June 18, 2024 • 14 mins
In this episode, Heena delves into the critical role of language in the migration experience.
Heena discusses the profound impact that language has on identity and the acculturation process, highlighting the disenfranchised grief that many immigrants experience due to language loss. She shares insights from her recent webinar on supporting immigrants with trauma and loss, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and addressing the emotional and psychological aspects tied to language.
Throughout the episode, Heena provides practical advice for therapists working with immigrant clients, including the value of connecting clients with their cultural heritage and native language. She shares personal anecdotes and research findings to illustrate the deep connections and comfort that language can provide.
Join Heena as she explores how therapists can better support their immigrant clients by understanding and addressing the vital role of language in their immigration journey.
NEW On-demand course: Supporting Immigrants with Trauma & Loss (Virtual 1.5 CEU): https://uplift-counseling-services.newzenler.com/courses/supporting-immigrants-with-trauma-loss
Free Therapists Treating Trauma FB Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/274653273239119
The Therapist Cafe™: A community of Therapists focused on building cultural competence, engage in discussion & consultation, address imposter syndrome, and prevent burnout & vicarious trauma. ($32/month)
More info here: https://uplift-counseling-services.newzenler.com/courses/dj8dco7p
References:
- Padilla, A.M. & Perez, W.P. (2003). Acculturation, social identity, and social cognition: A new perspective. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 25(1), 35-55.
- Mirsky, J. (1991). Language and migration: Separation individuation conflicts in relation to the mother tongue and the new language. Psychotherapy, 28(), 618-624.
- Casado, B.L. & Leung, P. (2001). Migratory grief and depression among elderly Chinese American immigrants. Journal of gerontological social work, 36(1-2), 5-26.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:10):
You're listening to the Therapist Treating Trauma Podcast, and I'm your host,
Hannah Kahn, Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor and Registered Play
Therapist Supervisor based out of Allen, Texas.
I'm a specialty trauma and grief therapist for children and adults.
On this podcast, you will get a masterclass in trauma, grief,
and loss from a person-centered therapy framework on neuroscience lens and culturally
(00:34):
competent approach to support your work as therapists in this field.
Hi, everyone. It's Hannah. Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode.
In this particular episode, we're going to be talking about language and how
it is so important, essential to understand as part of the migration experience
when we're working with immigrants.
(00:56):
This topic is so near and dear to me, in addition to the topic of just supporting immigrants.
But I wanted to really dedicate a episode specifically about language because
I just don't think it's understood enough. It's talked about enough.
So I actually just did a virtual contributing education webinar on supporting
(01:19):
immigrants with trauma and loss and language was included in that presentation.
So today's episode is a little snippet of that. But if you're interested in
learning more about that, this course, Although that one was live that I did
recently, it is available as an on-demand course now on my platform.
I'll leave the link in the show notes so you can check it out.
But it's available if you want to, you know, learn more about how to support
(01:40):
immigrants who've experienced trauma and loss because language is one of the
losses that immigrants experience.
And it's a really important one to talk about, acknowledge, and discuss with
our clients because it's huge.
So we'll talk more about why that's so important.
But we want to first off understand that the human experience of being understood by another human.
(02:09):
Right? And then being able to understand what this other person is telling them.
This is not talked about enough, the importance of this, being understood,
being able to articulate effectively so that the other person can understand,
and then you being able to understand what they're saying to you, right?
And the grand scheme of things, it may not be as troubling,
(02:32):
but can you imagine going to a doctor's appointment and not quite understanding
fully what the doctor is saying and wondering if the doctor is fully understanding what you're saying,
right? That's very unsettling and scary.
And so that's when we, you know, take an interpreter with us or ask for an interpreter
or a language line, right?
(02:53):
Like that all. And it's so important to understand how much this means to people
because, and the reason I think it's not talked enough or not acknowledged,
it's essentially disenfranchised grief because people.
The society just thinks this is something you just have to deal with.
It's not something to grieve. You move to another country, you learn that new language.
(03:14):
If I were to move to Mexico, I will have to learn some Spanish to be able to
function and get around there. That's true, yes.
But that doesn't address or acknowledge, one, the immigrant's experience,
the whole migration experience, right, the circumstances of that.
But also, even if it was done by choice, there is a sense of loss of language
(03:38):
that every immigrant experiences, and to each a different degree,
but depending on how much, you know, how much that piece of language is tied
to their identity, because language is essentially strongly connected to our identity.
