Immigration life

Immigration is one of the main topics in the United States. The American population has a
certain image of the immigrant population. Imagine living in a country where the people, the
food, the culture, traditions, and even the language are different. Imagine all that, and also add
being criticized by everyone because of the different way of talking, the way of dressing and
even the way of eating. Immigrants nowadays are facing problems of adaptation but not because
they city or the country is not good, but because the American population is not making the
adaptation process any easier for the immigrant population. Recent cases have shown that
nobody leaves their country because they want
to, but for need. That is why they have
difficulties with adaptation; it is a different
way of living.
Adaptation is difficult for every human being,
but by seeing the issue in a sociocultural way,
people can observe that for immigrants it is really difficult to adapt into our society. The
problems immigrants experience during the process of their psychological and sociocultural
adaptation to the host culture have far-reaching effects in terms of mental health, employment
and lost benefits for the whole society. (Maydell-Stevens, 2007) This article of the Ministry of
Social Development, talks about the sociocultural issues about immigration, and it mentions that
having difficulty to adapt can affect immigrants mentally, and even their health.

The immigrant population along with other American population has been trying to change the
sociocultural situation by showing that they are as good as anyone else. Some have succeeded
and some unfortunately have not.
In the most recent cases the immigrant population has learned that they can live in the United
States, but that they will never be a part of the community. As human beings, that is not right,
something that makes humans is feeling that they belong to communities or groups.
The U.S. foreign-born population (legal and illegal) is 40.4 million, or 13 percent of the total
U.S. population of 311.6 million, according to 2011 American Community Survey
estimates.(Hispman, 2013)The immigrant population has been growing in the last years. People
from other countries come to the United States looking for hope and opportunities. Adaptation is
not easy for them, the immigrant population leaves family, friends, a house, and many other
things in their native country. A solution could be that the American population could create
activities so the immigrant population could go and feel that they belong here. Also, changing
our way of thinking of whom immigrants are would make a difference. People have stereotypes
of other people. It is time to remove those stereotypes and actually see a person as a human
being, every person is different and we cannot divide and judge people by groups. Now a day is a
modern era where people are looking for freedom and a not judging era. Starting with trying to
adapt the immigrant population into our society is a good beginning.

References
Hispman, F., and Meissener, D. (2013) Immigration in the United States: new
economic, social, political landscapes with legislative reform on the
horizon. Migration Policy Institute, N/A. Retrieved from
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigration-united-states-neweconomic-social-political-landscapes-legislative-reform
Maydell-Stevens, E., Masgoret, A., and Ward, T. (2007). Problems of psychological and
sociocultural adaptation among Russian-speaking immigrants in New Zealand. Ministry
of Social Development, 30. Retrieved from https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-andour-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj30/30problems-psychological-sociocultural-adaptation-russian-immigrants-p178-198.html