Families Essay

Impact of immigration on life current challenges and accomplishments:
Family relations and child rearing practices since arrived in Canada
Traditionally, Punjabi families are known to have been extended, where two or three generations of people lived in a single household in a patriarchal set-up. This meant sharing resources, pooling incomes and supporting the weaker and elderly members of the family. Most rural Punjabis came from such a background. This tradition is being changed both in Canada and else where in the world, as a result of geographical mobility and western influences. Families now tend to be smaller in family size and move out on their own. Sometimes Grandparents are not at hand to look after the next generation and to pass on the cultural and religious values of the community.   Due to the demands of daily necessities, both father and mother leave their children and go to work and do not have the time to teach them Punjabi language or their culture, therefore the new generation is speaking less and less of the Punjabi language.
Dating is one main reason for tension to arise in the families (Drury, 1991; Wade & Souter, 1991). The second generations are increasingly prone to question the traditional values and to exercise their right to individual choice. This threatens the very survival of the ethnic group which wants to cling on to their customs. The second generations of Punjabi origin, who were either born in Canada or joined their families at a young age, have different expectations, values and social attitudes compared with their parents. They have experienced two distinct cultural norms and value systems, one of the home and the other of the school and society. Some young people can become alienated from both cultures as they face racial discrimination and rejection from the host society and disappointment with their family’s firm belief on maintaining traditional values. Young Punjabis define their cultural identity differently from their...