So when we work with immigrants, we can't deny, or not deny,
(04:02):
we can't dismiss or we can't ignore this piece of this disenfranchised loss
that they experience in the process of migration.
So it's an essential, essential part of migration.
It is strongly connected to their identity.
And, you know, and I'm going to share some research and I will certainly share
(04:24):
the reference links to these different studies,
but there is a study where Padilla and Perez hypothesized that having to cope
with language is one of the factors that makes acculturation more difficult.
Can you imagine, right, like going, moving to another country,
and then there is, you know, something called acculturative stress that we experience.
(04:45):
And I talk a lot about this in that Supporting Immigrants with Trauma and Loss
webinar that I did recently that you can find as an on-demand course right now.
But I talk about this in there as well, where there is acculturation stress, acculturative stress,
and the loss of language and having to cope with learning a new language is
part of that stress of acculturation.
(05:08):
And it is it is you know depending
on not to say that if you come by
choice it's easier it might be just because you're you're maybe a little bit
more prepared for it but the loss of language still exists and having to cope
with the loss of your language and then learning a new language definitely adds
more stress in the acculturation process because it's strongly tied to their identity.
(05:34):
And if you think about the migration experience, right, that one of the unique
things that we talk about is the loss of identity when you move from one country
to another, from your cultural, you know, community country to another,
you do lose a sense of that, right?
Murski suggested that the loss of a mother tongue, okay, like your mother native
(05:55):
language, is accompanied by an internal loss.
She argues that most immigrants struggle with learning the new language because
of the emotional and psychological factors that are tied to that mother tongue.
And, you know, I see it's so interesting. I've seen both sides of this.
I've seen families where they're trying to keep the language component alive, right?
(06:17):
They want to speak the language in their home. They their children keep up with
this language in this foreign country, right?
And even though they might learn English in this foreign country,
they want to continue to maintain that language.
And then I've seen the other side of it where because of discrimination and
(06:39):
a lot of other adverse experiences and the acculturation and the assimilation stressors,
families that have avoided speaking their language have almost like rejected
speaking their language or teaching their children their language because of
the fear of discrimination based on the experience of discrimination in the
(07:00):
foreign country that they're in. And that's very true. That's very real.
And even though they do this by choice, right?
Like, as in, I'm going to make a choice to not, you know, speak my language
or teach my children this language, my language, because I'm afraid of discrimination.
Even though it's a choice, there's a lot of grief associated with that.
Having to give up my language because I'm afraid of being discriminated or I'm
(07:25):
afraid of being marginalized or I'm afraid of,
you know, certain adverse experiences
in this foreign country when I speak my language. This is real.
This is very real experience for many immigrants. So I've seen both sides of
this, where there is this, you know, intentional, you know, avoidance,
and then there's just this natural loss of the mother tongue that's there.
(07:49):
But both of them, regardless of which way we, you know, they go,
it's still very stressful, because there's so much emotion and identity that's tied to language.
Language. They also found, through some research, a correlation between not
knowing the language of the host country and depression.
(08:11):
So when you move into, see, again, immigrants or even refugees,
let's not forget, refugees or immigrants that come into a foreign country,
having to learn a new language, not knowing the host country's language can
be, you know, one, tied with depression to a lot of stress because.
(08:33):
In addition to all the major life changes, like just, you know,
your Maslow's hierarchy, right?
Like your basic needs, just trying to make sure I've got food,
I've got a place to stay, and I've got to figure out how to communicate,
you know, in the host country's language, right?
I've got to learn how to communicate in the host. And so I've worked with women
who were survivors of domestic violence for many, many years.
(08:56):
And a lot of the women that I supported and worked with were immigrants.
And these are women who came to, you know, this country and,
you know, after having separated from their partners, their abusive partners,
now they're kind of on their own, right?
Either they have children or they don't have children, but now they're on their
own and they're like, I have to find a way to support myself.
(09:19):
And I don't quite understand the language here. I recently moved here.
And so now they're having to learn the language, not just, you know,
maybe when they were married, they didn't have to worry too much about independent
functioning where they needed to know the language.
Maybe they could still get by by not being fluent, but now they are having to
(09:40):
independently function.
They are having to go get a job. They're having to make a living or go back
to school and language becomes a barrier there.
