Influence of Intercultural Contrasts: Analytical Essay on Exchange Students

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Integration and diversity

This planet, socially and culturally speaking is becoming smaller, our borders are being erased a point considered a threat by many right-winged parties, it is easier for people and goods to travel further and cheaper which is great news for the service sector companies, we are able to share our knowledge and opinions more freely to the point some experts are arguing about a common moral compass.

I believe in a shared citizenship and common responsibility so in this paper it will be treated the theme of the relations between diversity and integration in an over-globalised world, how is it that we can keep up with diversity while trying to make people feel integrated within the society.

It is common that the ideas ‘integration’ and ‘diversity’ are utilized one in place of the other, thinking they are the same while depicting the multicultural environment of a nation. The contrasts between the two of them, however, are incredibly essential to the composition of a healthy society.

Integration is more than the Census numbers. It does not just recognise the many different racial and ethnic bases, it also acknowledges, energizes, and flourishes the multiculturality. Integration is always creating a situation where inhabitants don’t simply live in a similar postal district, yet they share their lives with one another, considering better co-habitation than co-existence. On the other hand, it is diversity that spikes social competency and comprehension of various foundations and viewpoints through the realisation of knowing that there are lot of contrasts, it does not help much to the inclusion of everybody in the society, making it a fragmented one. Furthermore, being culturally competent can only be developed when and if the people of a community cooperate with each other.

Following the path of integration.

The journey to integration is the journey from an ethnocentric mind to an ethnorelative one. Following Bennett’s teachings, it can be understood that the first one believes that one’s own specific way of living is normal, right or positive. It could be argued that ethnocentrism could be understood as social numbness. Ethnocentrism implies that one may see his or her own way of life as the right way of behaving. It the people who have not experienced different societies inside-out can be considered to be ethnocentric in the way that they feel that their lives are the most normal method of living and others are just strange or abnormal. Some cultures might be comparable or have similar thoughts or ideas, nevertheless, there are some people who might get stunned to encounter contrasts at the time of experiencing a situation with people socially not quite the same as themselves. An ethnocentric mind circulates around their own social viewpoint, which means they assess others depending on their experience and what they were most familiar with when growing up. The objective for the individuals who would like to turn out to be socially and culturally skilful or educated is to move from an ethnocentric to an ethnorelative viewpoint in which the point of view on culture is comparative with the circumstances they are wind up in.

Ethnorelativism believes that ‘societies must be comprehended comparative with each other, and that specific conduct must be comprehended inside a social setting’ (Bennet), it is the acknowledgement of the reasonability of other social edges of reference. An adaptable arrangement of social character makes the conditions for an enormous number and expansive assorted variety

A great writer about the theme of immigration and the integration of said immigrants is Doctor Mathew J. Creighton, he focuses on the causes and consequences of immigration and examines the reasons for intolerance, anti-immigrant sentiment and the implication of social incorporation for health inequality.

One of the only environments that comes to mind when thinking of a place with characteristics such as multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual and interracial, is the university.

Diversity causing intercultural contrasts

When reading about integration, the main place where I believe we should start is circling the question of what type of people are the ones that want to ‘fit in’ the society, who are those that we want to feel integrated?

A short answer would be that there are three kinds of people to whom the question applies to, the refugees, the expats and the exchange students. That is why by doing some research I came across with a phenomenon that affects almost every person on the different three groups even if their situations are far from having many things in common. Instead of comparing differences, I prefer focusing on their similarities, for even when their backgrounds are different, all of them will encounter difficulties at the time of living in a country that is not their own.

The phenomenon that all of them suffer is the Culture Shock. Before coming to university abroad, I was warned about this type of shock and didn’t give it too much importance, as it turns out, it was something real and quite serious. This phenomenon includes the sentiment of tension or confusion that an individual may feel when they are exposed to a totally new condition and as clarified by the WHO (World Health Organization) it is both a physical and psychological wellness concern experienced by numerous foreigners. The signs and side effects of social stun are, bitterness, dejection, despairing; aches and sensitivities; insomnia, want to rest excessively or excessively little; changes in demeanour, feeling helpless, feeling frail; unwillingness to cooperate with others; Identifying with the old culture or glorifying the old nation; Inability to take care of straightforward issues; feelings of insufficiency or frailty; developing harsher generalizations (later I will comment on them) about the new culture; longing for family; feelings of being lost, ignored… All these troubling symptoms has been described by Doctor Carmen Guanipa, she is an expert that has written interesting articles about the counselling process of immigrant Venezuelan families and their integration in the US.

