Race and Ethnicity Race is a human-invented, shorthand term used to describe and categorize people into various social groups based on characteristics like skin color, physical features, and genetic heredity. Cultural humility is essential as it relates to diversity. People think diversity in the U.S. and automatically only associate diversity with racial or ethnic differences. In 2020, the White population is still the majority race in the U.S. representing 59.7% of the U.S. population (Frey,
2022). However, numbers in that demographic in the U.S. have been dropping since 1950 and will continue to go down. By 2030, estimates state that White people will have dropped to 55.8% of the population, and Hispanic peoples will have grown to 21.1%. The percentage of Black and Asian American peoples will also increase significantly. Also, between now and 2030, White people as a proportion of the population will get smaller, and the minority race groups will all keep getting bigger (Frey, 2022). See Figure 2.
Figure 2. United States Growing Diversity 2010-2020
Note . Adapted from Frey, W. H. (2022). According to new census data, the nation diversifies even faster than predicted. (https://www. brookings.edu/research/new-census-data-shows-the-nation-is-diversifying-even-faster-than-predicted/).. Immigration
The U.S. is a nation of immigrants. In the past decade, there has been increasing attention focused on immigrants and refugees in this country. While the racial, ethnic, and immigrant diversity within American society is often cited as one of its greatest strengths, it has also been a challenge for America and for Americans in terms of fully accepting and embracing the broad array of immigrant groups that have become American. Since 1965, the number of immigrants in the U.S. has quadrupled (Budiman, 2020). Individuals from all different parts of the world desire to immigrate to the U.S. in search of increased opportunities. Immigration can be a hazardous, long, and dramatic process. Thus, many immigrants will have various experiences of loss, adjustment, and abuse (Budiman, 2020). Historically, every new immigrant group has experienced various degrees of prejudicial and discriminatory treatment and exclusion from mainstream society. However, the experience of many European (e.g., Irish, Italian, German) immigrants was one of initial discrimination followed by swift acculturation and assimilation, likely aided by the physical appearance and language similarities to those of earlier settlers (Brown & Bean, 2006). Asian and Latina/o immigrants have experienced prejudicial treatment due to readily identifiable physical and language differences. Historical evidence of mistreatment is well documented, with perhaps one of the most egregious examples being the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II (Nagata, Kim, & Nguyen, 2015). Americans often think of the journey of voluntary immigration of the many ethnic groups that come to America to build a “better” life. However, many immigrants arrive in this country due to war, famine, and natural disasters (Bunch, 2016; Coates, 2014). For instance, the legacy of the forced immigration of enslaved Black Americans is often overlooked. Black Americans endured 250 years of enslavement followed by 60 years of “separate but equal” status and continuing racist practices in our education, housing, health, and criminal justice systems (Bunch, 2016; Coates, 2014). Black Americans’ systemic
and continuous oppression is a direct legacy of this forced immigration and has resulted in enduring educational, health, and wealth disparities (Bunch, 2016; Coates, 2014). Culture plays an extremely relevant role in counseling and psychotherapy. Immigration is a dominant event in a person’s life, shaping and distorting everything that comes before and after. Changing countries results in unique challenges at any age. Neighborhood relationships are particularly critical for new immigrants because many aspects of the new environment can be disorienting (Bunch, 2016; Coates, 2014). Living in ethnic communities protects immigrants from cultural isolation and benefits their initial psychological adjustment. However, pressure to assimilate may be strong outside their ethnic group, resulting in discrimination and its negative consequences. Within immigrant and refugee communities, collectivist cultural backgrounds prevail. The experience of psychological illness is often attributed to culture-specific or religious phenomena or both. Thus, in many immigrants or refugee cultures, conditions or disease are not considered positioned in the body or mind alone but may be seen as drawing on physical, supernatural, and moral realms (Sue & Sue, 2016). Mental illness may be understood heavily by ancestors and spirits rather than internal emotional factors. This creates an exciting position that workers need to both acknowledge and respect. While practitioners do not need to agree with or practice these beliefs, providers are expected to withhold judgment and support clients and their values. Even immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for a long time and who appear to have adopted the American lifestyle may maintain strong identification with, and hold the values of, their culture of origin (Korngold, 2009). Integrating the social and cultural values, ideas, beliefs, and behavioral patterns of the culture of origin with those of the new culture may lead to acculturation stresses. These stresses can cause or increase mental health difficulties, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, suicidal ideation, and others (Korngold, 2009).
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