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"Many of us live beyond the boundaries of our homeland, forever longing to recapture the security and warmth of our lost childhood home, of our own cultural group. Our home seems lost to us after the many small and large cultural transitions we've made. Those transitions change us so deeply that when we do return home, we think we no longer belong."

---Mercedes Morris Garcia

"Cultural homelessness" is a recurring theme in the narratives of Panamanian-born Mercedes Morris Garcia and 13 other "cultural commuters" in this insightful collection.

In Women in Cross-Cultural Transitions, editors Jill M. Bystydzienski and Estelle P. Resnik bring together the personal stories of 14 women who have crossed cultural boundaries to find success in the American university and American society. The women speak of their experiences in their own voices, giving warmth and character to their narratives.

Many cultural homelands are represented: Hungary, Japan, Korea, Norway, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and others. The editors divide the narratives into two groups, one of mature women reflecting on their transitions at various stages in life and another of college undergraduate students, women who came to the United States, for the most part, to continue their education.

The personal accounts in Women in Cross-Cultural Transitions are drawn from a conference titled, "Women and Cross-Cultural Transitions," which took place at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, in 1992.

Readers will find the narratives insightful. The concerns, hopes, and ideas presented by the writers will be useful in informing college and university practices in orienting and working with foreign students. But a larger view is also available.

Women in Cross-Cultural Transitions offers readers perspectives on how women adjust to cultural change, the struggles they face in coming to a new culture, and how these challenges affect their lives and the lives of their families. The accounts are at times poignant, at times humorous, but always thought-provoking.

Norwegian-born Birgit Brocke-Utne, who has commuted between four cultures, from Tanzania to Germany to Norway to the United States, provided the keynote address for the conference. Her "Reflections of a Cultural Commuter" provides the culminating narrative in the book. In it, she says:

"One learns through living in different cultures that customs, manners, and tastes differ. One also learns that values differ. . . [My experiences] increased my tolerance for different ways of doing things [and] decreased my adherence to the perception that there were right ways and wrong ways."

The personal narratives in Women in Cross-Cultural Transitions are compelling and informative reading.

Jill M. Bystydzienski was born and lived the first nine years of her life in Poland. She spent the next four years living in New York, then returned to Poland for 18 months, and subsequently moved to Montreal, Canada. She returned to the United States when she married an American and began doctoral studies at the State University of New York at Albany.

Dr. Bystydzienski also has lived for brief periods in England and Norway and has traveled widely, most recently to East Africa and Japan. She holds a bachelor's and a master's degree from McGill University in Canada. Her Ph.D. from SUNY is in Sociology.

Dr. Bystydzienski is an associate professor of Sociology at Franklin College in Indiana, where she also is active in Women's Studies and Canadian Studies. She is the author of numerous articles on women in politics and in cross-cultural perspectives. Recently she edited Women Transforming Politics: Worldwide Strategies for Empowerment, published by Indiana University Press in 1992.

Estelle P. Resnik was born and grew up in the small towns of southern New Jersey. Commuting between urban Philadelphia and rural New Jersey while earning her doctorate first awakened her to the differences between rural and urban cultures. Later moves to New England and the Midwest brought home to her the subtle regional differences within the United States and led her to empathize with the women making major cross-cultural transitions.

In addition to a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Resnik holds a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees from Glassboro State College in New Jersey.

Dr. Resnik is dean of faculty at Franklin College. She formerly taught college English and journalism and worked as a college development and public relations officer. She also traveled across the United States studying higher education as an American Council on Education Fellow. Her publications focus on higher education.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Part I: Reflections of Mature Women Parental Variations in a Hungarian Immigrant Experience          Marga Kapka Proud to Be a Japanese-American          Jean Umemura A Francophone Korean in America          Irene Kwanghye Lee Olivier A Palestinian's Struggle with Cultural Conflicts          Rima Najjar A Zanzibari Woman's Realization of Her Mother's Dream..          Alwiya S. Omar Exploring Cultural Homelessness: At Home Here, There, and Nowhere         Mercedes Morris Garcia Lost and Found          Dagrun Bennett Part II: Perceptions of College Women A Divided Life: Wanting to Be in Two Cultures at Once          Nicolina Cobo Trying to Understand: A Sri Lankan in an American College          Rika Franke Learning to Value One's Heritage          Xing Chun Zheng Most Difficult But Most Valuable Experience          Yuko Kanda Caribbean-American Transitions          Charmaine Barnard Black and White          Shirley Ann Williams, Jr. Part III Reflections of a Cultural Commuter          Birgit Brock- Utne

