WP2: Pressure

For my WP2, I researched the logical, mental, and emotional aspects of how first-generation African immigrants engage with education and its impact on their children. I also conducted a survey on a sample of students at USC to gather their feelings about work ethic in their culture.

Pressure of the centrality of education and pressure to uphold excellence

I mentioned in my WP1 that my parents constantly emphasized that our culture values education and service to others above all else. When I inquired further about why this was, they told me because of political instability in Cameroon, they were never allowed to have non-government-approved books or other sources of material for educating themselves. So, when they moved to the U.S. they made a vow to give their children the opportunities they weren’t allowed. The fact of the matter is that a larger part of Africans migrate to Western countries because of civil wars in their countries and/or in pursuit of better education (“We feel like it was better back home”). The struggle migrants go through to achieve educational success is molded into a primary motivation for their children’s work ethic. Here, I will introduce Tols Abeni, a child of Nigerian immigrants who believes a strong work ethic is “a cultural principle of being a black person in the UK” and reflects that,

“You’re told from a very young age you can’t afford to make mistakes, or to be involved in the same kind of silly or mischievous things as maybe your Caucasian counterparts, because it will be counted against you. (Ro)”

And here is another quote pulled from my own survey on work ethic and culture by an anonymous respondent,

“Having a working, growth mindset is hard as a black man. I feel disconnected a lot because my peers and I aren’t focused on the same things.”

Here you can see there is a common theme of feeling they have to be nonsensical and primarily focused on education all the time. Unlike their white counterparts who can afford to be imperfect because society is built for them (as opposed to around them), a lack of focus could result in severely outbalanced consequences for the black people living in the west. In fact, it’s not uncommon for second-gen black immigrants to be dissuaded from associating themselves with U.S.-born black people in order to not get “caught” in the same life-threatening situations they’re usually in.

“…when they come home you think like when they are with you are they following the rules back home or they mostly picking up the attitude and behavior outside of the house with their American friends or the other Africans or whatever culture that they getting and then automatically issues such as drugs issues such as umm you know for young ladies being so much on the phones and talking to different strangers, it gets scary… (Covington-Ward)”

These complex ideas of centralizing education to reach success and the constant need to prove themselves are why first-gen immigrants, especially black immigrants who face even more opportunity barriers, pass down this fear of being unproductive to their children in the guise of a “strong work ethic”.

Pressure of moral obligation and pressure to work twice as hard to be equal

“Everyone who is not successful in your family is your responsibility” -Anonymous

Acts of service is not only a love language but a way of living in many West African cultures. This could mean anything from loaning your friend a place to sleep for the week to sending thousands to family back in your home country each month. The second scenario is actually extremely common amongst this group of people (my family included) as seen in the quote below.

“There is another thing makes me stress, sending when you know that you have to work hard to send money back home, you are to work way hard to pay your bills and save some other money, it’s like you working twice, to save money for them and for yourself too; our lives evolving between here and there, our lives here in America and Africa (Covington-Ward).”

For children of these immigrants, they grow up in a household where it’s normal for their parents to work two, even three jobs at once in order to keep themselves financially stable as well as their family from their home country. As the children work in school and eventually their jobs, they apply this mindset to their own tasks where they feel the need to work as hard as their parents did so their parents aren’t disappointed. Abeni describes this as,

“There’s always still that kind of element of ‘you need to overdo things’. And I don’t think it’s something that you can just delete from your psyche just like that (Ro).”

This also stems from children of immigrants feeling the need to not let their parents’ struggles go to waste. However, as a participant in my survey pointed out,

“I think my strong value of work ethic helps me succeed, but it does put a bit of a strain on me mentally because I’m constantly worried about it.”

This urge to overwork passed down from parent to child — although a survival method for the parent but not as necessary for the child — is the reason why so many second-gens do not even realize their “strong work ethic” is a symptom of workaholicism. But this is also reinforced by the fact that America has a culture of toxic work habits and black people, in general, are affected more by this since they also have to work against detrimental stereotypes regarding their morals and racial discrimination in the workplace. Abeni captures this aspect clearly,

“You have to work twice as hard as your white counterparts, in order to even be given a sliver of the recognition that they are given in the workplace (Ro).”

In conclusion, I’m not surprised that 80% of the people I surveyed believe their culture has a strong impact on their work ethic and that majority of them voted it negatively affects their mental health. The pressure for first-gen and second-gen African-American immigrants to uphold this impossible status of being a good citizen for both their home country and their host country is boiled down “strong work ethic” rather than the result of the systematic exclusion of black immigrants in the west and educational barriers in Africa.

Sources:

Covington-Ward, Yolanda, et al. “‘We Feel like It Was Better Back Home:” Stress, Coping, and Health in a U.S. Dwelling African Immigrant Community.” ResearchGate, Johns Hopkins University Press, Feb. 2018, 10.1353/hpu.2018.0018.

Nkonabang, Maia. “Work Ethic in Culture Survey.” Questionnaire. 24 Oct 2021.

Ro, Christine. “How an ‘Inherited’ Work Ethic Shapes Some Workers.” BBC Worklife, BBC, 7 July 2021, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210707-the-highs-and-lows-of-an-inherited-work-ethic.