Experience of Growing Up in an Immigrant Family in Britain Versus Immigrating As an Adult: Comparative Analysis

Essay question:

Compare the experience of growing up in an immigrant family in Britain with immigrating there as an adult. Analyze the reasons for the similarities and differences.

Immigration means the process of coming to live permanently in a country that is not your own. In recent years, more and more people choose to immigrate to Britain for a variety of reasons, including education, jobs, and family and so on. However, the age of the people matters a lot on how much they can get accustomed to the life in Britain. In this essay, I want to talk about the similarities and differences of growing up in an immigrant family in Britain and immigrating there as an adult. Then, I would analyze the reasons for the similarities and differences from two aspects, concerning the acceptance of newcomer and social relationships.

In terms of the similarities of growing up in an immigrant family in Britain and immigrating there as an adult, people easily feel anxious and stressed in a new environment in spite of their age. Emigration from one country to another with different cultural conditions involves great risk for an immigration crisis that can lead to great strain and stress(Mandana, 2010).In general, people of all age feel stressful when they immigrate to a new country at the beginning.

As for the differences of growing up in an immigrant family in Britain and immigrating there as an adult, immigrating there as an adult is harder than growing up in an immigrant family in Britain. Adults already create a state of mind, which cannot easily be changed. As individualism and collectivism as an examples, people from China who favor collectivism find it hard to adapt in Britain.In western countries, cultures like Britain, people favors to individualism and tend to rely more on themselves. While in collectivist cultures, compared to people in individualist cultures, people are likely to define themselves as aspects of groups, to give priority to in-group goals, to focus on context more than the content in making attributions and in communicating, to pay less attention to internal than to external processes as determinants of social behavior, to define most relationships with in-group members as communal, to make more situational attributions, and tend to be self-effacing(Harry, C., &Triandis, 2001). Adults have already had their own thinking patterns and values, which are influenced dramatically from culture of their home country. To a great extent, adults would have much difficulty in adapting to the society and value of Britain.

I would analyze the reasons for the similarities and differences between two aspects in the following parts. First of all, the acceptance of newcomers in Britain plays an important role on those immigrants, which influences social integration. On average, social integration increases with length of stay. Ethnicity, migration motive and home country education account for differences in integration that develop shortly after arrival and are maintained or even increased with length of stay, while the size of the immigrant group matters mainly at entry and then loses its influence over time. Age at migration exclusively explains differences in social integration that develop with length of stay (Martinovic, Tubergen&Maas, 2009).

As for those people growing up in an immigrant family in Britain, they have more opportunities to get access to the British culture at a very young age and regard themselves more as British. While, as for adult immigrants in Britain, that’s a different situation. Identity is particularly important from a developmental perspective. Identity formation is a key developmental task, and though it is a process across the lifespan, it is the main task of adolescence and early adulthood (Erikson, 1968). Adults are affected greatly by their home country’s culture and they feel confused about their identity and have no sense of belongings in Britain.

Another important factor is social relationships. The study found that Chinese immigrants living closer to immediate family and maintaining larger social networks experienced lower immigration stress(Richard, 2014). As for those people who grew up in Britain, they apparently have close contact with family members and are affected greatly by them. The effect of parental influence indicators on immigrant children’s motivation included parental psychological engagement, parental behavioral involvement, and educational level(Kim, Mok& Seidel, 2020).

In conclusion, In this essay, I talk about the similarities and differences of growing up in an immigrant family in Britain and immigrating there as an adult. People of all age easily feel anxious and stressed in a new environment. However, adults would be harder to adapt the life in Britain because they have already their own thinking patterns and set of minds. Then, I analyze the reasons for the similarities and differences from two aspects, in terms of the acceptance of newcomers and social relationships. After my research and academic writing, I gradually have a deeper understanding about the experience of growing up in an immigrant family and immigrating there as an adult, also the reasons of that. More research should be done to explore the immigration question.

References:

1. Harry, C., &Triandis.(2001). Individualism-collectivism and personality. Journal of Personality.Retrieved from https://xueshu.baidu.com/usercenter/paper/show?paperid=fe730d07795fb40a75f5f08dc2d2926b&site=xueshu_se
2. Hofstetter, Richard. (2014). Social networks and immigration stress among first‐generation Mandarin‐speaking Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles.International Journal of Social Welfare.Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12103
3. Mandana, Alemi. (2010). Assimilation, Psychological Distress, and Family Functioning among Iranian Immigrant Families in Manchester, England.Retrieved from https://xueshu.baidu.com/usercenter/paper/show?paperid=16ef1984e8d0ab350e635a2a5171f540&site=xueshu_se
4. Martinovic,Tubergen&Maas.(2009). Changes in immigrants’ social integration during the stay in the host country: The case of non-western immigrants in the Netherlands. Social Science Research.Vol. 38, Issue 4, Pages870-882. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2009.06.001
5. Kim, Mok& Seidel. 2020. Parental influences on immigrant students’ achievement-related motivation and achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review. Retrieved from chrome-extension://ibllepbpahcoppkjjllbabhnigcbffpi/file:///C:/Users/asus/Desktop/%E8%8B%B1%E7%BE%8E%E6%96%87%E5%8C%964.pdf