 

INTRODUCTION

This volume is the result of a collaboration among the editors and the 14 women whose cross-cultural experiences it records. The collaboration began with a one-day conference, titled "Women and Cross-Cultural Transitions," at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, in March 1992. It should be noted that the term cross-cultural transitions refers to moving across cultures, usually from one country to another or across subcultures within one society. Such transitions extend over a period of time, so that persons involved in this process can immerse themselves in the new cultural environment. Cross-cultural transition also refers to circumstances where people routinely move from one cultural setting to another, for example, when children are brought up with one culture at home and are exposed to another in the community and school.

The morning of the conference focused on women who had made at least one major cross-cultural change or had grown up in a bicultural environment. During the afternoon women students, all in their late teens or early twenties, discussed their own cross-cultural transitions: moving from another country to the United States or changing from a metropolitan, multicultural locale to a small-town, homogeneous environment.

The keynote address, given by Birgit Brock-Utne from Norway, described her experiences of living in several different cultures and pulled together some common themes and issues facing women who have undergone cultural changes and adaptations. Birgit Brock-Utne's revised address is included as a final essay in this book.

Before the conference took place, one of the editors, who was also an organizer of the event, met with the presenters. In these informal meetings, the participants had a chance to learn about each other and to clarify events and issues they would highlight in their individual presentations. After the conference, their presentations were transcribed and edited; and the participants were given the opportunity to revise their statements. In addition, the women students who took part in the afternoon session were interviewed by the editors; and information from the interviews was incorporated into their narratives. These highly personal accounts form the body of this volume.

Why trouble to preserve in print the cross-cultural experiences of a handful of women? We believe that there are several compelling reasons to do so.

Like many other nations of the world, the United States comprises numerous cultures. With the exceptions of native peoples and Africans brought to North America as slaves, whose heritages have been suppressed and nearly destroyed, diverse cultural traditions have continued and even flourished within its borders. These cultures have been brought from all regions and nations of the world, have been transformed to some degree on U.S. soil, and have given America a rich, multicultural social fabric. While documentation of immigrant experiences in the United States certainly is not lacking, much of what is commonly and academically known about the generations of people who came to this country from other lands tends to be simplistic and monolithic. In both popularly held beliefs and scholarly works, U.S. immigrants are portrayed as having homogeneous experiences, as uniform groups or members of undiversified families, frequently not even differentiated by social class, and typically without reference to age or gender (Zinn and Eitzen 1990; Spates and Macionis 1987; Degler 1980).

Only recently have some scholars begun to focus on the subjective experiences of people who have made cultural transitions from various countries to North America and to uncover the great diversity of cultural encounters (see, for example, George 1992; Hondagneu-Soleto 1992; Foner 1987). This volume contributes to that emerging body of knowledge by documenting what individual women perceived, how they felt when they were in the process of moving from one culture to another, and what the consequences of the transition were for them.

The women's experiences recorded in this book also have general implications for the study of cross-cultural transitions. Millions of people have immigrated to or lived for a time in the United States; but people all over the world have made other cross-cultural transitions, either voluntarily or by force. As circumstances impel people to move geographically and culturally, adjustments have to be made; there are gains and losses. As human beings achieve a closer global interdependence, more and more people will make cultural transitions. Thus the personal narratives presented in this volume will be of interest to people in similar situations all over the world.

