Final ExamDawn Platt 1

Anthropology 371

Exam # 3

Summer 2012

  1. What is cultural bereavement? Outline some of the strategies of preventive and self-treatment that have been developed by migrant groups to reduce their feelings of Cultural bereavement.

Cultural bereavement is when an individual or a group of individuals “[suffer] permanent traumatic loss of their familiar land and culture” (Helman, 2007, p. 326) when they are forced to migrate to another country or location due to unfortunate circumstances. The U.S. Immigration Support states the following about cultural bereavement:

[It occurs] when an individual immigrates to another country and leaves many things of value behind - from family and friends to culture and language. Cultural bereavement can be described as a type of grief reaction relating to the loss of one’s social structure and culture. Symptoms of cultural bereavement include feelings of guilt over abandoning one’s culture and homeland, constant images and a preoccupation of the past, and feelings of anxiety. (U.S. Immigration, 2011)

According to Helman (2007) “there may be pathological and atypical grief reactions, ranging from severe depression or withdrawal, to drug or alcohol abuse, psychosomatic disorders, domestic violence or other forms of antisocial behaviour” (p. 326).

Helman (2007) lists several strategies of preventive and self-treatment to help reduce their feelings of cultural bereavement. They are:

  • Recreation of micro-cultural worlds: where the immigrants create a smaller version of their own culture in the new environment. This can be accomplished either within the home or including society.
  • Exaggeration of original culture: where an exaggerated culture is formed and individuals act more like their original culture than what they did before the migration.
  • Keeping up physical contact with the Old Country: where the migrant makes frequent visits back to their country or place of origin attending weddings, funerals, reunions, etc., even making generous purchases.
  • Keeping up links without returning or visiting: where the migrant keeps up the contact by sending things back to their country or sending their family members back to be educated in the place of origin.
  • Using the media to keep in contact: there are several technologically advanced ways now to keep in touch with one’s original origin such as cell phones, internet including facebook and e-mail, webcam; and watching television or reading the paper to be updated on their countries status.
  • Self-help or mutual support groups: Where the migrants find some type of support group that can provide psychosocial help and provide resources.
  • Maintaining a “myth of return” but never actually returning: this can provide short-term beneficial effects but can negatively impact the individual as time passes when reality sets in and they realize that returning home will not happen.
  • Returning to live in the Old Country: Where after their country or situation becomes stable the migrant can actually return back to their origin and start back over again.
  • Creating a “new life” by rejection of the Old Country and culture of origin: referred to as “cultural amnesia” where the migrant basically abandons their original culture and makes purposeful efforts to change to accept the new culture.

(p. 331-332)

The U.S. Immigration Support (2011) states that “cultural bereavement could be alleviated if immigrants maintain a level of connection to their country of origin, or maintain a high level of ethnic density.”

Of course there is no guarantee that these methods will work and what method works for one individual or culture may not work for another. According to Helman (2007) success “depends on a variety of forces far beyond the control of the individual, including personality variables, unemployment, available housing, shifts in official policy, and overall attitude of the ‘host’ environment towards the migrants in their midst” (p. 332).

As a U.S. citizen, sometimes I feel a little cynical towards migrants only because of our current national political and financial situation. We have many of our own citizens who do not have health insurance and are financially struggling, so when migrants come, it just makes me think we are adding to our national problem. However, I do not have prejudices against migrants, especially when they come from a worse situation.

  1. Explain the impact of migration on family dynamics.

Migration can have either positive or negative effects on the family. According to Helman (2007):

In many cases migration has a positive effect by enhancing family cohesion, cooperation and emotional closeness. In others, external forces such as discrimination, unemployment, the demands of the casual labor [sic] market, or the dispersal of family members by the housing authorities, may all lead to a break-up of a previously close extended family. (p. 321)

Therefore, the effects on family dynamics depends on the circumstances surrounding the migration, including the situation prior to and after the migration. Families are forced to learn the new culture while trying to hold onto some form of originality. Migrants are forced to learn a new language or have a family member learn the language to serve as an interpreter. Many times children who attend school in the new culture learn the language and the family depends on the child to serve as an interpreter. This can cause some challenging situations because a child’s vocabulary is not as extensive as an adults’. And sometimes if children are not taught their original culture’s language, they may fall into a difficult situation of not being able to communicate with their family members, such as grandparents, who only speak their original language. In addition to language barriers, “marital conflicts may arise from shifts in gender roles, while intergenerational conflicts may focus on issues such as religious observances, use of alcohol or drugs, sexual behavior [sic] or choice of marriage partner” (Helman, 2007, p. 321).

