Immigration Losses [: Losses in Translation :]

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Immigration Losses

These losses are usually profound, involving as they do so many of life's anchors and stabilisers. The typically involve losses of status, family roots, financial certainty, losses of support systems, losses of language, losses of identity, losses of friendships, losses of things known and self-evident, losses of cultural identities and certainties, losses of self-image and the like, and often the loss of the feeling that ‘I have a place in the world”.

When considering immigration, not only are the losses attendant upon immigration so catastrophic, but immigrants have to contend with the culture shock which arises from shifts from one cultural milieu to another. This culture shock is one of the major factors to have to take into account in immigration and an awareness of this phenomenon and active working towards recognising it and coping with it is one of the most important areas of immigration work.

So, there are losses and there is culture shock as well. I have dealt with culture shock more fully in the site.

It is in this area that transition counselling and transition coaching becomes so important. Counselling is important in order to deal with the feelings which emerge in all migrants - and in all the members of a migrating family. Fears, losses, grief all need to be spoken about and dealt with. Ignoring such emotions or burying them in the hope that 'things will sort themselves out' merely postpones the inevitable imperative - that of making sense of a change that often can be catastrophic. It is not for nothing that emigration is considered one of the most profound stressors, akin to death or divorce.

General Comments on Immigration

Losses arising from migration are particularly difficult to work through because not only is the trauma of the losses of family, support structures, roots, identity, cultural affiliation and so on itself a major hurdle to have to overcome, but immigrants in their new country are often faced with enormous cultural differences which may test them in ways completely unimaginable. Understanding and working through culture shock forms a large segment of the adjustment process and it is this which forms the major initial stages of the coping process.

Outwardly, moving from one culture to another, very different culture, would present the greatest challenge for the migrant, on the basis that the change is so dramatic. In contrast, moving from one culture to a seemingly similar culture, would appear to be much easier, but the sting in the tail here is that the very similarities may often present the greatest challenges because of the subtleties of difference.

And there are further factors which impinge on the whole process. Coming into play is the concept of disenfranchised grief - grief which a person experiences after incurring a loss which cannot be openly acknowledged, publicly mourned or socially properly supported. Thus, for example, wealthy immigrants who arrive with substantial financial resources which insulate them from the more immediate aspects of having to make a go of things, find themselves somewhat alone in struggling with their adjustment process. They have money - what's the big deal? Their grief is truly disenfranchised - and they often have an extremely difficult adjustment process. Added to this is the lack of the immediate need to earn enough to live - the crucial imperative which can provide a purpose and drive which gives existential meaning during the early period. Finally, in terms of an existential understanding of the grieving process as it applies here in Australia, there have been several articles which talk of the pain and suffering of grief which happens here in Australia being beset by the fact that Australia is a society that prefers to focus on hedonism and the pleasure principle rather than grapple with the mystery of suffering and the meaning and purpose of life.

In trying to understand problems of immigration, it is worthwhile to have a brief look at how one's identity is formed, and how one's value systems are established. This has been of particular interest to me personally since I have had personal experience of it, owing to having lived in 3 different countries and having encountered dramatic shifts in value systems afresh, each time.

Understanding something about peoples' perceptions, apperceptions, constructs, biases and attitudes - their sense of right and wrong - forms the basis of any work involving immigration adjustment. People's views of the world are subjective and despite any semblance of a purely intellectual approach, people - all people - are caught up in their own heuristics - biases which entrap them and keep them locked into tight cubicles of right/wrong, good/bad.

How people acquire their world-view

People build up their ideas of right and wrong as a result of the following influences.

Bible

Society

Culture

Parents

Peers

Family

Once one is enmeshed in a particular value system, there are seeming self-evident issues resulting from common values and some of these seeming self-evident issues may be as follows.

No murdering

No stealing

No hurting animals

No bigotry

Yet, even looking at some trite examples of right/wrong, there are fringe areas where things are not so clear and we will look at some of these later.

Much of this depends on one's views of reality and for the sake of completion, it is worth going one level deeper and actually looking at the fact that despite having examined the actuality or reality of one precepts, one level lower there is further scope to introspect - to see where we are at and how we got there.

Two major views of reality

Empiricist Constructivist

Objective Reality is out there Reality is Something I Create

Perception is Reception of Facts Perception is an Act of Creation of Meaning

What I Perceive is The Reality I Create Reality from my Perceptions

Cognition is to Apprehend the Reality out there Cognition is Construction of Reality from Experience

I Process what is Given to me as Reality My Reality is What I Construct in terms of Perception, Culture, Language etc.

Whatever stance we take, unknown to us, it is extremely difficult for people to get in touch with their biases and assumptions, however innocuous, because by one definition of bias, a bias is an unconscious prejudice. It is a heuristic. Here lies the trap because the immigration experience is beset by contrasting value judgements and the immigrant is constantly comparing the old and the new, and is constantly making value judgments about the differences.

Despite the conscious understanding of the subjective nature of value systems, people are trapped by right/wrong and my own clinical experience suggests that the only value-free, emotionally neutral difference which is generally accepted without a value judgment, is driving-on-the-left versus driving-on-the-right. People are able to viscerally understand that there is no material difference in choosing left or right as the 'correct' side to drive on and they do not get trapped into good/bad judgements in this area. Apart from this, everything else is often judged and often found wanting and it is this area which is addressed next.