And so I, I recall like the years that I had, you know, worked with these women,
we would constantly be referring these women to English as a second language
class because we want them to be able to acquire and learn this language so that they,
(10:03):
and part of this is also empowering our clients, right?
Language becomes this barrier and it helps re-empower our clients in addition
to the loss that we're acknowledging that they're experiencing, right?
But then also helping them empower them by helping them learn the language of
(10:24):
the host country so that they can function effectively.
But still, there is this disenfranchised grief of that loss of language that
we must acknowledge, that we must help our clients process and work with.
There is a certain level of, and I say this because I am a child of immigrants,
(10:45):
and I will say when you're speaking your language, when you are amongst people
who are speaking your language, there is a different connection that you experience.
It feels like home. It feels like a warm hug. I'll share a story.
I'm South Asian, and I'm bilingual, and so is my husband.
(11:07):
So whenever Whenever we go to, let's say, an Indian restaurant,
I'll go to the, let's say, the front desk or the cashier or the,
you know, staff that's waiting at our table.
I'll speak in English most of the time.
My husband, though, will start speaking in our native language.
And it's like just by default. He'll do that all the time. And I just remember
(11:31):
asking him, I was like, you know, that's interesting.
Like I start out speaking in English and I just continue and you just kind of
bust out. And he goes, yeah.
And don't you notice how instantly it's connecting, like how instantly the person connects with me?
And I paused for a moment and I thought, that's so true.
(11:52):
When we are able to connect with people with our language, it instantly creates
this connection. It like brings this feeling of being, you know, from back home.
And when people, there's so many different dialects of language out there.
When you run into someone who speaks the same dialect as you do,
you're like, wait, where are you from?
You know, like my, so my husband also grew up in Nigeria. So whenever he runs
(12:15):
into people who, there's a certain dialect of English in parts of Nigeria that
he's very familiar with.
So as soon as somebody talks, he goes, where are you from?
I grew up there, you know, and so there's this instant connection.
So I say that to say how important this is.
And so when our clients are, you know, going through this whole migration process.
(12:38):
They're resettling, helping them connect with their cultural heritage,
where they can meet and interact with groups of people, where they can speak
their language is extremely comforting and healing.
Healing so that's kind of the the message i
want to leave you with in this episode is when you've got clients you're working
(12:59):
with immigrant clients that you're working with you know work you know pay some
attention to that language piece process that and help them reconnect with people
who speak their language or their dialect and that is an incredibly comforting and healing.
So I hope that helped give you a little extra, you know, direction on the piece
(13:22):
of language, which is so important to me.
My parents were immigrants, and I remember growing up, I would,
my parents would always speak to me in our native language.
And to this day, when I speak to them in my native language,
it's just, I feel a different sense of connection with them than when I speak to them in English.
It just sounds a little bit more formal to me. so I hope
(13:45):
this helps in conceptualizing and working with your
immigrant clients and really emphasizing or at least evaluating and assessing
kind of what language means to them so we can help connect them with resources
that are helpful and healing for them all right that is all I have for today
I'll leave the links in the show notes thanks so much for tuning in I'll see
you in my next episode bye for now.
Music.
(00:10):
You're listening to the Therapist Treating Trauma Podcast, and I'm your host,
Hannah Kahn, Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor and Registered Play
Therapist Supervisor based out of Allen, Texas.
I'm a specialty trauma and grief therapist for children and adults.
On this podcast, you will get a masterclass in trauma, grief,
and loss from a person-centered therapy framework on neuroscience lens and culturally
(00:34):
competent approach to support your work as therapists in this field.
Hi, everyone. It's Hannah. Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode.
In this particular episode, we're going to be talking about language and how
it is so important, essential to understand as part of the migration experience
when we're working with immigrants.
(00:56):
This topic is so near and dear to me, in addition to the topic of just supporting immigrants.
But I wanted to really dedicate a episode specifically about language because
I just don't think it's understood enough. It's talked about enough.
So I actually just did a virtual contributing education webinar on supporting
(01:19):
immigrants with trauma and loss and language was included in that presentation.
So today's episode is a little snippet of that. But if you're interested in
learning more about that, this course, Although that one was live that I did
recently, it is available as an on-demand course now on my platform.
I'll leave the link in the show notes so you can check it out.
But it's available if you want to, you know, learn more about how to support
(01:40):
immigrants who've experienced trauma and loss because language is one of the
losses that immigrants experience.
And it's a really important one to talk about, acknowledge, and discuss with
our clients because it's huge.