Those who themselves have made cross-cultural transitions will find these collected narratives engaging. But this volume will prove useful and, hopefully, insightful for native residents who encounter people of different nationalities and from different ethnic and racial groups in their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Those who would like to understand better the difficulties that persons from other cultures experience upon entering a new cultural milieu will find these narratives instructive. The narratives also will interest those persons who want to promote cultural diversity in their communities and to help cultural newcomers feel welcome and appreciated.

A focus on gender is important because relatively little is known about how women make cross-cultural transitions. Recently such books as Mary Kay Norseng's Dagny (1991), Deborah Keenan and Roseann Lloyd's Looking for Home (1990), Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation (1989), Joy Kogawa's Obasan (1986), and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1976), among others, have tried to capture and express what is at stake for women when they move from one culture to another. These books have attracted some attention, but they are rather isolated women's voices. No systematic effort has been made to analyze and interpret their meaning.

This volume presents common themes and issues raised by accounts of cross-cultural transition. Without sacrificing the diversity of women's voices, we attempt to extract from these accounts the shared aspects of their subjective experiences, which allows us to make generalizations that might be tested by future research.

There is a great deal of diversity among women's experiences with cross-cultural transitions; but we contend that women's experiences, collectively, differ from men's. In the majority of contemporary societies, women are socialized differently from men, generally have lower status, and are primarily responsible for children and households (Duley and Edwards 1986). These facts shape women's existence and give women a sense of commonality.

For instance, a combination of low status and specific role expectations --- that is, that women be caring and empathetic --- makes it more likely that women will see and accept another's point of view and will be less territorial and nationalistic than men. Moreover, women are less likely to feel denigrated than men if, upon entering the new culture, they find themselves in low-status positions, such as working in menial jobs. Thus it may be surmised that women should be able to take on a new culture more easily than men. Indeed, some recent research on Southeast Asian and Mexican immigrants to the United States, as well as on refugees in various areas of the world, has shown that women tend to adapt better and at faster rates to their new cultural environments than do men (Fong 1992; Hondagneu-Soleto 1992; Sheridan and Salaff 1984; Stein 1986).

In Part I of this volume, the accounts by Marga Kapka and Irene Olivier address specifically the issue of sex differences in adaptation to a new culture. Kapka describes vividly the different ways each of her parents approached their transitions from Hungary to life in the United States, and the difficulty experienced by her father, who could not live down the "D.P." (displaced person) label. Kapka's mother, however, despite an extensive education, managed to find enjoyment in a low-status job as a department store clerk and was able to juggle successfully both paid employment and the demands of a large family.

Olivier describes the predicament of the Korean husband/father immigrant who loses power and privilege, and hence personal worth, upon settling in the United States, where advanced age and head-of-household position carry less prestige than in the "old country." His wife, on the other hand, gains power within the family, as well as greater autonomy, as a result of the economic contribution she makes to the household.

Although women seem to adapt more easily than men to new cultures, it is inaccurate to assume that cross-cultural transitions are relatively painless for women to make. Emotionally, cultural changes may be more difficult for women, because they are socialized to "feel" their way in relation to others and the world, while men learn to suppress their emotions (Matlin 1987; Thorne and Luria 1986). Several of the narratives in this book attest to the great emotional sacrifice required by the transitions both groups of women had made.

In Part I, for instance, Dagrun Bennett describes the pain she felt in realizing her loss of belonging, while Marga Kapka and Jean Umemura convey the frustration and conflict they experienced as children living simultaneously in two cultures, being unable to feel full allegiance to either. The evacuation experience was so emotionally taxing for Umemura that for years she was unable to talk about it to anyone, including her children.

In Part II, several of the women point out that in order to adapt to their new environment, they had to suppress what they were feeling. Charmaine Barnard says that in order to function in the new environment, she would "just bury my emotions and not feel anything anymore. A person my age should feel attracted to other people, should have fun, . . . But I was able to cut all that off and not feel a thing. An emotional blank . . . ." Yuko Kanda echoes her: "The way I dealt with my situation during those first few months was to cut off as much of my emotions as I could."

