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Adjusting To America
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| Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | | CWK Producer |
“I miss my family, and I want to go see them, and I just can’t.”
– Samantha, 12-year-old immigrant
At a support group for Hispanic children who’ve recently come to America, young immigrants are talking about how strange it is to be in a foreign land.
“I don’t understand anything here,” says 9-year-old Rogelio with the help of a translator. Two months ago he and his family emigrated from Mexico.
“It’s … way different,” agrees 12-year-old Samantha, who moved from Mexico four years ago.
Today, one in five children in America has at least one foreign-born parent. And that number will grow to almost one in three by 2015.
For them, everything is new: the language, the dress, the food, the customs. And some people don’t like you for the way you look or the sound of your name.
Twelve-year-old Alejandro, who moved from Colombia four years ago, remembers what he calls his “hardest day.” That’s when a teacher told him, “You will never be like an American kid.”
It’s hard, when every day you feel like a stranger in a strange land. And for some kids, not being accepted is just too hard to bear. “These children are in danger, great danger of academic failure. Of dropping out of school. Of getting involved in drug usage. Of getting involved in sexual activity,” says Arlene Noriega, a clinical psychologist. “To feel accepted, to feel part of a group, that’s their ultimate goal, they want to be accepted, so the chances that they’ll get in with a wrong crowd in school is huge,” she says.
Experts say parents and educators should worry about kids who seem lonely, isolated or stressed.
Of her parents, 11-year-old Maria del Carmen says: “Yeah they worry, because I come home from school and tell them about my day, and how the kids tease me.”
It takes strong support from everyone … family, teachers, coaches, neighbors and friends to help immigrant kids turn this new land into a home.
What We Need To Know
For immigrants, adjusting to American life—the laws, customs and culture—isn’t easy. But for children, it can be even more difficult to “fit in,” and experts say the adjustment for young immigrants can cause a great deal of stress, and even depression. It is a potential problem for thousands of immigrant children arriving in the US each year. According to the Immigration Service:
- 1,107,126 legal immigrants were admitted to the US in 2008
- 169,305 of those were between the ages of 10-19
- 91,271 immigrants were under the age of 10
Clinical psychologist Dr. Arlene Noriega says for teenage immigrants, everything about their lives has changed. “There’s a great deal of excitement in coming to the United States,” Dr. Noriega says. “There’s all this hope and expectation about this wonderful new land that they’re going to come and be able to succeed in. The difficulty comes in when they’re met with the first impediment of language, not being easily accepted, being ostracized by peers, sometimes even teachers.”
Being accepted in social groups is difficult for teenagers that are “different,” Dr. Noriega says. And yet, the only way immigrant children are going to learn English is through socializing with American children. “So it becomes an incredible dilemma,” she says, “and they get incredibly lonely. You start seeing them shy away. You start seeing them getting very timid, and being loners, and start seeking children from their own countries.”
Because of the “incredible stress” immigrant children are feeling, Dr. Noriega says they are at very high risk. “These children are in danger,” she says. “Great danger of academic failure. Of dropping out of school. Of getting involved in drug usage. Of getting involved in sexual activity.”
Dr. Noriega suggests that one way immigrant children can cope with the ‘culture shock’ of their new lives is to get involved in activities that they enjoy, especially those that don’t require a lot of English. She suggests athletics, running, exercise. “A place where they can shine,” Noriega says. “A place where they can feel good about themselves.”
At any given time, five percent of children suffer from depression. Children under stress, who have experienced a loss, or who suffer from other disorders are at a higher risk for depression. Here are some signs of depression from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (if one or more of these signs of depression persist, parents should seek help):
- Frequent sadness, tearfulness, crying
- Hopelessness
- Decreased interest in activities, or inability to enjoy previously favorite activities
- Persistent boredom; low energy
- Social isolation, poor communication
- Low self-esteem and guilt
- Extreme sensitivity to rejection or failure
- Increased irritability, anger or hostility
- Difficulty with relationships
- Frequent complaints of physical illnesses such as headaches and stomachaches
- Frequent absences from school or poor performance in school
- Poor concentration
- A major change in eating and/or sleeping patterns
- Talk of or efforts to run away from home
- Thoughts or expressions of suicide or self destructive behavior
Getting an early diagnosis and medical treatment are critical for depressed children.
Resources
- US Immigration and Naturalization Service
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Dr. Arlene Noriega, Clinical Psychologist
