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Robyn Fakas

Dr. Colin Martin

GNED 1401- 021

1 December 2021

Immigration: Risk or Reward

To create a better life for themselves and their families, immigrants often wish to relocate

to another country; however, immigrating does not always accomplish this. The term immigrant

describes people who move to a new country to live there permanently, mainly because of

traumatic exposure to war or armed conflict, natural disasters, or simply to get a better job or

education. Immigrants often choose to move to countries such as Canada or the

United States, where they can rebuild their lives free from any sort of conflict that puts them in

danger. The immigration process itself is a hardship, as most immigrants have to experience the

pain of leaving family members behind. Along with the immigration process, more challenges

arise after the fact. Pumariega et al. supports this idea by saying that “added stressors from the

process of immigration itself can lead to increased risk for emotional disturbance” (583). This

emotional disturbance is related to certain challenges, which include discrimination, prejudice,

lack of education and job skills, alienation, and linguistic barriers. Immigrants also face

emotional disturbance because the established majority often exhibits negative attitudes and

discrimination towards these newcomers. This leads many people to be uncaring about the

difficulties that immigrants actually experience when coming to a new country. On the bright

side, a strong sense of perseverance and resiliency is developed in response to these challenges.

Immigrants unfairly endure so many hardships during the immigration process and continue to

face difficulties for many years of acculturation. They often do not receive any assistance for this
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because people fail to understand their trauma or appreciate their contributions to their new

community.

In Marcello Di Cintio’s book “Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers,” he interviews a

variety of taxi drivers and reveals multiple stories of these drivers, most of which have come

from war-torn countries or countries that have been exposed to all kinds of trauma, like those

who have lived under Soviet and Nazi power. By interviewing these drivers and listening to their

life stories, Di Cintio is one of the few people who wants to understand the context of these

people’s lives. In a recent visit to Mount Royal University, Marcello Di Cintio explained that the

reason behind interviewing strangers and writing this book was because he was “always

fascinated by the lives of strangers, especially ones who are considered to be ‘not important’, or

people who are not considered to be regular people.” He also said that he “wanted to know who

the men and women are who drive us around.” In doing these interviews, Di Cintio looked past

the basic job of driving taxis, most drivers being immigrants, and into their backgrounds. He

learned about their lifestyles and why they do what they do. Most ‘normal’ people fail to do

things like this and just simply use cabs as a source of transportation. Looking past the taxi driver

aspect, more people need to be like Marcello Di Cintio. He has sparked interest in the trials and

tribulations of being an immigrant and promotes recognition of their contributions.

There are many challenges that immigrants go through in an attempt to fit into the new

community to which they have moved. One major aspect of challenges is cultural challenges

Pumariega et al. supports this idea by saying, “the cultural process for adult immigrants is

fraught with difficulties given their relative cognitive inflexibility and their solidified ethnic

identity” (587). Cognitive inflexibility is the brains’ ability to adapt to new or changing events.

Thus, they experience struggles solely because of the unwillingness to lose their ethnic identity
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and because of the differences in ethnicity between themselves and the people native to the

country. The researchers found that such difficulties include a “sense of isolation and

disconnection from the main-stream cultures” (586). Lee et al. found that “this sense of isolation

is mitigated by involvement in ethnic enclaves and traditional practices, and the lack of such

supports renders them highly vulnerable to adverse cultural stresses” (qtd. In Pumariega 587).

The language barrier is one of the reasons linked to the sense of isolation. On the contrary, those

who are able to develop competence in the dominant culture are at risk of losing their personal

identity and ethnicity (Pumariega et al. 585). These cultural challenges are only one aspect of the

many struggles that immigrants face. Most people do not realize how the act of immigration

impacts these people who choose to come to a new country in an attempt to make a better living,

when in reality they experience difficulties behind the scenes.

A better living was a focus for parents where their children were concerned. They felt

that “their dreams were ultimately to be realized in the success of their children” (Hall 423).

However, children of immigrants also experience feelings of disconnection. Often, children are

faced with a dilemma while at school: whether they should remain loyal to their ethnicity or

attempt to blend in with the mainstream culture by adopting their ways (Pumariega et al. 586).