For women, the expression of feelings is not only allowed but encouraged. Yet cross-cultural transitions can be so emotionally overwhelming that feelings have to be suppressed in order to function on a daily basis. We are suggesting that it may be more painful for women to do this than for men, since women may have less experience keeping emotions under control.

The experience of moving across cultures may be more difficult for women than men in still another respect. Women frequently have fewer opportunities than do men to become fully involved in the new culture. They often are expected to uphold the values and customs of their cultures of origin, and they may be isolated as homemakers or regarded as mere appendages to husbands if they make the change with their families. Irene Olivier's poignant account of her cultural transition from the Korean-American community in Los Angeles to a small town in the American Midwest tells how, as a housewife, she felt isolated until the birth of her baby. That event transformed her from simply "wife" to the more culturally legitimate status of "mother" and created a vehicle for conversations with neighbors and other community members.

Women frequently rely on other women for support in difficult situations (see, for example, Lenz and Myerhoff 1985), and those making cross-cultural transitions are no exception (Ahem, Bryan, and Baca 1985; Hondagneu-Soleto 1992; Van Reken 1988). The narratives of several contributors, particularly Alwiya Omar and Dagrun Bennett, tell about the importance of women's networks and support groups in the process of cross-cultural change.

These accounts suggest that the study of gender differences in cross-cultural transitions is complex and multidimensional. In some respects, women might make the changes more easily than men; in others, less easily. Women may adapt more easily in terms of daily life situations, such as accepting low-status jobs or balancing family obligations and paid employment; but the emotional price associated with cross-cultural change may be greater for women than for men. For women who move across cultures with adult men, especially husbands, there may be an added problem if they are sheltered from the new environment. On the other hand, women appear likely to find support among other women in the new cultural milieus.

Mercedes Morris Garcia, whose account of moving from war-torn Panama to the United States is included in Part I, coined the phrase, "cultural homelessness." It encapsulates rather accurately the experiences of most of the 14 women whose narratives appear in this volume. Cultural homelessness is a state of being between cultures, of never quite fitting into the adopted cultural environment, but also, having made the change, not being able to slip back easily into one's "home" culture. Thus being culturally homeless implies not having roots anywhere and not accepting wholly the values and customs of any society; in effect, feeling marginal.

Cultural homelessness is illustrated in a number of different ways through these accounts. Dagrun Bennett writes of her "feeling of not really belonging anywhere," of being "lost between these [two] worlds," and of "that easy sense of belonging. . being lost to me forever." Jean Umemura's confusion about her cultural identity --of being neither truly American nor Japanese --- was exacerbated by the evacuation with her family from their home to a Japanese relocation camp during World War II. When Rima Najjar returned to the West Bank after living for several years in the United States, she felt "uneasy" and "invaded" by the pointed stares of the men in the street.

Alwiya Omar recalls visits to Tanzania in which she made "involuntary pragmatic blunders" when she engaged in social interactions. Rika Franke worries about whether she will "fit" when she returns to her native Sri Lanka. Mercedes Morris Garcia and Nicolina Cobo realize that, as professional women, they can no longer feel comfortable in the Latin countries from which they come. On the other hand, they do not quite "belong" in the United States either. Cobo says poignantly, "I don't know where I belong. It's hard because part of me is in Ecuador and part of me is in America, . . . and when I am in one or the other, I am always missing people and things from the other country .... I am scared that if I go back to Ecuador to live, I am not going to get used to it. But if I stay in the United States, I will never really have a home either."

For many cross-cultural sojourners, cultural homelessness is the major emotional cost of transition. No matter how successfully they may appear to adapt to their new culture, they never feel fully integrated into any society. Moreover, they can no longer be at home in their culture of origin. Hence, there is frequently a sense of irretrievable loss and rootlessness.

