Cultural Norms In Immigrant Indian American Generations

Where these culturally sensitive people reside, there isn’t enough effort being put into making them feel at home. Instead these efforts are being exerted to make them feel out of place. In 2012 Wu, Schimmele, and Hou, social researchers at University of Victoria stated that, “In 2002, about one in five racial minorities reported experiencing discrimination or unfair treatment” (p. 387) One in five, that is quite a few. Still to this day prejudice and discrimination are major issues at hand. These problems make it even more demanding for immigrants to feel comfortable.

One of my favorite authors writes about cultural chasms in Immigrant Indian American generations. In NPR’s morning edition interview with Jhumpa Lahiri, she discusses “the

The upbringings of continual immigrant generations and their swelling inability to preserve their original cultures is affected by society. In 2014, Bersani, a professor at the University of Massachusetts claimed that, “An important aspect of this [assimilation] theory is the delineation of behavioral expectations by immigrant generation and the emphasis on the unique experiences faced by the children of immigrants” (p. 63). In other words, the first generation has different expectations of the second generation, in most cases it is staying traditional rather than modern, and giving them a purpose for migrating. The second generation focuses on the experiences that provided to them, and in some cases to enjoy or embrace these experiences one must sacrifice aspects of their

The people around us don’t have visibility of our thoughts and struggles. As I was growing up all of my American friends would get to hang out with each other after school, go to parties, and get to dress in ways that I couldn’t. The inability to interact the same way with everyone became an obstacle for me because I just wanted to fit in. Obviously, when I would ask to do anything that could possibly oppose our traditions I was shut down. Asking for permission to fit in transformed into a ticking time bomb; any twinge of miscommunication and it becomes a mess. However, after having the conversation several times throughout my life I began to realize that the only reason it was such a fragile topic was because my parents and I didn’t understand our feelings of isolation and struggle to preserve our culture. Once we shared our problems with each other, we did not feel as