Education, language and adaptation: 3 myths about immigration to America

The US is - and has long been - a pluralistic society with large immigrant communities. However, migration is a hotly debated but poorly understood topic, and much of the traditional thinking and political rhetoric about migration is based on myths rather than facts. Edition The Conversation decided to debunk three myths about immigration to the United States.

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For these reasons, migration policies and acculturation facilitation strategies, which refer to the psychological process of assimilation into a new culture, tend to be ineffective.

1. Immigrants don't want to learn English

According to 2020 UN Population Division data, the United States has more immigrants than any other country and more than the next four countries in the ranking - Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Kingdom combined. While the US population is about 5% of the total world population, it is home to about 20% of all global immigrants.

An overwhelming number of these immigrants are learning English, despite public opinion to the contrary.

Immigrants and their children today are learning English at the same rate as Italians, Germans and Eastern Europeans who emigrated in the early XNUMXth century.

On the subject: How Immigrants Can Solve America's Two Biggest Problems

According to the US Census, immigrant adults report that the longer they live in the US, the better they become in English. And from 2009 to 2019, the percentage of those who spoke English “very well” increased from 57% to 62% among first-generation immigrants.

2. Immigrants are uneducated

There is an opinion that immigrants moving to the United States have minimal education, far from it - many of them are well educated.

Over the past five years, 48% of immigrants belong to the category of highly skilled, that is, they have a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree. In comparison, only 33% of those born in the US have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Moreover, the pursuit of higher education is valued and encouraged in immigrant communities, especially those coming from collectivist societies, which is common in South Asian countries. Immigrants from these places tend to prioritize the dignity of the learning process and the joy that comes from reaching an educational milestone.

This does not mean that highly educated immigrants can easily get high-paying jobs. Many of them work in unskilled menial jobs, and underemployment among highly educated immigrants remains a key problem in the US today.

3. The best way to adapt is to embrace the US culture

For decades, acculturation research has emphasized the importance of immigrants embracing American culture. Politicians, therapists, and educators who offer services to immigrants have maintained a narrow understanding of acculturation that encourages immigrants to adapt to the host country by separating themselves from the culture of their homeland.

Then, in 1987, psychologist John Berry proposed an acculturation model that outlined new strategies.

Berry said immigrants should strive to retain elements of their original cultural identity as well as embrace a new cultural identity that aligns with American culture and values.

Today, Berry's model is most often used to understand acculturation.

However, while the model acknowledges that acculturation strategies may evolve over time, it does not take into account new forms of transnational immigration that refer to immigrants living in another country but also maintaining strong ties to their home country.

Technological advances have made it much easier for immigrants to keep in touch with their original culture. There are also cities, neighborhoods, and towns in the United States where immigrant communities make up the demographic majority—places like Hialeah, Florida, where Cubans and Cuban Americans make up 73% of the population, and parts of the Detroit metropolitan area, where more and more Indians live.

Immigrants living on these "Island of Immigrants" do not need to go through a transformative process of acculturation in depth, whether it be the Americanization of foreign names or the refusal to teach their children the language of their country.

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However, many immigrants feel compelled to downplay their origins. Members of the Turkish community in Chicago, Illinois, admitted that they were uncomfortable with flaunting their Turkish culture.

Immigrants often face sets of prejudices and they fear they won't be able to access services such as health care and education.

This fear reinforces the desire to assimilate into the values ​​of the dominant culture, which in America include individualistic principles such as independence, and to repress one's own cultural values, such as family orientation. Basically, it's a self-defense strategy.

Immigrants who engage in so-called cultural harmlessness—behaviors that can soften their ethnic and cultural expression—have the most difficulty adapting to their new home.

For these reasons, it is critical for social workers, therapists, teachers, and policymakers working with immigrant families to focus on the tensions between acculturation, ethnic identity, and well-being.

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