This term englobes the absence of direction, the sentiment of not comprehending what to do or how to get things done in another condition, and not recognizing what is culturally correct or not. It settles in after spending some time in the new placement. We can portray culture stun as the physical and mental distress one endures when coming to live in another nation or space not quite the same as the space from which we come from. Regularly, the way that we lived before is acknowledged or considered as ‘normal’ differs from the expected in the new placement, the shock appears even when the person or group changes from a war-ravaged country to another in the opposite spectrum. Everything differs from what the person is used to, for instance, not being able to fully understand the language, not realizing how to utilize banking machines, not being able to use the same currency, etc.

Dealing with culture shock means having to face different phases because it is a gradual phenomenon one will not arrive at the new destination and immediately become victim of it but rather this phases or stages will be developing gradually in relation to some factors like the time spent in the destination. These stages will appear at various different occasions and every individual has their own particular manner of responding to them. It is probable that a few phases will be longer and more troublesome than others. Numerous components add to the span and impacts of the issue. For instance, the person’s condition of emotional wellness, kind of character, past encounters, financial conditions, if you know the language or not, family or potentially social emotionally supportive networks, and level of instruction. This means that it is not the same level of ‘pain’ for every refugee, expat or exchange student for they are not in equal situations.

Under the influence of intercultural contrasts

To represent how intercultural contrasts influence us, Oberg in the 60’s built up a chart delineating the different phases or stages someone experiences, with the variable Time on the X (horizontal) vertex and the variable Level of Wellbeing on the Y (vertical) vertex.

In the figure it is depicted the four key phases that depict the different emotional states of the people experiencing culture shock through time from positive to negative, having the highest well-being level on the upper part and the saddest on the bottom part respectively.

Figure 1

The main stage we unearth with is the ‘Honeymoon’ stage, in this phase the individual has quite recently arrived at the host nation and they are energized and euphoric for coming cross new things and experiences, much like the vacation after a wedding. The distinctions discovered between their country of origin and the new placement are simply taken as intriguing realities or beguiling characteristics of this new culture, there are no main problems during this stage so the individual has the sentiment of being there as a traveller, for a brief period of time and making the most of their getaways. The feelings are on the positive upper side and the state of mind is high. This stage tends to last two months, it always depends on the person’s situation.

After the first stage, we encounter the Disillusionment, this is the point at which the high hopes start to go down. It cannot be seen perfectly well in the figure, yet it is a long excursion until it has been wound up in a sorry situation of that valley. It is presently when challenges and staggering differences begin to show up when it is understood that you share basically nothing with the way of life of the host nation, you may feel fatigated of talking the entire day in a language that isn’t your primary language and effectively disturbed for any minor bother like not understanding somebody’s signals or conduct. The individual feels pining to go home and needs to return to their nation. The feelings bit by bit changes from a euphoric state of mind to low spirited and begin to have a negative view of the experience abroad. This stage tends to last around fourteen months roughly, but as before, it depends on the person’s situation.

The third stage is called the Acculturation, it goes far up from the base of the valley and it may be even more slow than the Disillusionment stage. It is now when the individual starts developing their mentality and understanding that those apparently large contrasts between the two societies are simply part of the result of a healthy globalized world, comprehending the real meaning of feeling integrated within the host country’s people. Once it has been understood and tolerated those distinctions, the individual starts to secure another ability of adaptability plus feels gradually better with the idea of meeting new individuals, eating their kind of food, speaking a previously different language and enjoying a diverse culture. With the feelings currently happens equivalent to in the past stage yet in turn around request, the go from low and negative to high and positive. From this stage until the end of the experience it doesn’t make much sense to attempt to give an exact duration to the course of events, for the contrasts between people’s situation shift the duration.

The fourth and finishing stage will be separated in two, a period of Stability (coloured in green) or a period of Re-entry (coloured in red). In the Stability phase, the feelings are totally under control, close to mirroring the code of conduct found in the host nation and feeling acknowledged as one of the locals. The Re-entry phase, is portrayed as an ‘opposite’ culture shock and it happens when the individual returns home for an extensive period of time or just forever and they feel like their nation of origin has not changed the slightest bit however it is them the one that has been transformed by their experience abroad. There are chances that a few numbers of people may feel like they no longer have a place in their country of origin or some other nation.

