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Currently, migration is defined not only as a socio-economic, but also unambiguous socio-psychological, ethnographic, and political phenomenon. Adaptation in a migration situation is complicated by a large number of factors that affect this process, such as climatic conditions, cultural, social, linguistic, ethnic differences, the establishment of new interpersonal contacts, inevitable material and everyday problems and others. These components, as a whole, affect the individual, creating a huge stressful situation, which is clearly described in the article Julia Moves to the United States by Sean McCollum, depicting early years of famous Dominican-American writer Julia Alvarez.
Trying to convey to readers the core social and psychological challenges facing immigrants in the USA, McCollum describes in detail experience of Julia when moving with her parents from Dominican Republic to New York. In addition to the need to adapt to harsher climate, one the main barriers to quick assimilation was insufficient English language knowledge, which caused mockery and even bullying from new classmates (McCollum, 2014). Moreover, she faced biases from the side of teachers, who punished her when she spoke her native language. Thus, she had to see and experience on herself the racial tensions and anti-immigrants moods in American society during the period of Civil Rights Movement.
At first, Julia tried as if to force herself to assimilate she spoked only English outside the home, dressed like American girls, and take on other host country practices. However, in attempts to escape from the frustrating situation and improve her English, Julia red a lot of books, and it helped her to understand that it is not necessary to loose self, own native ethnic roots while successfully integrating into host society. She red both U.S. and Latin American authors, thus shaping a synergy understanding of her own soul and her past. Soon, she began to express it in her own writing, in stories written in English with sprinkling of Spanish words, which made her writing a unique phenomenon in American and world literature.
The example of Julia Alvarez teaches the value of diversity and the importance of tolerance. Moreover, it can be said the need of programs for social and psychological adaptation of migrants is presented in the article, albeit in the latent form. The author, in fact, also shows how migrants themselves can make efforts not only to adapt in the host society, but to achieve self-realization in creative or any professional field.
References
McCollum, S. (2014). Julia Moves to the United States. Teaching Tolerance, 47. Web.
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