Helman (2007) states, “Migration involves . . . a major sense of discontinuity in everyday family life. Traditional and habitual ways of doing things, of relating to other people and understanding the world, somehow do not seem to work any longer” (p. 321). Helman (2007) gives four discontinuities termed inversions which are as follows:

  • Generational inversion: “a situation where the children born or raised in the new country, understand its language, culture and technology better than their parents” (p. 321). This type of inversion can shift a sense of power to the children because the parents now have to rely on the children’s understanding of the language and culture to be successful in the new culture. In addition, as mentioned above, when the children are forced to serve as interpreters, uncomfortable situations can occur such as if the mother needs to see a gynecologist or if the child does not completely understand what the physician is trying to say.
  • Gender role inversion: “when the women of the family become more independent after immigration” (Helman, 2007, p. 322). What happens is women take on roles of power and decision making that were not even thought of in their former culture. Women may want to have jobs or are forced to be the primary breadwinner because the man cannot find the type of work needed to support the family. In addition, female children may want the express the right to choose their own mate when in their former culture their mate was chosen for them.
  • Time inversion: “a situation where the past (in the ‘Old Country’) seems to be much more important than the present, or even the future” (Helman, 2007, p. 322). This occurs when the migrants focus more on what they lost and where they came from instead of where they are what positive effects have come from the migration.
  • Space inversion: “a situation where, especially in the first years after migration, the proportion of unfamiliar space occupied by the migrant seems to be much greater than that of familiar space” (Helman, 2007, p. 322). This occurs when the migrant attempts to continue to live in the ‘Old Country’ by making their space appear like their old space. Helman (2007) states, “the migrant is still ‘living,’ to some extent, in . . . their previous ‘life space,’ rather than in their present environment” (p. 322).

These four inversions can have very negative effects on the migrants and their sense of self and originality. They can alter the power and decision making into the hands of individuals that would not normally be decision makers. This can be very intimidating to adults who in their original culture had a sense of control over their family. “Together with the negative effects of the ‘host’ environment (such as social rejection, racism, discrimination and unemployment) they can induce mental distress, and, in some individuals and groups, greatly increase their sense of confusion, anomie, alienation and anger” (Helman, 2007, p. 322).

  1. How does globalization affect health conditions worldwide?

Helman (2007) describes globalization “as those processes that are intensifying worldwide social relations and interdependence” (p. 304). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2012) refers to globalization as follows:

Globalization, or the increased interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples and countries, is generally understood to include two inter-related elements: the opening of international borders to increasingly fast flows of goods, services, finance, people and ideas; and the changes in institutions and policies at national and international levels that facilitate or promote such flows. Globalization has the potential for both positive and negative effects on development and health.

According to Huynen, Martens, and Hilderink (2005):

Health services are increasingly influenced by globalization-induced[sic] changes in health care policy . . . , economic development and trade . . . , and knowledge . . . , but also bymigration. Although the WHO aims to assistgovernments to strengthen health services, government involvement in health care policies has been decreasingand, subsequently, medical institutions are more andmore confronted with the neoliberal economic model. Health is increasingly perceived as a private good leavingthe law of the market to determine whose health is profitablefor investment and whose health is not. . . .The increasing trade in health services can have profoundimplications for provision of proper health care. Althoughit is perceived as to improve the consumer's choice, somedevelopments are believed to have long-term dangers,such as establishing a two-tier health system, movementof health professionals from the public sector to the privatesector, inequitable access to health care and theundermining of national health systems. The illegaltrading of drugs and the provision of access to controlleddrugs via the Internet are potential health risks. Inaddition, the globalization[sic] process can also result in a'brain-drain' in the health sector as a result of labor[sic]migration from developing to developed regions. (p. 8)

Helman (2007) does a very good job of describing the effects globalization has on health and healthcare.

In terms of health care, globalization can have the positive effect of spreading information on the latest medical research, transporting medical techniques, equipment and pharmaceuticals to where they are needed, and connecting people suffering the same disease in a worldwide patient support group. Because many people are now developing a global perspective, this can also increase their awareness of environmental dangers to health, such as global warming, and the threat of global pandemics, such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or avian influenza. On the other hand, it can help spread these same diseases as well as environmental pollution. (p. 305)

Therefore, while globalization makes certain aspects of health care more easily accessible, the spread of infectious diseases can also occur more quickly—sometimes much quicker than doctors and healthcare providers can respond. A recent example includes the 2009 outbreak of the H1N1influenza virus where, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2009), 84 people died. Even though widespread infection of this virus occurred, globalization also assisted in allowing fast production of an influenza vaccination to be produced and distributed to prevent further outbreaks. Also, globalization allowed healthcare providers to treat hundreds of patients successfully. The positive effects of globalization prevented a repeat pandemic that occurred in 1918 when the H1N1 influenza virus spread rapidly resulting in an estimated 50 million deaths, which approximately 675,000 were in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).

References:

Helman, C. G. (2007). Culture, health and illness (5th ed.). London: Hodder Arnold.

Huynen, M., Marten, P., & Hilderink, H. (2005). The health impact of globalization [sic]: a conceptual framework. Globalization and Health, 1(14), 1-14. doi: 10.1186/1744-1803-1-14

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012). Pandemic flu history. Retrieved from

U.S. Immigration Support. (2011). Cultural Bereavement. U.S. Immigration Support.

Retrieved from