They also discuss another issue where children “become alienated from both their families and

mainstream peers, identifying with similarly marginalized adolescents” (586). This can lead to

depression, substance abuse, and gang involvement. They also state that “second generation

children have been found to be at higher risk of more behavioural conditions, such as substance

abuse, conduct disturbance, and eating disorders, than the first generation of immigrant youth”

(588). Therefore, the best of intentions brought unforeseen issues into the lives of immigrant

offspring.
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Another major challenge that immigrants face is mental health issues. Mental health

factors include depression, anxiety, and post- traumatic stress disorders, mainly caused by the

exposure to traumatizing experiences before deciding to emigrate. Sarla Sharma’s article sheds

light on the mental health struggles that immigrants and minorities face. She says that “although

immigration in itself does not necessarily impair mental health, it can be an experience stressful

enough to aggravate immigrants’ mental health problems of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem,

sense of inadequacy, poor school achievement, and loneliness” (1). In saying this, immigration

does not necessarily cause mental health issues, it simply intensifies the pre-existing ones. She

completed a study in which she found that women are more susceptible to mental health issues

because of gender specific variables, including conflicts between men and women of color,

causing the men to be resentful of these women (2). Pumariega et al. also describes mental health

as a challenge. They say that older people specifically, are more vulnerable to mental health

problems (589). This is often because they have physically experienced traumatic events, and

those events remain with them. Another reason for this is that the “vulnerability results from an

interaction of their traditionalism and cultural inflexibility, linguistic barriers, lack of family and

social support, and physical infirmities” (590). Thus, after settling into a new country, older

people are at a higher risk of feelings of depression or anxiety. Mental health issues within

immigrants are often triggered by the location in which they live in. Most immigrants are often

placed in unsafe neighborhoods that have high crime rates, often because this type of

neighborhood is cheaper for them to afford because rent is lower (Pumariega et al., 584).

Pumariega et al. also states that “families survive in overcrowded buildings with little space and

little opportunity for privacy” (584). Generally speaking, there are many triggers, as mentioned

above, for immigrants’ mental health. These are examples of the many issues that arise when
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thinking about the mental health of these immigrants, who have made big decisions to move to a

brand-new country, start a brand-new life, only to have different issues come up. Taken together,

all of these ideas leave immigrants questioning if they will be able to make a living for

themselves and their families while successfully dealing with these challenges. This is incredibly

difficult without the help of mainstream society.

The mainstream professionals who are generally tasked with treating mental health issues

in immigrants may not be as effective as they wish. Atkinson et al found that “the process of

acculturation, multiculturalism, and language and cultural gaps between mental health

practitioners and clients seem to aggravate state of mind” (qtd. in Sharma 2). In other words,

practitioners need to have a better understanding of their client’s language, culture, traditions,

and beliefs in order to effectively assist in improving the mental health of immigrant patients. A

helpful practice towards advocating for the mental health of immigrants could be to “educate and

assist immigrants and refugees from diverse cultures in understanding different cultural norms

and practices in their new environment, as well as educating mainstream providers about

immigrants’ traditional cultural practices” (Pumariega et al. 591). There needs to be more

appropriate assessment of immigrant’s unique mental health issues as well as practical

intervention strategies. Training more practitioners with similar ethnic backgrounds and

language would be beneficial. Their understanding would allow them to effectively help their

clients in a way that a mainstream practitioner could not. Improving mental health would

positively impact the quality of an immigrant’s life and their contributions to society. So, will

this kind of assistance allow immigrants to be a positive resource in another country? There will

always be controversy regarding this question, but immigrants are important to the well-being of

our economy.
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While many people are opposed to immigration, there are many contributions that

immigrants provide to countries. Orrenius and Nicholson completed a study in which they found

that “the contributions of immigrants are many, particularly when it comes to the pace of

economic growth” (35). Immigrants contribute to the economy because they fill labour needs,

make purchases, and they pay taxes, just like any citizen. With immigration, employers are able

to find many qualified workers to fill jobs. According to the Government of Canada, employers

need more workers because “Canadians are living longer and having fewer children. More

people are retiring, and there are fewer students in schools”. Expanding immigration increases

the population and meets the needs created by the reduction in the availability of new workers in

the existing Canadian market. Immigration also helps with the business cycle. Orrenius and

