POLISH Culture Group- the Polish

Culture Group -- the Polish

The Polish

The polish culture group is a category of people who speak the Slavic lingo of Poland and practice the cultural norms in line with their beliefs and customs. It is perceived that the culture essence of the polish is one that unconstrained emotional expressions (Wierzbicka, 2003, pg 121). The culture originated from a confluence with interweaving ties alongside Germans, Latinos and the Byzantines. The originality is also as a result of cultural traits of the proto-slavs. The geographical position and occupancy of the polish are found in the heart of Europe, the nation of Poland. Their nation is bordered by the Baltic Sea, Ukraine and Belarus, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia to the northern side, east, and west and southern respectively. The polish people experience a long-term climatic environment. It is rough and adverse and has taken long to be resolved due to the terrain of its flat terrain and due to the restricting effects of the Baltic Sea (Przybylak, 2009, pg 6).

Apparently, the polish ethnic language has a wide range of linguistics resources. It has a high-profiled system of hypocoristic and terms of endearment in personification of names; and with how the polish articulate their speech amongst themselves and with other cultures (Wierzbicka, 2003, pg 122). The Polish culture is greatly influenced by the foods and the lifestyle the people live. They maintain their interest in traditional foods with reliance on the Slavic cuisine (Albala, 2011, pg 274). They incorporate, other cuisines from Austria, Hungary, Russia and Germany; and this has made the polish culture a distinct food culture globally. Foods under great demand of Polish culturists are soups and stews, smoke-cured meat, kielbasa, pierogi, kasza, fish and pastries. Their common beverages include traditional beer and vodka (Albala, 2011, pg 275).

The Polish description of their beliefs and customs characterize the particularity of the values and their culture. It is hugely affected by pluralistic socio-cultural systems in their society and is mostly Christian-oriented rather than based on traditional ties. The beliefs also define their identity unto any other cultural interaction. A major commonality that the Poles practice is the Christian custom of sharing of wafer leaves during the Christmas Eve. This is usually to convey their benevolence, greetings for each member of the community, forgiveness from harms and other offences, deepening of their high sense of brotherhood with everyone and other creation (Dyczewski, 2002, pg 9).

In the early 18th and 19th century, the Polish immensely conducted their immigration trends to the U.S. Earlier on, Poland was exceptionally stable, but after the emergence of economic, political and social downturns, the Poles found it much safer to escape from their own territory. It led to the development of the American Polonia ethnic group in the States. Their immigration to the U.S.A. was conducted through three massive phases. The first experienced wave consisted of Catholics (who later and while in the U.S. converted to the Quaker Faith), illiterate laborers and economically dissatisfied Poles. It consisted of roughly 400,000 Poles (Ingram and Asher, 2004, pg 13). The second phase mainly consisted of Polish war veterans, political Poles seeking asylum, dissidents and war intellectuals who had engaged directly of indirectly in the World War II. The last phase was for the Poles who acquired visas and more literate professionals seeking positions in the American employment sector. However, others did find their in America illegally.

Social Issues that Challenged Polish Immigrants in the U.S.A.

A major challenge faced by the settling Poles was that they were denied the opportunity to vote. This was majorly experienced by the first category of Poles that immigrated. As they settled in the Jamestown and with the introduction of the new denomination, Quaker, the town's Legislative Assembly denied the right to exercise their democracy.

The Polish was a culture oriented group, and they immigrated with the same notion in America. This became a barrier to continue wit their norms as their social-psychological needs were greatly deprived. The authoritative positions in America introduced new forces of industrial capitalism that encouraged individuality and its subsequent profit-seeking methods. This was introduced to jeopardize the Poles' solidarity, disorganize their social organization and diminish their social rules of behavior. Super communal promotion by the American also rendered a big challenge as it demoralized the polish to individuality and social reintegration. The polish were highly ethicized (Conzen, 2012, pg 16).

