The glittering lifestyle of economically advanced Western countries has always been attracting less than well-off people from Asia, Africa, and Latin America and will continue to do so, much like honey attracting bees or a magnet pulling the iron-fillings. This pull is made stronger by the ever expanding needs of the Western people and the desire of the technically advanced and rapidly progressive nations in leading the world. Two kinds of jobs or works are in demand by the well-established nations or the “new world” from the economically weaker countries of the world.
One is that for the minimally paying jobs that indigenous people are unwilling to accept but immigrants would happily take. In most circumstances, they leave their motherlands primarily to make money by whatever means necessary to help their families back home.
The second is for the very well-trained techies and highly educated professionals from the large available pools in few Eastern countries such as India, Philippines and China that are not easily found locally. Western students are often unable to afford the time and money for lengthy professional training spanning over many years, as they want to, or have to, move away from their parental nests early on as per their cultural set up to establish and support their own families. The weaker nations, on the other hand, are more than happy to oblige them by unloading their burden of readymade, highly trained brigade of youth in order to scale down their unemployed teeming population. Consequently, professionally trained individuals from the nations of Asia, Latin America, and Africa have been continuously and regularly turning to the West. These professionals then continue making their permanent homes in the advanced nations of the West in ever increasing numbers thanks to the generosity of the West to accept people of other nations as their nationals.
History reveals that in the years past, a good number of South Asian countries were turned into British colonies and ruled by royal throne of England. Their populations were assigned the status of Commonwealth subjects by their masters. The visa restrictions for inter-Commonwealth travel, including an entry into Great Britain itself, were relatively lax. Thus the initial thrust of immigration from these countries was naturally and mainly directed towards their master’s land, the U.K. However, with a downward trend of British economy, it did not remain an attractive destination anymore. With the passage of time and with the availability of abundant resources in these countries, first Canada, then U.S.A. and now Australia, they have indeed; become the choice over Great Britain as a destination for immigrants from these areas.
With the dominant culture of the host countries offering so many material comforts, it was but natural that the process of cultural and psychological change or acculturation would follow in the rapidly expanding youth population born of the immigrant parents and now being raised in the West.
One of the most serious and bad consequences of this phenomenon of acculturation that started to raise its ugly head among Asian Indian youth in the West was their leaning towards alcohol and drug abuse. Cultural loneliness, disparate socio-cultural norms during social activities, and an ongoing sense of alienation at work place plus some degree of a language barrier, all added to the dilemma. A reluctant desire to escape by becoming more westernized through superficial looks and means began to take hold. As a result, the young people’s adherence to traditional South Asian culture, in particular the preservation or the practice of religious principles, started to lessen. Instead, the use of the illicit drugs and alcohol, as well as immoral sexual practices consequent to loosening social taboos, took over.
The ugly and painful phenomenon of drug and substance abuse among the immigrant communities did not stay limited to the U.K. alone. After establishing its grip over the Asian youth in the U.K., substance abuse began to rear its ugly head in North America. Accurate statistics might not be available, yet the lack of sufficient available data doesn’t necessarily translate into the lack of its presence. According to a study done by Lal and Singh in 1979 and reported in the book Ethno-cultural Factors in Substance Abuse Treatment edited by Shulamith Lala Ashenberg Straussuer and published by Guilford publications, the rate of alcohol abuse in rural areas of Punjab, was found to be 4.7% in a cohort of 127, whereas a study by the United Commission (1989) of a similar group in Vancouver estimated an alcoholism rate of almost 25% of the males. This simply proves that Indian immigrants are more prone to use alcohol and drugs after their migration to foreign countries than their counterparts in India.
As to the story of drug abuse among the diaspora youth in the U.S.A., Bhattacharya G. from the University of Illinois has documented the extent of drug use based on the self-reporting of 200 U.S.A.-born Asian-Indian adolescents. “According to the study by the participants’ self-reported lifetime use, 28 percent had used alcohol on at least one occasion, 16.5 percent had used cigarettes, and 2.5 percent had used marijuana.” In offering an explanation for this behavior, researchers arrived at the same conclusions: “Immigrant parents and their U.S.A.-born children may experience stressful family conflicts over the disparate socio-cultural norms of the United States and their countries of origin. Such stresses may heighten adolescents’ vulnerability to drug abuse.”
In regards gender, the study determined that “the pattern of illicit drug use among South Asians appears little different from that of the general population in terms of the drugs used and the age of users. There may be a smaller proportion of South Asian females than females in the general population who have used illicit drugs, although some of the studies highlighted the reluctance of such females to respond to questions on personal drug use.” It is worth noting, however, that the drug use among the South Asian youth on the whole, including females, is gradually catching up as the population becomes “westernized.”
This phenomenon of becoming more “westernized” deserves special attention from the Sikh perspective. It is common knowledge that the fading of Sikh religious principles, especially in relation to uncut hair and turbans–a ‘sine quo non’ for unique Sikh identity–is becoming much more rampant among Western-born Indian Sikhs, much like what is happening in Punjab. The Sikhs from rural Punjabi backgrounds seem to top the list in this venture of apostasy while non-Jats Sikhs and Sikhs of other minority segments are rapidly catching up in getting entrapped in this unfortunate behavior.
Ironically, neither Sikh youth nor their parents seem to realize that the unique Sikh identity displayed proudly with turbans, uncut hair and beards, might at times act to their advantage. It often tends to create a psychological barrier against the flagrant liberty needed in the use of illicit drugs and extramarital sex, thus preventing them from getting involved in these kinds of antisocial activities. Turbans and beards do dampen, albeit to a varying degree, the chances of young persons in making friends or being accepted in such anti-social endeavors, as opposed to those who decide not to maintain them. In other words, it may become relatively easy to join and blend with a wider pool of all kinds of friends after forsaking unique Sikh identity at least theoretically speaking. My personal non-scientific observations seem to support this proposition.
My reason to highlight this issue of drugs is a deep concern for the increasing vulnerability of Western-born Indian youth to substance and alcohol abuse. Not drinking at all or staying away from alcohol is the best possible solution. This is only possible if open discussions and motivational talks about the dangers of substance abuse are repeatedly carried out by parents with their growing-up children. Other family members will have to chip in to provide moral support as well. However, a mere lecture by the parents against the dangers of drinking or using drugs while they themselves continue to personally engage into them in the presence of their children will not work. The parents themselves have to be motivated to create an environment where their young children are spared from this agony of the duality if they truly want their children to listen to them.
Our people have always been reluctant to discuss such matters in public. “The major factors influencing families’ reaction to drug abuse among their children are the importance of maintaining the respect of the family within their community as well as having no information about availability of drug-rehab services. The result is that families often employ strategies that focus on not seeking professional help from mainstream drug services for the drug user, but rather, on hiding and denying the situation from the extended family and the rest of their community. However such efforts to tackle drug use are largely unsuccessful.”
The same study mentions, “The denial among the South Asians might be due to their inherent cultural fear of losing face among their own people, thanks to the cultural baggage that they carry from home for good or bad. Like other Asian diaspora, Indians too are a close-knit group, and such issues are not discussed or brought to the lime light, probably due to guilt, shame, and stigma, despite the need for the opposite to happen. All efforts are made to keep the matter hush-hush for a fear that if the lid is opened, the contents will spill out, spoiling the family’s reputation and status in their respective communities.”
It is time to act now. Closing our eyes will land us in more troubles that could be much more serious and unmanageable in the future.
