During the past 20 years there has been a major influx of immigrants, refugees, and aliens in the United States. The 1990 U.S. Census reported that 30% of the nation's population growth during the last decade is a result of this immigration. It is estimated that between 7 million to 9 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrived in the USA from Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean countries. This is in addition to the people who came here from the European countries.
The experiences in the United States has transformed immigrants, their children, and their grandchildren. In that process of transformation, they have exerted a significant influence on the nature and shape of the American experience. While the ethnic experience is a source of cohesion, identity, and strength, it is also related to the struggle to adapt to the possibilities as well as to the stressful expectations of the new society. Corporate America is trying to resolve some of these through diversity training programs, which is not enough. This more a social and behavioral issue and needs to be addressed from that perspective.
The objective of this presentation is to discuss the ways that crisis intervention personnel can prepare themselves to help people of ethnic background in the transformation process and assimilate to the American society with ease. The presentation will illustrate "typical" challenges an individual faces in each phase of family life cycle (emphasis will be on the ethnic/multi-cultural dimension) and suggest different approaches to handle them. Also, the presentation will discuss ways to encourage people of ethnic background to get involved in the crisis intervention programs more actively as users of the services, as workers, as well as serving as resources for the agencies providing these services.
While the format of the presentation is lecture-discussion, the participants are encouraged to share their experiences, opinions, and suggestions to make the session lively and worthwhile.