Reflective Essay Cultural Heritage- MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Describe my key issues while living in a culturally diverse country like Australia. Answer: The purpose of this reflective essay is to describe my key issues while living in a culturally diverse country like Australia. I will explain our family's cultural origin and cultural heritage. The essay will give detail on the place from where our family migrated to Australia. It will describe the level of prejudice, discrimination and racism faced by our family. It will also identify the influences that lead to the formation of our own cultural heritage in relation to the theoretical frameworks of cross-cultural counseling. It will create an understanding of the complexity of living in a multicultural environment. The essay will explore how the cultural heritage has impacted me and my cultural identities. This section will give a detail about my family history and the cultural heritage. I belong to a family which is a mix of Irish Catholics. My family was originally based in Ireland and an orphan from the family migrated to Australia following a potato famine in Ireland. The first generation women of our family moved to Australia and married an English soldier who then worked on the railway lines. They were subjected to prejudice and discrimination as they were Catholics living in a Protestant colony. They led a hard life due to poverty. One of their children was my great grandmother who married a coal miner and had children. One of them was my grandmother, and my grandfather was a World War 1 soldier who ultimately committed suicide. Our family suffered due to poverty, racial discrimination and domestic violence. Since my grandfather committed suicide, the Roman Catholic Church also discriminated them as they regarded suicide as a mortal sin. Even my mother was subjected to discrimin ation because of low social background and low education levels. The manual workers were paid very low wages, so there was great job stress. I have been influenced by a tolerant family who is not racist. I feel the women in our family were very hard working, and they were very resilient. My mother suffered a lot but as she was an unmarried mother, this also increased her shame and discrimination. But still, the female members of our family were very dedicated to their children and ensured that they get the proper education to improve their future. They were very compassionate and helped peoples in distress. I am associated with arranging community programs and my parents helped me in organizing meals on wheels and youth programs. I personally feel that my mother is a natural social worker, and my parents were always involved in assisting homeless, unemployed youth. I have been profoundly influenced by families culture, and I would not be working on community programs had I not been influenced by the social nature of my family. All my extended family always looked after disadvantaged people in society, and I am what I am t oday because of them. Living in a culturally diverse country like Australia, I feel that development of my own cultural heritage has been influenced by factors like racism, prejudice, discrimination and privileges. Australia has it special cultural status. Originally multiculturalism in Australia was understood as members of Australian community coming from different cultures. However, it is related to rights of migrants living in Australia to express their cultural identity. So any migrant living in Australis will be influenced by the level of independence they get regarding cultural identity, social justice and economic efficiency (Phillips Spinks, 2012). Since 1945 more than 7 million migrants have settled in Australia. Our ancestors had suffered a lot due to discrimination in Australia. The White Australian were also discriminated and till 1970 there was a great restriction on people immigrating from non-European countries. But I feel today the immigration policies are not racially discriminatory. No w anyone can apply for visa irrespective of their origin, race, religion or gender (Hollifield et al., 2014). This section will describe my family's experience of living in the multicultural environment. After analyzing my familys history, I feel that Australia has not been tolerant of ethnic diversity in the past. My previous generation faced decades of discrimination in different forms like job stress, social deprivation, etc. My ancestors suffered from mental health and faced challenges in developing their identity regarding the economy, employment and many other factors. I feel that migrants coming from diverse cultural background have a different way of interpreting and responding to life experiences. The cultural values and personal circumstances of individual decide how they will be reacting to certain situations. I feel that my parents are now involved in supporting disadvantaged people because of their own suffering in life. They were subjected to racial discrimination and so they know the problems that migrants can face (Edge Newbold, 2013). While living in a multi-cultural environment, people like my own ancestors experience stress due to cultural shock. From my family cultural history, I can say that immigrants suffer from stress due to challenges they face in adjusting to a different social structure, values, beliefs, practices, political system and practices. Clash in view occurs, giving an advantage to one section and depriving outsiders of privileged of society (Schmitt et al., 2014). My family faces challenges in arranging for housing and another service