So we'll talk more about why that's so important.
But we want to first off understand that the human experience of being understood by another human.
(02:09):
Right? And then being able to understand what this other person is telling them.
This is not talked about enough, the importance of this, being understood,
being able to articulate effectively so that the other person can understand,
and then you being able to understand what they're saying to you, right?
And the grand scheme of things, it may not be as troubling,
(02:32):
but can you imagine going to a doctor's appointment and not quite understanding
fully what the doctor is saying and wondering if the doctor is fully understanding what you're saying,
right? That's very unsettling and scary.
And so that's when we, you know, take an interpreter with us or ask for an interpreter
or a language line, right?
(02:53):
Like that all. And it's so important to understand how much this means to people
because, and the reason I think it's not talked enough or not acknowledged,
it's essentially disenfranchised grief because people.
The society just thinks this is something you just have to deal with.
It's not something to grieve. You move to another country, you learn that new language.
(03:14):
If I were to move to Mexico, I will have to learn some Spanish to be able to
function and get around there. That's true, yes.
But that doesn't address or acknowledge, one, the immigrant's experience,
the whole migration experience, right, the circumstances of that.
But also, even if it was done by choice, there is a sense of loss of language
(03:38):
that every immigrant experiences, and to each a different degree,
but depending on how much, you know, how much that piece of language is tied
to their identity, because language is essentially strongly connected to our identity.
So when we work with immigrants, we can't deny, or not deny,
(04:02):
we can't dismiss or we can't ignore this piece of this disenfranchised loss
that they experience in the process of migration.
So it's an essential, essential part of migration.
It is strongly connected to their identity.
And, you know, and I'm going to share some research and I will certainly share
(04:24):
the reference links to these different studies,
but there is a study where Padilla and Perez hypothesized that having to cope
with language is one of the factors that makes acculturation more difficult.
Can you imagine, right, like going, moving to another country,
and then there is, you know, something called acculturative stress that we experience.
(04:45):
And I talk a lot about this in that Supporting Immigrants with Trauma and Loss
webinar that I did recently that you can find as an on-demand course right now.
But I talk about this in there as well, where there is acculturation stress, acculturative stress,
and the loss of language and having to cope with learning a new language is
part of that stress of acculturation.
(05:08):
And it is it is you know depending
on not to say that if you come by
choice it's easier it might be just because you're you're maybe a little bit
more prepared for it but the loss of language still exists and having to cope
with the loss of your language and then learning a new language definitely adds
more stress in the acculturation process because it's strongly tied to their identity.
(05:34):
And if you think about the migration experience, right, that one of the unique
things that we talk about is the loss of identity when you move from one country
to another, from your cultural, you know, community country to another,
you do lose a sense of that, right?
Murski suggested that the loss of a mother tongue, okay, like your mother native
(05:55):
language, is accompanied by an internal loss.
She argues that most immigrants struggle with learning the new language because
of the emotional and psychological factors that are tied to that mother tongue.
And, you know, I see it's so interesting. I've seen both sides of this.
I've seen families where they're trying to keep the language component alive, right?
(06:17):
They want to speak the language in their home. They their children keep up with
this language in this foreign country, right?
And even though they might learn English in this foreign country,
they want to continue to maintain that language.
And then I've seen the other side of it where because of discrimination and
(06:39):
a lot of other adverse experiences and the acculturation and the assimilation stressors,
families that have avoided speaking their language have almost like rejected
speaking their language or teaching their children their language because of
the fear of discrimination based on the experience of discrimination in the
(07:00):
foreign country that they're in. And that's very true. That's very real.
And even though they do this by choice, right?
Like, as in, I'm going to make a choice to not, you know, speak my language
or teach my children this language, my language, because I'm afraid of discrimination.
Even though it's a choice, there's a lot of grief associated with that.
Having to give up my language because I'm afraid of being discriminated or I'm
(07:25):
afraid of being marginalized or I'm afraid of,
you know, certain adverse experiences
in this foreign country when I speak my language. This is real.
This is very real experience for many immigrants. So I've seen both sides of
this, where there is this, you know, intentional, you know, avoidance,
and then there's just this natural loss of the mother tongue that's there.
(07:49):
But both of them, regardless of which way we, you know, they go,
it's still very stressful, because there's so much emotion and identity that's tied to language.
Language. They also found, through some research, a correlation between not
knowing the language of the host country and depression.
