Marginalization(Acculturation)

Residential schools were used to remove the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures from indigenous children, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture

Marginalization pertaining to acculturation is defined as the rejection of one’s culture of origin and the dominant host culture.

Marginalization as an acculturative strategy can be voluntarily adopted by immigrants or the natives as a way of dealing with their situation, but it can also result from failed attempts at participating in a new society while simultaneously experiencing cultural loss. Such cases may arise due to discriminatory attitudes and practices of the dominant group. Failed attempts at integration causes high stress, such as in the form of marginalization. The stress can lead to maladaptive coping behaviours such as substance abuse and suicide.

Overview

The concept of marginalization in acculturative setting was first employed by a Canadian psychologist, John W Berry. He was seminal in establishing the field of acculturation psychology. He developed the fourfold model of acculturation for describing four distinct acculturation strategies, involving assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization. In the essay “Conceptual Approaches to Acculturation”, Berry laid out four preconditions that determine the likelihood of which acculturation strategy is pursued: (a) the level of acceptance by a society of the value of cultural diversity, (b) the level of prejudice, (c) attitudes among ethno-cultural groups and (d) identification with the larger society by all individuals and groups. When diversity is accepted as the feature of overall culture, society is considered multicultural. When dominant group imposes marginalization on non-dominant culture, it is considered ethnocide or exclusion.

Acculturation

Acculturation encompasses social, psychological and cultural change that occur when a group from one culture comes into continuous, first-hand contact with another distinct culture. While, in theory, acculturation applies to people in both the dominant culture and the culture of origin, the changes are more induced in migrating or less powerful groups. The need for words to explain dominance pattern such as “mainstream” and “minority” proves the power differential between cultures. One form of dominant culture adopting elements of other cultures is cultural appropriation whereby newly adopted elements of a minority culture become devoid of their original context and meaning. Dominant culture imposing its own standard and norm onto other cultures is called cultural imperialism. An example of cultural imperialism is residential schools, government-sponsored religious schools to assimilate indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture.

Causes

"I was trying to be White because I thought that was expected of me. I tried to be successful in terms of jobs. I hung out with the middle class. It was almost like living two lives. I took on that sense of belief that White was better, that English was better. However, it did not fit. I was still an aboriginal person, not White.”

- A middle-aged woman, Joan E Dodgson, Indigenous Women’s Voices, p.342

Statue of Dedan Kimathi in Nairobi, Kenya. He was a Kenyan rebel leader who fought against the colonization of British Empire. He was convicted and executed by the British colonial government.

Colonialism

While some groups enter into the acculturation process voluntarily, groups such as refugees and indigenous peoples are forced to undergo acculturation. In Canada, despite the continual effort to mend its past mistakes, the First Nations people are among the most marginalized groups. Historical trauma as lived marginalization and the difficulty in negotiating with mainstream culture while maintaining connections with their tradition has been identified as the reasons for continued marginalization of the First Nations people.

In the beginning of 20th century, the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya underwent a massive cultural transformation where the identity of Kikuyu people was stripped and replaced by the perceived ‘superior’ western culture. With the 1902 Crown Land Ordinance which put all land under the control of British Empire and the colonists, the African indigenous knowledge on land and soil conservation was destroyed. As the European settlers implemented their own knowledge of land management without consideration for the local knowledge, the land became massively degraded which led to resistance against the foreign western concept and armed conflict to restore the lost identities including the aspects of indigenous knowledge. As the result of colonialism, Kikuyu people were not only forced to abandon their traditional methods of resource management, they are now left dependent on the aids of Western Civilization.

Migration Status

Willingness to migrate plays a key role in determining the acculturative strategies one chooses to pursue. Voluntary migrants experience 50% less acculturation-related stress than recently immigrated adolescents and refugees. Marginalization is identified as the most stress-inducing strategy.

The legal status among ethnic groups contributes to in-group acceptance. Recent study found that the undocumented group of Mexican-American immigrants faced discrimination and exclusion by their own ethnic group due to the status of being 'illegal aliens'.

Urbanization

Immigrants to Canada’s major metropolitan areas report smaller social networks and use their social networks less frequently compared with native-born Canadians. The larger the city that one moves to in Canada, the less likely one is to join community organizations or spend time with friends . As well, Aboriginal peoples residing in urbanized areas of Canada are reported to have the lowest expected longevity, education, and higher rates of suicide and incarceration. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples noted the disparities in services to Aboriginal peoples living in an urban area compared to First Nations on-reserve are partly due to disagreements over jurisdiction.

Systemic Discrimination

Indigenous people are vastly over-represented in Canada’s federal prison system. According to the Annual Report of the Office of the Correctional Investigator 2016-2017, 26.4% of Canada’s federal prison inmate population are identified as aboriginals. Between 2007 and 2016, the Indigenous prison population increased by 39% compared to less than 5% increase for overall federal prison population . Howard Sepers, a former correctional investigator for Canada, reported that aboriginal inmates are sentenced to longer terms, and spend more time in segregation and maximum security . Jonathan Rudin, the program director of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, claimed that the lack of commitment and resources by the government and prison services to address the over-representation of aboriginal people in federal corrections are partly responsible for increased incarceration rate of Indigenous people.

Immigrant teachers are situated in disadvantageous position for practicum placements and employment processes. Immigrant teachers reported being discriminated in the school system over accents and clothing, and compelled to adjust culturally . Intolerance of the diversity serves to maintain the status of dominant groups (White, Canadian-born teaching force) while risking marginalization of highly qualified teachers who can better serve foreign-born students.

Literature on Marginalization

Lived experience of marginalization has led to the birth of the new genre of literature. "Out on Main Street" by Shani Mootoo provides the readers with insight into what it is like to live as a Lesbian Trinidadian living in a hetero-normative culture. "Sky Burial" by Richard Van Camp captures the feeling of confusion of an Indigenous man living in an increasingly urbanized setting. Poems in "Green Girl Dreams Mountains" by Marilyn Dumont convey the essence of Indigenous people being displaced from urban Canada.