to settle down in an unfamiliar environment. Despite several problems, they never compromised on our education and tried to give better lives in future. In a multi-cultural environment, language also acts a barrier. People migrating to different countries may have problems interpreting local dialect. Many immigrants to Australia experience unemployment or poverty. My grandmother also suffered from domestic violence and poverty. They faced limited job opportunities due to social stigma existing in society. Now also I have seen immigrant in Australia suffer unemployment issues due to language skills or because of cultural or religious limitation. These problems lead to isolation and builds insecurity among people. Difficulty in communicating, limited finances and poor access to basic amenities of life has made life very complex for immigrants. My past generation also suffered for a long time because of limited opportunity to improve their personal situation. The sense of isolation is also magnified if anyone is living in sparsely populated areas (Scott Scott, 2013). I have this thinking that multi-cultural environment also has an impact on women. In many cultures, women mainly keep contact with their own home and family. But when one migrates to another country, the connection of extended family network breaks down. So women are more isolated than men. The routine changes and woman feel that they have to work further aggravating the problem. My first generation of ancestor also had to come from a workhouse in Ireland to Australia. She was an orphan, and she was forced to do so because of the potato famine in Ireland. So she was a peasant with no skills and found it hard to get jobs from colonial people of Australia. She was a Catholic and living in a Protestant family contributed to racial discrimination. I feel that as she moved from her own native country, she would also have experienced a similar type of isolation apart from other fundamental problems mentioned above (Delaney MacRaild, 2013). Many people migrating to Australia are also survivors of war, natural disaster or social torture. People are coming in loads to Australia due to these unusual circumstances in life. Similar kind of experience was also faced by my family. My grandfather was World War 1 soldier and suffered trauma due to war and ultimately committed suicide. There are also people who are the survivor of war or natural disaster. This injury led to a development of mental illness including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Such people have difficulty in concentrating on the task, feeling of powerlessness, panic attacks and guilt. Migrants also suffer long-distance suffering due to media reports of war. This happens when people suffer because of other in their homeland (Helleiner, 2015). Social issues are also rampant in youth. I am also a fifth generation of young Australian belonging to Irish migrant family who moved to Australia after a potato famine in 1845. I had my own cultural values, and I experienced a different set of culture while living in Australia. So I was caught between two sets of cultural standards and values. Many youths also feel pressurized because of their parents. This is because when their children try to adopt Australian values and customs, they feel that it is a loss of their own traditional culture. Such youth like me face challenges in counterbalancing perceived permissiveness in Australian society (Belot Ederveen, 2012). My transition in life became difficult to negotiate because of my Catholic culture views on sexuality, relationship, education and employment. As I belonged to an ethnic minority group, I had difficulty in maintaining friends because of bullying and my difference in cultural background. Youths migrating to different coun tries also suffer from social isolation. Such life situation may lead to different outcomes in different people. My familys cultural experience has made me what I am today. I always found my parent assisting unemployed people, so I also developed this interest from them to serve the community and make lives better for them. That is why now I work for arranging Community Programs. There are some young people whose life also deteriorates due multi-cultural influences. There is increased the risk of suicide and risk-taking behaviors like vulnerability to alcohol, drugs, anxiety and poor self-esteem (Moran et al., 2014). I have also described the level of prejudice, racism, discrimination and privilege experienced by my ancestors. My original descendant home was Ireland, and they moved to Australia only after potato famine (Beaumont et al., 2013). There was the anti-Irish sentiment in Australia which referred to racism, bigotry, oppression and discrimination against Irish in Australia. My descendants were subjected to prejudices because of our Catholic origin. As they were living in a Protestant colony, so they were discriminated in terms of employment opportunity. My grandmother faced discrimination and prejudice after the death of my grandfather due to her social position and stigma in the family. According to my own experience living so far in Australia, I also feel that racism has contributed to the mental stress of many immigrants. This kind of attitude devalues individual identity and lowers their confidence and self-esteem. I have seen many people who avoid social contact just because of racis m. The immigrants leave their home country and come to a new place in hope of new ways of living and livelihood. But racism further increases people depression and anxiety (Forrest et al., 2014). My family