Cultural Reporter Blog 2

                Jamison Viera

March 8, 2013

Cultural reporter blog #2

 

How exactly does one come to a new country and enter an alien culture and survive? Personally, I don’t know if I could move to China or France and make it, but that’s just me. Some find it easier than others; some find it impossible and resist their new surroundings. The theory I would like to address for my cultural reporter project is integration. Integration is defined by “Martin and Nakayama” as “a type of cultural adaptation in which individuals maintain both their original culture and their daily interactions with other groups”. I believe that this, at its core, is the best kind of adaptation that one can strive for while entering a new culture. It allows people to hold true to their roots, as well as learning a new way of life. This approach offers the best of both worlds and makes the persons time in their new surroundings much easier.

            This concept can greatly help my ability to understand Jamaican immigrants living in the United States. By interviewing a few of my friends I will be able to have a better understanding on how exactly they stay true to their roots, while living a normal American life. I have already taken the opportunity to interview one of my friends from Jamaica and it has been a huge help in choosing my topics for this project.  Integration was one of the most important things to my friend, Delroy. Jamaicans hold a strong sense of culture as well as pride. The transition was an easy one for him and his family, as English is not THAT far off from Patwa (Jamaican language). This is not always the case though, as many of my other friends found the transition to be a difficult one. This is what I would like to explore through research. I would like to find out who didn’t have such an easy time, and why? Also, why is it easier for some and not others? According to “Migration Information”, there are over 630,000 Jamaican born people living in the US as of 2008. This is a huge portion of Jamaican people as only, as there are only 2.7 million people in Jamaica. Many Jamaicans come to the United States because it offers better, higher paying jobs than their home country. Many Jamaicans are also only seasonal workers as well, meaning they will come for the summer/winter and work for a specific amount of time, then return home. By focusing on integration, I hope to learn more about what is special about Jamaica and its culture. An “Integrated” Jamaican American could provide the best possible answers for me, and this is why I am choosing the interview method. Nobody would know what is so dear about these traditions that they would hold onto them so tightly more than someone who is actually doing so.

            The main purpose of my data collection will be to identify why seemingly Jamaican people, more than any other cultural group I come into contact with, hold their original culture so close to them. Many people that I know from Jamaica still love traditional Jamaican food and music although they have been living in the United States for an extended period of time. Another thing that I would like to discover is how these Jamaican people accept United States culture so effortlessly. As stated, many hold their original culture close to them, but they also embrace American culture more than I have witnessed others. I think this is an awesome and amazing thing, to be so multicultural and hopefully through research of these ideas I will be able to better provide an accurate explanation of this way of life. The Jamaican people I have contacted so far in my life really do embody the entire definition of “Integrated”.

 

Glennie, Alex. "Migration Information Source - Jamaica: From Diverse Beginning to Diaspora in the Developed World." The Migration Information Source. Institute for Public Policy Research, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2013. <http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=787>.

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

"Encyclopedia of the Nations." Jamaica. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2013. <http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Jamaica.html>.