Harnessing Multicultural Psychology- Enhancing Immigration Policies and Practices

Harnessing Multicultural Psychology- Enhancing Immigration Policies and Practices

Multicultural psychology takes into consideration numerous aspects that can affect an individual’s perception. These aspects include ethnicity, age, cultural background, economic status, and spirituality. Cultural and universal aspects are considered when psychologists offer help to clients. Multicultural psychology enables people to understand other people’s experiences by emphasizing self-awareness. Furthermore, it enables people to self-evaluate themselves and determine their contribution to social change.

Multicultural psychology can positively influence policies and practices regarding immigration. It enables people from different cultural backgrounds to uphold their native cultural practices. Such practices include native language, cultural traditions, and values. Recognition and respect for various cultural backgrounds facilitate the elimination of prejudice (Spanierman et al., 2017). Furthermore, it significantly enhances the self-esteem of a particular group of people. A multicultural approach leads to a diverse group of individuals. Diversity increases the nature of skills in the population. An example is language diversity in various sectors of the economy, such as business and education. Therefore, multicultural psychology can lead to the formulation of policies and practices that tolerate cultural diversification among immigrants as opposed to assimilation. Adoption of these policies and practices is beneficial both economically and for the well-being of the immigrants.

Multicultural psychology can help to facilitate the reduction of bias. When the cultural diversity of different people is highlighted, it can help to eliminate bias. Cultural diversity enables people to identify ethnically. This is important because it cultivates self-awareness among these individuals (Presidential & Force, n.d.). A lack of self-awareness created by assimilation can create negative responses. Studies have revealed that the adoption of the multicultural ideology as opposed to the assimilationist ideology helps to eliminate bias. Policies and practices that advocate for multicultural ideology are important because they create a self-concept and enable people to feel appreciated. This is key to eliminating bias and prejudice that is propagated by the assimilationist ideology that focuses on creating a common identity.

Self-awareness created by cultural psychology is key to the realization of social justice. Social justice manifests as fairness in all provisions of society (Gosztyla, 2017). This applies to basic amenities such as shelter and healthcare and other aspects such as employment opportunities. Resistance to multiculturalism demonstrated by assimilationist proponents indicates that the majority group is resistant to change, and their main focus is on the maintenance of the status quo (Gasc et al., 2018). This is undesirable because it eliminates the possibility of social justice. In this context, only the majority group benefits unless the minority accepts to be assimilated. Resistance to assimilation can have negative consequences, such as limited access to benefits enjoyed by the majority population of society. This creates prejudice and bias and can negatively impact the sense of self-awareness. Therefore, policies and practices that uphold multicultural psychology are key to upholding social justice. These policies are beneficial because they advocate for the welfare and well-being of immigrants.

Multicultural psychology takes into consideration numerous aspects that can affect an individual’s perception. These aspects include ethnicity, age, cultural background, economic status, and spirituality. Multicultural psychology can positively influence policies and practices regarding immigration. These can be demonstrated in three distinctive scenarios. It leads to the reduction of prejudice and bias, increased self-awareness, and the promotion of social justice. Diversity created by multicultural psychology increases the nature of skills in the population. An example is language diversity in various sectors of the economy, such as business and education. Social justice enables immigrants to have access to basic amenities enjoyed by the majority of the population. Therefore, policies and practices regarding immigration can be influenced positively by multicultural psychology.

References

Gasc, A., Steven, D., Moreira, S. D. S. L. S., França, A. C., Rocha, W. W., Tibães, E. S. R., Júnior, E. N., Martins, S. C. V. C. V., Araújo, W. L., Tohge, T., Fernie, A. R., DaMatta, F., Hibberd, J. M., Weber, A. P. M., Tokumura, M., Ohta, A., … Suleria, R. (2018). Immigration and Multiculturalism in Context: A Framework for Psychological Research. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0877-3%0Ahttp://dx.do

Gosztyla, S. (2017). Social Justice Theory. Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World, January. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412995962.n783

Presidential,  a P. a, & Force, T. (n.d.). The Psychology of Immigration in the New Century.

Spanierman, L. B., Poteat, V. P., Whittaker, V. A., Schlosser, L. Z., & Arévalo Avalos, M. R. (2017). Allies for Life? Lessons from White Scholars of Multicultural Psychology. Counseling Psychologist, 45(5), 618–650. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000017719459

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How can multi-cultural psychology positively influence policies and practices regarding immigration?

Harnessing Multicultural Psychology- Enhancing Immigration Policies and Practices

Identify and discuss three examples from the report of the APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration, Crossroads:
The Psychology of Immigration in the New Century at Immigration Report