was also a victim of mental illness causes due discriminatory behavior. According to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, it is illegal to discriminate any person racially in terms of access to desired employment, services or goods, education and housing facilities. I personally experienced this during my college my life when people refused to associate with me because of my racial origin. Other forms of racist behavior that I have experienced in Australia include wearing clothes with signs of particular cultural groups, broadcasting negative material about the particular cultural group through slogans and pamphlets. I saw Australians mocking me because of my Irish Catholic origin. In an extreme case, people were also physically assaulted just because they belonged to a particular cultural group or practice certain religion (Wrench, 2016). It is often seen that when youngsters migrate to new places, they acquire the culture of the new place and forget their own culture. Therefore two kinds of circumstances arise. Either they identify with their culture or distance from their family's cultural background. I particularly identified with my cultural background, and it had its influence on my upbringing and what I m today. My parents used to help unemployed people, and I also acquired that quality from them of serving the weaker section of my community. Irish Catholics are now found in many countries around the world. The population of Catholics dropped following the famine of 1840. More than four thousand young female orphans were shipped from Irish workhouses to Australian colony at the time of famine. My first generation of ancestors belonged to those groups. Some were greeted with hostility while some were exploited or abused by the employers. As far as I have analyzed, religion has always remained a cause of different iation for Irish in any part of the world. It had the greatest impact on our cultural identity and Irish people faced problems of the socioeconomic condition in each new country (Miller 2014). One particular event that is an expression of our Irish identity is the St. Patricks Day. It is an emblem of our culture. But this assemblies and expression of Irish culture were not permitted by Australian initially. The situation, however, changed after the growth of wealthy Irish Catholic emancipist and Irish Catholic Priest. Apart from great atrocities faced by my ancestor in the past, I feel now the situation has far improved now. Now Irish comprise 10.5% of Australian population according to 2011 census. Though I live in Australia, still I follow my Irish culture. The Australian government also played a part in relaxing migration policies (Hutchinson, 2012).So currently Australia has become one of the most culturally diverse countries and the popular destination for migrants. My Irish culture has a sense of informality, and we encourage transparent approach between people both in public and private space. I am very emotional, affectionate and attached to my family. I have got t his quality from my parents only. Literacy and verbal acuity are valued in my culture. What set us apart from another culture is our informality, reciprocity and egalitarianism attitude (Sexton, 2013).We don't hesitate in sharing food and other things to people. Our social boundaries are indistinct and permeable. Our relative wealth and social class influence my choices. My familys social status and their experience in life have affected my life decisions. After the analysis of my ancestor's life history, I was able to counsel myself in cross-cultural levels. I found that different attributions help in understanding how changes occur in the cross-culture environment. The first attribute is how far an individual believes that he is responsible for the problem and the extent to which any person believes in personal responsibility to solve the problem. This framework helps me understand my familys behaviors across cultures. Although they suffered discrimination, late generation recovered from it. My parents too suffered a lot, but they chose to find solutions to the problem themselves. It is the result of those striving that has made me independent today (Ang Van Dyne, 2015). Through the analysis of my family history and cultural heritage, I can conclude that immigration has a severe effect on migrants life. It changes their life totally when they have to leave their own native country and settle down in new places. I saw how people life change and they suffered from mental trauma and distress. The economic status deteriorates and migrants have to face many kinds of discrimination in places due to their diverse identity. But the situation changed and if anyone seeks to find the solution to the problem, then life can improve. My family also had this attribute which made my life easier. The essay is a valuable reflection of the values of cultural heritage and identification with family background. Reference Ang, S., Van Dyne, L. (2015).Handbook of cultural intelligence. Routledge. Beaumont, J., Geber, J., Powers, N., Wilson, A., Lee Thorp, J., Montgomery, J. (2013). Victims and survivors: stable isotopes used to identify migrants from the Great Irish Famine to 19th century London.American journal of physical anthropology,150(1), 87-98. Belot, M., Ederveen, S. (2012). Cultural barriers in migration between OECD countries.Journal of Population Economics,25(3), 1077-1105. Delaney, E., MacRaild, D. M. (2013).Irish Migration, Networks and Ethnic Identities since 1750. Routledge. Edge, S., Newbold, B. (2013). 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