Immigration Reflection

Callan, I think you post is very thorough and accurate. In chapter five, the language barrier also called my attention, and it was thought-provoking to learn how this affects refugees and immigrants. As an immigrant that came to this country only four years ago, I experienced acculturative stress. As an example, I used to be afraid to interact with people in any capacity due to fear to be laughed at and embarrassed. Even going to the movies, was stressing. Nonetheless, I have been able to learn and improve in English slowly but steady. In addition, I agree with what you found in your research; when the interaction therapist-client is in the client’s native language, better outcomes are obtained. For instance, I had the opportunity to work as …show more content…
Interestingly, working with the Colombian families was easier, and I was able to help them more than I could with the family from the Middle East. This was due to the fact that as Dominicans and Colombians we shared the same language. As a result, when they did not understand something in English, they had the opportunity to ask me in Spanish. By consequence, explaining the content in our native language facilitated the learning experience. Conversely, with the Middle Eastern families, I had to become some type of Picasso and use paintings, drawings and images to help them learn. I must admit it was quite a challenge for me, the parents and their children to understand each other. Therefore, even though I am not a therapist yet, I think this example extrapolates seamlessly with the efficacy that speaking the same language brings into a therapy setting. Also, I was an ESL tutor at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI). Nevertheless, with CCRI, I dealt more with immigrants than refugees. By working in this two environments, I was able to observe directly the difficulties refugees and immigrants go through, and immigrants seem to adapt quicker than