The Polish has also been faced by the challenge of alienation from other citizens in America. After the change of religion of the Poles, their new acquired Quaker Faith portrayed...

This made them even more prone to racism, ethnic prejudice and other discriminatory practices encouraged by the new religion. They were greatly marginalized from the development of their interest in the new foreign land, which led to even more alienated situations from the other early occupants (Bonifacio, 2010, pg 192).
Another experienced challenge was assimilation. This forcibly occurred due to negative stereotyping by Americans and other Poles who did not have a chance to fit into a new industrial and societal mainstream. American attitudes towards the Poles began to change too, and this affected their acculturation in the American set up. The Poles who had no skillful technique were commonly referred to as filthy, drunks and ruffian. This became even difficult for the Americans to surmount the nature of the polish characterized by primitiveness and illiteracy. This frustrated the poles in trying ton re-establish themselves in the new entity (Gibney and Iansen, 2005, pg 478).

The immigration to the U.S. also paved way for a culture imbalance among the early natives of America, the African-Americans, white Americans and the Polish. This greatly discouraged their efforts to retain their culture and language. The culture imbalance affecting them was also as a result of the language barrier that immensely implicated negatively towards the first unskilled and illiterate Polish immigrants.

The Polish demography was also challenged after the introduction of immigration rules by the American government. The total population of the Polish reduced. Others were eligible to be allocated the green cards. Other nations had to have equal opportunities in immigration and hence, reduction in the percent of Polish immigrants. This problem has steadily continued to the current 21st century.

Mental health issues affecting the Polish

Mental health is a chief challenge that has affected the Polish over a long duration. A significant number of individuals in the Polish culture are subjected to mental illness. The adversities of the mental conditions vary in diverse individuals throughout the Polish culture. It is obvious that these mental conditions have diverse attributions to the Polish Society.

In Poland, the employment rate struck a diminished trend in the past (Michlic, 2006, pg 362). Diverse individuals have undergone mental torture due to struggles in finding job opportunities. This phenomenon greatly triggered unanticipated frustration to a substantial figure of the Poland populace. Consequently, the Polish considers alcohol as their perfect remedy. Many tried to heal their mental torture temporarily through street drinking. The excessive drinking perpetuated many cases of mental disorders in the Polish culture. The alcohol content is tampers with the cognitions of the victims. The mental disorders are hereditary. Polish children have with time inherited psychological disorders from their biological parents. Some Poles obtained the mental illnesses from traumatizing events. This was a common phenomenon to the existent populace in the World War I and II especially when many individuals underwent man-slaughter. Eventually, mental challenges brought about immense psychological torture to the witnesses.

Age was a further aspect that imparted to the high degree of mental illness in Poland. There was an immense number of the aged. These individuals had explored the extreme levels of their ages. Mental illness was a characteristic that they shared. In conjunction to this age notion, Poland had undergone a social as well as an economic transition throughout the gradual progression of time. The transition brought high levels of poverty, crime, and unemployment. These factors brought much stress to the natives in Poland. The socio-economic transition was a major facilitation of the mental illnesses in Poland (Watt, 1979, pg 407) and especially to the aged who did not have any affiliation to any socioeconomic role in uplifting Poland. All these factors implicate there was an elevated degree in the mental illness cases. Consequently, this trend triggered many issues in Poland.

In Poland, individuals have stereotypes and prejudices towards the mentally inflicted individuals. The attitudes are extremely harsh and uncouth to the mentally ill individuals. Definitely, these victims face an evident degree of stigma (Watt, 1979, pg 477). The Polish society secludes the mentally challenged and refers demeaning names to them. The mentally ill individuals have a separate behavior from normal individuals. They exhibit extreme traits of behavior in the society. In Poland, the general society has a negative attitude towards the handicapped. They assign extreme names such as idiots and crazy to the mentally ill; a term not considered for humanitarian assistance to the mentally challenged. The phenomenon impedes the recovery and rehabilitation…