Nicholson conclude that “foreigners come in greater numbers when labour demand accelerates

and in fewer numbers when it wanes” (1). Hence, immigrants come when they are needed and do

not come when they are not needed. In the study, it is also found that immigrants, or foreign-born

workers also contribute to labour force growth, especially in job forces such as construction or

extraction, both requiring little to no education (36). The Government of Canada finds that

immigrants improve our health and social standards, and, along with Orrenius and Nicholson,

they also support the idea that immigrants contribute to the economy and create jobs for

Canadians.

The contribution and benefits noted by the Canadian government are not supported by

everyone. Many people fail to recognize these contributions because they believe that

immigrants lack job skills and therefore are a drain on social assistant services which costs

taxpayers a great deal of money. Because of the large numbers of immigrants many workers feel

“threat of displacement as far as job security and access to resources and opportunity”
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(Pumariega et al. 584), even though they actually fill the jobs that mainstream workers will not

do. Unfamiliar cultural practices and language differences of immigrants are also viewed with

distrust. These factors contribute to the discrimination and abuse encountered by many

newcomers and are especially difficult for children because “children and especially adolescents

experience discrimination and prejudice from their peers in school and social settings, with more

intense expression of what is more subtle amongst adult counterparts” (Sharma 584). Education

of mainstream citizens to counteract this discrimination is essential to facilitate the transition into

a new country for the immigrant and to promote appreciation of their contributions.

In order for any mainstream population to maintain success socially and economically, it

is important that they learn to embrace liberal immigration policies. This starts through tolerance,

education, and willingness to assist immigrants and refugees to adjust to a new life in a new

society. Members of the mainstream population need to be educated about the valuable

contributions that immigrants make to the economy and about the richness that cultural diversity

brings to any society. Not everyone is actively against immigration, many are simply unaware

and uninvolved with the challenges that immigrants face. These people would benefit from the

education that can be communicated through schools, traditional media, and social media.

Understanding of another culture is the best defense against stereotyping and discriminating

against its members. Furthermore, educating professionals to help immigrants deal with

traumatic events and lost family connections in context of their culture would be a true asset. A

healthy mental state and a more accepting mainstream population could allow immigrants to

improve their lives. This means they could have access to more job opportunities which would

then lead to better housing and improved education prospects. These factors could mean a great

deal to the second-generation children of immigrants who often face unique issues that could
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lead to serious mental health problems, and even suicide. If everyone took responsibility to

understand the position of immigrants, keeping in mind everyone has an immigrant history,

barring Indigenous people, a more empathetic and helpful country could be created. This could

mitigate the hardships and difficulties during the process of acculturation and promote

understanding and appreciation of their contributions to the community, facilitating an easier

transition to a new life.

Works Cited

Di Cintio, Marcello. Driven: The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers. Biblioasis, 2021.

Hall, Vivienne. “Coming to Canada: Land of Promise and Cold Reality.” Queen’s Quarterly,

vol. 104, no. 3, 1997, pp. 414-425. ProQuest,

https://www.proquest.com/docview/233304759?pq-origsite=primo&accountid=1343.

“#ImmigrationMatters: Canada’s Immigration Track Record.” 2 December 2021. Government of

Canada, https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/campaigns/

immigration-matters/track-record.html.

Orrenius, pia M, and Michael Nicholson. “Immigrants in the U.S. Economy: A Host-Country

Perspective.” Journal of Business Strategies, vol.26, no. 1, 2009, pp. 35-53. ProQuest,

https://www.proquest.com/docview/204412789?accountid=1343&pq-origsite=primo.

Pumareia, Andrés, et al. “Mental Health of Immigrants and Refugees.” Community Mental

Health Journal, vol. 41, no. 5, 2005, pp. 581-593. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-005-

6363-1.

Sharma, Sarla. “Issues in Minority Health: Assessment and Strategies for Intervention.” Equal

Opportunities International, vol. 20, no. 4, 2010, pp. 1-10. ProQuest,

https://www.proquest.com/docview/199611963?accountid=1343&pq-origsite=primo.