Migration & Cultural Diversity and Human Rights
This paper has taught me a lot about culture and society, in
a context of greater scope that I thought I had already known and existed to be true. By engaging through this particular assignment
of group work, and reflecting on past assignments, I believe that concepts
associated with the study of sociology has enabled me to critically think about
the society and culture we live in today insightfully. Migration and cultural
diversity and human rights are concepts that have pin pointed these very
notions.
Through the group presentation I obtained the knowledge that
migration and cultural diversity are detrimental factors in gaging a full
understanding of the broad concepts of culture and society. More importantly,
the issues articulated by migration and cultural diversity has evolved in
understanding these concepts. Ryan (2010) states that culture becomes visible
when we travel to other countries or to other cultures. After this group
project, I have a greater understanding of migration and cultural diversity and
the impact it has on migrants being in a new environment. For example, we
discussed the ‘culture shock’ that immigrants endure that ranges from family
dynamics and the typical migrant employment experience. Dow, H.D. (2011)
presented the idea that immigrants feel a sense of culture shock through a
number of ways that impacts their engagement in the culture and society of
their new environment. Thus, increasing the struggle of adaptation and the
struggle of immigrants to inhabit social competence. In my understanding,
migration fits in to this notion that different social backgrounds evolves a
person to be who they are and has created the diversity that exists within our
multicultural society.
Learning how to adjust to different societal norms and
cultures is difficult when immigrants experience a complicated procedure such
as migration. To learn the internal culture of others, and to make integration
more effective, actively participating in this culture will aid in uncovering
the values and beliefs that underlie the behaviour of this society (Hall,
1976). However, we learnt that this proves to be very difficult for migrants.
Migration and cultural diversity is important to me in the
aspect that it reinforces my personal values and beliefs based on fair equality
for all people from different and diverse backgrounds based on my personal
Christian beliefs. As a first generation born New Zealander my immediate and
wider family are immigrants. The concept is relatively close to me in this
context that I identify myself with immigration one way or another; perhaps not
as a direct immigrant, but my origin homeland is somewhere else and this is
very much part of my identity and who I am. To reflect on the experiences that
immigrants face I believe, theoretically speaking, if I was a recipient of the
treatment immigrants generally receive I feel like this would impact my ability
to be competent in a society that perpetuates an inclusive society and
hardship. By doing this assignment, I learnt that people hold different
perceptions on migrants and the way they ought to be treated. Personally, as a
member of society this is of a nature that a reasonable citizen should not be
expected to bear without exemptions of discrimination based on race, social
status and economic differences.
Upon beginning this paper, I thought that I knew everything
about human rights, and aware of the negligence of such a vital concept in
almost every country somewhere, somehow. However, human rights is much more
extensive than I had anticipated looking at the full article and applying it as
a concept to our assignments, especially to the photo board assignment. The vast
ways that other students applied their view on a human rights perspective today
was interesting, and suggested that we all shared a commonality of thought and
behaviour in terms of what we see as a breach of a human right, and what we
know and recognise (Ryan, 2010). For instance, growing up in New Zealand some
of us may recognise that oppressing women is wrong and stand strongly against
it; we believe to acknowledge this as a ‘wrong’ due to the culture we are
exposed to. However, in other parts of the world women rights are not greatly
emphasised due to their own culture, and may not be recognised as an issue.
This concept is fundamental in a greater understanding of
migration and cultural diversity. Immigrants are continually suppressed to
conditions of economic hardship and social discrimination, even within New
Zealand. These acts violate Article 22 and 23 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (United Nations, n.d.), as they have every right to be a member of
society and enjoy the economic advantages that host countries ultimately can
provide for immigrants in search of a better life and living conditions. Through the engagement of this paper, I have
obtained a greater and insightful understanding of human rights in the aspect
that its negligence is a common factor in societies globally, despite its
development.
The theme of migration and cultural diversity and human
rights can be approached by disciplines in similar but different ways; through
the social sciences disciplines an approach of migration and cultural diversity
is through a sociological and analytical point of view. Anderson,
Taylor & Logio (2015) state that sociology looks at the way of
thinking about society and its influence on human groups. For example, personal
experiences of immigrants, domestically and internationally, was pinpointed and
the impacts it has on themselves and society holistically. In the same way,
human rights can serve as a social structure in the sense that it is ought to
shape human behaviour and the way in which we treat others. Retrospectively during
the symposium the discipline of Hospitality approached the concept in terms of
the influence that migration and cultural diversity has on specific social perspectives;
examining how much social interaction implements through everyday courses of
work, through food and beverage.
For myself as a law student this paper was incredibly
insightful. It has provided me with appropriate and relevant knowledge on
conceptual themes that I can apply throughout my law degree and also my life in
general. I appreciate people more in the sense that society and culture do mean
more than just learning about people, race and cultural interaction but
focusses on a variety of aspects that fully grasp the knowledge of how and why
society is shaped the way it is. I enjoyed sharing my perspective with others
in this paper, and more importantly seeing how they are similar yet different
to others. From the photo board to the last reflective assignment, my knowledge
and appreciation for social awareness has flourished.
Word count: 1183
References
Anderson, M. L., Taylor, H. F., & Logio, K. A. (2015). Sociology the essentials. United States: Cengage Learning.
Dow, H. D. (2011). An overview of stressors faced by immigrants and refugees: A guide for mental health practitioners. Home Health Care Management & Practice, 23(3), 210-217. doi:10.1177/1084822310390878
Ryan, M. (2010). Preface. In Cultural studies: A practical introduction. Hoboken: Wiley, pp.viii-xii.
United Nations. (n.d.). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved June 11th, 2015, from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a1
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