Another emotional cost of cross-cultural transitions is the suppression of feelings that, if allowed to continue, may have serious consequences. Ruth Van Reken, who grew up as a missionary child living in Nigeria and the United States, recounts in her memoir, Letters Never Sent (1988), how she learned to build "a wall of good adjustment" around her true feelings. She describes the difficulties this attitude created in her relationships with other people. In order to cope with the separation from her parents, relatives, and friends whom she left behind, Van Reken hid her anguish, anxiety, and grief first behind "acting as if all was well," and later in brooding silence and withdrawal.

It took Van Reken many years of painful struggle to come to terms with her suffering and to understand and express her feelings. Many of the contributors to this volume also recall that loss and grief accompanied their transitions to a new culture. A number of them also recount that only through suppression of such feelings were they able to function in the everyday world. Over time, like Van Reken, the older women seem to have reached an understanding of their experiences and to have come to terms with conflict and loss. The younger women have yet to come to that understanding.

Many cross-cultural travelers experience the problem of negotiating a new identity in the host culture. One manifestation of this process is a name change. In the United States and other Western countries, immigrants often take new names, in part to fit in and in part because their own names may be too difficult to pronounce by the Westerners they meet. The Korean Kwanghye Lee became Irene Olivier, initially by changing her first name while she was a student in France and then her last name when she married a Frenchman. Xing Chun Zheng adopted "Alex" as her American name when she discovered that almost everyone she met in the United States found it impossible to say or remember her Chinese name. While such a change may appear to be superficial, those going through the process experience a transformation of identity, including some loss of their former sense of self.

Another consequence of making cross-cultural transitions is intercultural misunderstanding, which may create embarrassment, humiliation, and resentment. Carroll (1988) indicates that such a misunderstanding takes place when "I interpret in my own way an act or a discourse that pertains to a different way of doing things and requires a different filter" (p.10). The culture one inherits at birth provides one with a culture-bound logic and basic assumptions that one uses to give order and meaning to the world of that culture. Upon entering another culture, one is confronted with a different set of assumptions and logic. However, differences between the two cultures may not be readily apparent. Frequently the cross-cultural traveler interprets the actions and words of people in the newly encountered society based on her or his own native cultural assumptions.

A striking example of an intercultural misunderstanding, mentioned by several of our contributors, deals with notions of friendship. Rika Franke, for instance, indicates that in her home culture in Sri Lanka becoming friendly with someone takes time; when people first meet they are polite and courteous. Only as they get to know one another better do they become increasingly friendly. Upon coming to the United States, she discovered that Americans, particularly Midwesterners, are very friendly on first meeting but then make no special effort to sustain a friendship. From her native cultural perspective, Rika expected continued special treatment from people who greeted her in an amicable, effusive manner. When her expectations were not fulfilled, she felt disappointed and hurt. On the other hand, American students who met Rika found her detached politeness to be standoffish. Thus, acting on the assumptions of their own cultures, both Rika and her acquaintances misinterpreted the other's behavior.

As Carroll points out, it takes time and insight to clear up intercultural misunderstandings. Indeed, achieving a degree of detachment from one's own and the host culture and conducting a "cultural analysis" that enables one to become cognizant of the cultural assumptions that intercultural participants bring into social encounters can "transform cultural misunderstandings from an occasional source of deep wounds into a fascinating and inexhaustible exploration of the other" (1988, p. 11). The narratives presented here indicate that cross-cultural travelers with greater experience and maturity provide more sophisticated cultural analysis. While the younger women's accounts are largely descriptive, those of the more traveled and older women seek to explore cultural patterns and understandings. For instance, Rima Najjar describes her struggle to come to terms with the different cultural prescriptions regulating family relations among Palestinians and among Americans.

The narratives in this volume also indicate that moving across cultures offers distinct benefits. All the women point out that their lives have been enriched as a result of exposure to other ways of life and to new and different people and experiences. When they learned to function in the new environment, the women found greater personal strength, autonomy, resilience, and growth.

All six younger women say that they have benefited personally from their transitions. For Yuko Kanda, becoming less shy and able to speak out on issues about which she cares deeply has been a positive development. For Shirley Ann Williams, Jr., the challenge to do well academically in a hostile environment has given her sufficient strength and confidence to persevere. Xing Chun Zheng points out that her travels, first in China and now to the United States, have made her more open-minded, as well as appreciative of her own country.