The positive aspects of intercultural contrasts

The manifestations of this phenomenon can show up at various occasions. Even though one can encounter genuine pain and anxiety from culture stun, it should also be bore in mind that it is additionally an open door for reclassifying one’s life goals. It is an incredible new opportunity for inclining and getting new viewpoints, doing a little self-examination of some shorts. Culture shock can help us to build up a superior comprehension of what is going on in your own mind and animate individual inventiveness.

Refugees, expats and exchange students will most definitely experience culture shock one way or another, feel it in different levels. But either way, it should be known how to deal with this phenomenon and face it successfully. A few different ways to battle the pressure created by it are, as recommended by Guijarro, F. (2018), build up a new side interest like a hobby or learning a new skill or language, keep in mind your goal, the reason why you are in the strange new setting. Keeping in touch with members of your own ethnic gathering might be useful, this will give you a sentiment of belonging and it will decrease your sentiments of estrangement, I found out that volunteer work exercises made my experience easier because it lets you to rehearse the language that you are learning and it will help with feeling less worry about language and meet new people. It is also more than okay to miss your family, friends, partner and so on, having that kind of distress will make you stronger and help you realise how loved you are. Lastly, asking for help is always recommended, there are people out there that has lived that same experience and can offer you aid in the matter, in many companies in the case of expats, universities and schools, in the case of exchange students, and government agencies, in the case of refugees, exists the possibility of being under mental health professionals, that will most definitely help in whatever situation.

Agents against integration and diversity

The down part of diversity that could be argued is that in an environment with a multiplicity of races and ethnicities, there are more chances of having a fragmented society. Social fragmentation has its origins in extending contrasts among people as different types of cracks and clashes are coming from political, economic, cultural, social, ethnic, religious, language, and other steering factors. To solve it, Sayama and Yamanoi (2019) did a research resulting on finding out that it helps having some kind of tolerance of cultural diversity levels inside the society, that will aid on having an advanced peaceful existence with social and cultural variety.

However, diversity has other issues or ‘enemies’, such as far-right parties who see as a threat living in a country where they have to share space with a multicultural society. One of the reasons behind their thinking is a very simple concept, they have made generalisations based on the prejudices around immigrants. To illustrate this, the perfect example of a problematic view on diversity is the speech given by one of the leaders of the most conservative party in Spain, VOX, and his views based on generalisations. In his speech, Javier Ortega Smith, against immigrant population in the country whose religion was Islam, he described them as ‘the enemy of Europe, the enemy of freedom, the enemy of progress, the enemy of democracy, the enemy of the family, the enemy of life and the enemy of the future’(González, 2019). The problem with those words is not only that they are being said by a very public personality, but they were also listened by hundreds of Spaniards who will later on, agree with those ideas and spread them, bullying the Muslim population of the country. After his speech, Vox’s general secretary, Santiago Abascal’s number two was investigated by the Prosecution to determine if he committed a hate crime, it was only characterised as an ‘abominable behaviour’ but nothing else happened to him, in fact Abascal proposed to decriminalize the instigation of hatred against minorities and hunt those who provide humanitarian aid to immigrants (González, 2019).

A very bothersome fact, is that usually the great majority of the comments and discussions to be had with Vox’s party members are based on generalisations and not on personal experience and serious research. Generalizations are by definition, some general, usually incorrect, information that has been gained from the deduction out of explicit cases as depicted by the Cambridge Dictionary, the one we will ponder right now are the social and national group’s speculations, or as they are ordinarily known bias or stereotypes.

All these assumptions are the primary driver of our difficulties at the time of meeting somebody that comes from another nation or travel abroad for they commonly affect the other party in a very diverged way. For the Western well-off nations, it is entirely expected to have ‘good’ generalizations since they are seen with a superior point of view, instances of this are the way it is viewed the United Kingdom, with individuals being punctual and very educated or Germany, being applauded by its proficiency and having the option to do business effectively. The other point of view of this thought is the complete opposite one, it influences the Southern nations and the considered ‘poor’ countries, to propose an example of this are the generalizations around Spain, with lazy men and women, just eating, drinking or doing their siesta or Greece, always loud, cheerful and consistently in the red, needing outsiders’ money.

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Influence of Intercultural Contrasts: Analytical Essay on Exchange Students

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