(08:11):
So when you move into, see, again, immigrants or even refugees,
let's not forget, refugees or immigrants that come into a foreign country,
having to learn a new language, not knowing the host country's language can
be, you know, one, tied with depression to a lot of stress because.
(08:33):
In addition to all the major life changes, like just, you know,
your Maslow's hierarchy, right?
Like your basic needs, just trying to make sure I've got food,
I've got a place to stay, and I've got to figure out how to communicate,
you know, in the host country's language, right?
I've got to learn how to communicate in the host. And so I've worked with women
who were survivors of domestic violence for many, many years.
(08:56):
And a lot of the women that I supported and worked with were immigrants.
And these are women who came to, you know, this country and,
you know, after having separated from their partners, their abusive partners,
now they're kind of on their own, right?
Either they have children or they don't have children, but now they're on their
own and they're like, I have to find a way to support myself.
(09:19):
And I don't quite understand the language here. I recently moved here.
And so now they're having to learn the language, not just, you know,
maybe when they were married, they didn't have to worry too much about independent
functioning where they needed to know the language.
Maybe they could still get by by not being fluent, but now they are having to
(09:40):
independently function.
They are having to go get a job. They're having to make a living or go back
to school and language becomes a barrier there.
And so I, I recall like the years that I had, you know, worked with these women,
we would constantly be referring these women to English as a second language
class because we want them to be able to acquire and learn this language so that they,
(10:03):
and part of this is also empowering our clients, right?
Language becomes this barrier and it helps re-empower our clients in addition
to the loss that we're acknowledging that they're experiencing, right?
But then also helping them empower them by helping them learn the language of
(10:24):
the host country so that they can function effectively.
But still, there is this disenfranchised grief of that loss of language that
we must acknowledge, that we must help our clients process and work with.
There is a certain level of, and I say this because I am a child of immigrants,
(10:45):
and I will say when you're speaking your language, when you are amongst people
who are speaking your language, there is a different connection that you experience.
It feels like home. It feels like a warm hug. I'll share a story.
I'm South Asian, and I'm bilingual, and so is my husband.
(11:07):
So whenever Whenever we go to, let's say, an Indian restaurant,
I'll go to the, let's say, the front desk or the cashier or the,
you know, staff that's waiting at our table.
I'll speak in English most of the time.
My husband, though, will start speaking in our native language.
And it's like just by default. He'll do that all the time. And I just remember
(11:31):
asking him, I was like, you know, that's interesting.
Like I start out speaking in English and I just continue and you just kind of
bust out. And he goes, yeah.
And don't you notice how instantly it's connecting, like how instantly the person connects with me?
And I paused for a moment and I thought, that's so true.
(11:52):
When we are able to connect with people with our language, it instantly creates
this connection. It like brings this feeling of being, you know, from back home.
And when people, there's so many different dialects of language out there.
When you run into someone who speaks the same dialect as you do,
you're like, wait, where are you from?
You know, like my, so my husband also grew up in Nigeria. So whenever he runs
(12:15):
into people who, there's a certain dialect of English in parts of Nigeria that
he's very familiar with.
So as soon as somebody talks, he goes, where are you from?
I grew up there, you know, and so there's this instant connection.
So I say that to say how important this is.
And so when our clients are, you know, going through this whole migration process.
(12:38):
They're resettling, helping them connect with their cultural heritage,
where they can meet and interact with groups of people, where they can speak
their language is extremely comforting and healing.
Healing so that's kind of the the message i
want to leave you with in this episode is when you've got clients you're working
(12:59):
with immigrant clients that you're working with you know work you know pay some
attention to that language piece process that and help them reconnect with people
who speak their language or their dialect and that is an incredibly comforting and healing.
So I hope that helped give you a little extra, you know, direction on the piece
(13:22):
of language, which is so important to me.
My parents were immigrants, and I remember growing up, I would,
my parents would always speak to me in our native language.
And to this day, when I speak to them in my native language,
it's just, I feel a different sense of connection with them than when I speak to them in English.
It just sounds a little bit more formal to me. so I hope
(13:45):
this helps in conceptualizing and working with your
immigrant clients and really emphasizing or at least evaluating and assessing
kind of what language means to them so we can help connect them with resources
that are helpful and healing for them all right that is all I have for today
I'll leave the links in the show notes thanks so much for tuning in I'll see
you in my next episode bye for now.
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