Charmaine Barnard suggests that even though the transition from New York to a small-town campus in the Midwest was an ordeal, she benefited from the education she obtained, as well as from her increasing involvement in campus activities. And Nicolina Cobo recalls that it took a great deal of courage for her to make the cultural change; but once she did, she gained the confidence to do almost anything.

Feeling alien and marginal in society, while sometimes producing anxiety, has its advantages: It makes one more sharply aware of the shortcomings of that society and helps to develop critical thought. As Dagrun Bennett points out, "When you leave that safe and comfortable place (your own culture), you have to re-evaluate a lot of things." In the end, the person who leaves the safety of "home" not only develops a critical perspective in the new place in which she settles but also brings that critical point of view back to the "home" culture. Stepping outside of one's own society thus opens up the mind to new ways of thinking and looking at the world and is likely to lead to a re-evaluation of one's culture of origin.

For most of the women who share their cross-cultural experiences in this volume, the idealized version of life in America was quickly shattered when they began to learn about and to evaluate their new surroundings. For instance, Rima Najjar comments critically on the materialism that pervades even personal relationships in the United States. Xing Chun Zheng voices her disillusionment with extreme forms of individualism and the superficial friendliness she encountered in the United States. However, both of these women also recognize the shortcomings of their own societies: Najjar, the traditional, restricted roles of women among Palestinians, and Xing Chun Zheng, the excessively hierarchical and collectivistic existence in mainland China.

Cross-cultural transitions entail both advantages and costs. The positive consequences of these transitions are that they tend to lead those involved to develop a global perspective and a critical mind, to acquire the facility to move back and forth between cultures, and to experience enjoyment and appreciation of people from other backgrounds, customs, and traditions. The negative consequences involve pain and grief over inevitable misunderstandings, separations, and losses. It seems that as long as the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, or at the very least are in balance, individuals who make cross-cultural transitions are able to live their lives fully and productively, eventually coming to terms with the negatives.

However, a resolution is never reached for some cross-cultural travelers. They may not have the opportunity or insight to work through the dilemma of cultural homelessness or to clear up cultural misunderstandings. They may always agonize internally over what they have gained and lost. Some of these gains and losses are explored by the younger women represented here. However, the experiences of those who are overcome by loss cannot be known, for these students drop out of our colleges and universities. We will never know what obstacles they found insurmountable.

Persons who eventually reach a satisfactory resolution may struggle for years with pain and anxiety before they develop peace of mind about their cross-cultural transition. Support groups and counseling services with therapists specifically sensitized to the problems posed by moving across cultures can help those who are struggling.

Ultimately, educating the public in our increasingly global communities to the dilemmas of cross-cultural traveling and encouraging people to learn from and appreciate those of other cultures would make cross-cultural transitions easier. As educators, we are sensitive to the need to encourage the development of international and intercultural programs. Similarly, we advocate attention to the cultural content in school, college, and university curricula, so that students at all levels are exposed to a variety of cultures and are able to develop an appreciation of cultural differences.

We cannot and should not expect cross-cultural travelers to assimilate --- in other words, to lose their previous cultural identity and to fully embrace the new culture. What we may expect and work toward is integration --- a mutual accommodation between the newly arrived and the host. Just as a mosaic creates a complete picture out of discrete tiles without disturbing the integrity of each of the individual pieces, so people of different cultural backgrounds also should be able to form an integral community without having to give up their cultural distinctiveness. True cultural integration requires a tolerance for and affirmation of differences, which contributor Jean Umemura calls "a blending of cultures."

It is our hope that this volume will contribute to the newly developing knowledge in the field of cross-cultural studies and help to create more understanding of, and compassion for, the many women --- and men --- who are cross-cultural sojourners. We are grateful to the women who shared their experiences with us. Their courage and perseverance will be an inspiration to others who have made cross-cultural journeys, as well as to those who have received cross-cultural travelers in their communities.

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