The concept of immigration

The Concept of Immigration: Just Move Geographically or More Than It? About 30 years ago from now, when my grandfather made a decision to migrate to France, due to some economic, sociocultural and domestic problems which he faced, this decision and its possible results seemed individualistic and unique to my grandfather at first glance.
However, having such individualistic perspective on the concept of migration true or acceptable? In this case, when the concept of migration is analysed from a deeper perspective, it is a social phenomenon. Thus, even if the majority of migration is caused by such individualistic factors, it indicates a larger social issue in terms of its effects on individuals.
In that sense, in order to have a clear understanding on the phenomenon of migration, the relationship between “the individual” and “ the whole society” should be comprehended in terms of these three frameworks and their effects on individuals. The first effect that arises from the phenomenon of migration is regarding psychological changes on individuals or “immigrants”. To make it clear, today the concept of
“urbanization” which refers to the increase in population in big cities lead to some detrimental changes on individual’s mental health. Therefore, the individual who bound to the his/her land and is accustomed to establish close relationships with others in rural may face longing for his/her previous life standarts and his/her “old days”. For instance, the big city’s common issues such as unemployment and indigence may be a reason for some mental illnesses like depression and enhancement of drug dependence or excessive consumption of cigarette and alcohol. What is even worse is that, sometimes this situation becomes more stronger and leads to self-destruction or suicide. In addition to the effect of urbanization, the ambiguity of future big cities leads to anxiety and fear on individual’s mind about his/her future. In other words, the immigrant who desire better life standarts and opportunities than he/has in the rural may not reach these expectations in the city. In that sense, there is no guarantee in terms of individual’s future expectations in big cities. For example, the individual in the rural may expect a good job and make a decision to migrate to the big city; however he/she may disappoint about finding a good job because of his/her unqualified job skills or unemployment in the big cities. Therefore,when the individual becomes aware of “this fact”, he/she may experience some traumatic events. To illustrate, an migrant who is disappoint in terms of life conditions in the big city and also don’t know what he/she face in their future may be affected psychologically. Thus, as a consequences of this fear and anxiety in the individuals’ mind, a stereotype individual who is angry and nervous may emerge.

The second effect that arise from the phenomenon of migration is regarding sociological changes on individual’s life.Today, the immigrant who adopted the culture of rural inevitably faces a different culture in the big city.However, in that sense what is rural culture? In fact, culture in rural is mainly based on traditions,customs beliefs and meanings.To illustrate, in an ordinary day the individuals in rural have particular obligations and they communicate only with a small number of people.In that sense, they are mutually interdependent and in doing so they gain a conscious of solidarity by acting cooperatively. Thus, they have responsibilities and social ties that hold them together and they are attached to their traditions and give more importance to their beliefs as compered with self interested people in the city. In other words, while people in rural try to work for society’s betterment, the individuals in city mostly pursue their own interest and they prone to neglect their social responsibilities. In that sense, the individual in rural culture unavoidably faces a different culture in the city and they become a part of high-context culture which refers to activities that require “knowledge,time and money”. Thus, this forces towards high culture lead to some changes on individual’s living conditions and life styles. For example, the immigrant who try to adapt the high- context culture in city initially changes his/her consumption pattern which refers to change in purchasing tendencies such as clothing,fashion or elite oriented activitied such as theatre,opera or ballet. In fact, the individual who doesn’t have a “social life” in terms of these activities in rural area try to adapt himself to social life in the city. In other words, the immigrant has the opportunity to engage in these activities in the big city. For instance, an immigrant who earn money only to supply his/her basic needs may purchase a concert ticket not only because he earns much more money but also because of an invisible force towards high culture in the city. In addition to the effect of high context culture, the individual who changes their social life or “society” which he/she lived may have a feeling of anomie which refers to nothingness of social norms. To make it clear, the immigrant who live in rural areas have more responsibilities and obligations for society’s betterment; on the other hand the individual in big cities are relatively self interested and they are only in pursuit of their happiness. To illustrate, in the rural area, especially in the small villages, people can come together to make decision about their issues and problems, and they are specialized in their obligations and there are more voluntary and collective work. On the other hand, in the big cities there is “weaker bonds between the individuals and the whole society” which refers to the concept of anomie. The third effect that arises from the phenomenon of migration is regarding ethnic issues and the concept of ethnocentrism which refers to an insultment and humiliation of other race or nations. In fact, throughout the history the concept of ethnocentrism was inevitable and even if today’s world the immigrants often marginalized by the dominant society.To illustrate, today Turkish immigrants in European countries or Native Americans,African Americans and
Latinas faces the concept of ethnocentrism. Thus, individuals who are exposed to ethnocentrism may become a member of some counterculture groups which refers to strong rejection of the dominant society.In fact, members of counterculture generally consist of young people. For instance, flower child in 1960s, also known as hippie or hipsters, can be a good example for counterculture because the hipsters have a strong rejection of the dominant culture’s values and norms and they put emphasized on the concept of humanism, peace, love and romanticism in those years.Due the effect of counterculture, the immigrant often prefer to live in particular districts. For example, today many of the Turkish immigrants,especially in Germany,prefer to live in Turkish districts in many European countries.In addition to the effect of ethnocentrism, the immigrants may also face discrimination in many areas. For example, the immigrants often work unqualified, unhealthy and dangerous jobs throughout the history. For example, workers in Nazi Germany worked at least 12 or 14 hours in a day and they were obliged to do unhealthy and dangerous jobs and they didn’t have any job security. Additionally, these workers lived in some concentration camps called “Stalag” and except for French, Italian or Polish workers, the Eastern workers were treated badly in the Stalag. Also, they are at the disadvantage in terms of receiving healthcare services. What is even worse is that, these concepts such as ethnocentrism and discrimination not only affect individual’s life but also affect immigrant’s viewpoint because they no longer recognize these concepts and become accustomed to be like
“others” or the “outsiders”. Consequently, about 30 years ago from now what my grandfather experienced is exactly the same with what the other immigrants face today, whatever the country they go. Although today many people tend to see the phenomenon of migration and its results on individuals from an individualistic perspective, in order to have a clear understanding on the phenomenon of migration, these three frameworks and their effects should be comprehended.