20given%20day%2C%20nearly,slightly%20more%20boys%20than%20girls.

  The Leavers, by Lisa Ko, is a book about Deming Guo, a Chinese American living in New York. His mother Polly an immigrant from China abandons him at an early age. Due to these Deming is put in the foster care system and then later adopted changing his name to Daniel Wilkinson. . Deming faces challenges as a kid and then as an adult. From wondering what happened to his mother to economic issues, Deming throughout the novel struggles with his identity as a Chinese American adopted by White parents living in the Suburb.

As Deming is being adopted, his parents encourage him to blend in at school due to him being the only Chinese American attending. Deming slowly loses his Chinese heritage and his language as he has fully adapted to the way of life his adoptive parents live. Deming’s situation is not uncommon in fact, it happens to a lot of adopted children. According to the International Adoption Services, most adoptive parents are white and the two top countries with children being adopted are Russia and then China.

Most adoptee children experience a sense of not belonging when they realize they do not look anything like their parents but also have no similarities to their own race. Dennis an African American woman adopted by white parents realized she had nothing in common with other African Americans when she first arrived at college. She became depressed after both white and black students rejected her, something common with adoptee children. Adopted children also go through racism and stereotypes something their parents do not face. It’s different for adopted children because they grew up in a bubble with their white parents as opposed to being exposed to their race and their culture. Abigail Scott is an example, she had grown up in Berkeley, California with her mother who had Procter her from racism and stereotypes. When she arrived at college, people assumed she wasn’t American and that she didn’t speak English. Scott states that “ She has never felt so Chinese” (5).

For adoptees growing up, they grow through a shock where they acknowledge race is real. A lot of parents because they want to protect their children try to Americanize them so that they don’t face discrimination. Yet, this does more harm than good as it creates a culture and identity issue for the adopted child just like Deming.

Ko, Lisa. The Leavers. Chapel Hill, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017

Lang, Anne Adams. “When Parents Adopt a Child and a Whole Other Culture.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Mar. 2000, www.nytimes.com/2000/03/08/news/identity-when-parents-adopt-a-child-and-a-whole-other-culture.html.

“The Realities of Raising a Kid of a Different Race.” Time, Time, time.com/the-realities-of-raising-a-kid-of-a-different-race/.