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Caring About Diversity Means Terms Like 'Illegal Alien' Have No Place in Diversity Message

Ana is talking with one of her team members about a newly employed woman who has a "strange" last name.

"I wonder where she's from. I'll bet you she's an illegal alien," Ana whispers to a co-worker.

But Ana receives an unexpected reaction from a nearby team member, who has been listening in to the conversation.

"Say, wait a minute. My name isn't so common, and I was born in Oregon," Jan Ishi calls over to Ana and her friend. "You had better be careful what you're calling someone at work!"

"Oh I didn't mean anything bad, especially about you," Ana says, as she grabs her coffee and leaves the room red-faced.

So what is an "illegal alien" and would using another term, such as "undocumented worker," have been a more accurate or politically correct choice?

As we strive for diversity competence, it is critical to have a decent vocabulary and understanding of words used to describe what goes on around us, if for no other reason than to keep from offending each other.

Here is a short glossary of words especially helpful for describing some of the terms used as people move from one culture or country into another.

A newcomer or someone legally settling into a new country, a settler, is referred to as an immigrant. In turn, an emigrant or émigré is someone who moves away to another country permanently, usually for political reasons.

Foreign nationals who violate U.S. immigration policies and national laws by entering or remaining in the United States without proper permission from the United States government are sometimes called illegal aliens, a term often considered a derogatory; undocumented worker is the preferred term.

In the United States, there are an estimated 6.5 million undocumented immigrant workers representing a vital workforce in manufacturing, service, construction, restaurant, and agriculture sectors. They are among the most vulnerable and exploited workers in the United States, as frequent victims of unpaid wages, dangerous conditions and uncompensated workplace injuries, discrimination, and other labor law violations.

Workers who attempt to remedy the abuse routinely face physical and immigration-related threats and retaliation.There have been proposals by some congressional members to grant temporary legal status to undocumented immigrant workers currently residing in the United States.

Another word - culture - can be confusing. Coming from the Latin word cultura or cultivate, it simply refers to "how things are done." This refers to the total ways of living, behaving, using language, communicating, thinking, and believing of a specific group, such as Americans or Native Americans.

Culture also refers to a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize an institution, organization or group. Culture also refers to the values of a group large enough to be self-sustaining over generations, so the Navajo or Dine people would have their own culture, separate from the larger group of Americans.

It is critical to understand that culture is dynamic; it is always changing.

When an immigrant comes into a new country or culture, acculturation refers to their learning and adopting "how things are done" in the new culture or society. Sometimes we use the term cultural adaption.

Those who have acculturated or culturally adapted would, for example, learn and follow state driving rules or they would learn and follow school district requirements about sending their children to school.

Unlike a temporary visitor, immigrants must find a new source of livelihood and build an entirely new life. They also must decide how much value they place on keeping their original cultural identify compared to starting and maintaining relationships with other groups in their new culture.

If immigrants entirely give up their original cultural identity and move into full participation in the new culture, they become assimilated. An assimilated person identifies with their new country and not the ethnic group. Assimilation is a long-term and sometimes multigenerational process.

Still another word, integration, refers to maintaining important parts of one's original culture as well as becoming an integral part of the new culture.

One difference between integration and assimilation is that under assimilation, groups disappear through intermarriage but in integration, groups continue to exist. The words biculturalism and pluralism are also used to describe integration.

Sometimes we use the term "corporate culture" when talking about the corporate world. Whether written as a mission statement, spoken or merely understood, corporate culture describes and directs the ways a company's owners and employees [are supposed to] think, feel and act.

A business's culture may be based on beliefs spelled out in its mission statement. It could consist in part of a corporate symbol, like the rainbow-colored apple that symbolizes Apple Computer. Or it may be found in values displayed - such as successful employees dressing in the same manner and wearing the same brand of watch, sporting similar hair styles or vacationing at the same spot, say a lavish golf resort.

Culture shock refers to anxiety, disorientation, and stress felt when in a new culture, including a new country or even a new job. Reverse culture shock can occur when one returns to their home country or culture.

Once when landing at an airport in Germany, because I don't speak the German language, I felt disoriented. Using airport public phones was very different than what I am accustomed too, so after trying to make several calls unsuccessfully, I began to feel dizzy and angry. The sound of people speaking German seemed amplified and I had to sit down and relax, take a few deep breaths, to get over my culture shock.

Whether a person enters a host culture as a short-time visitor or as an immigrant, culture shock is a typical response. It doesn't always happen at first contact with the new culture, but for many people it actually comes in waves or stages, according to some anthropologists who have studied this phenomenon over the years.

Five more helpful glossary words included the following:

Asylee refers to a person living outside the country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return to the homeland because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution.

The difference between an asylee and a refugee is that an asylee is applying for admission in the country he or she is already in; a refugee is applying for admission from outside the country he or she wants to enter.

Biculturalism is the ability to function in two cultures.

Diversity refers to the fact or quality of being different. Diversity recognizes any difference that impacts on the equal treatment of people - including differences in race, gender, age, culture, disability, religion, sexual orientation, mental illness, native language or any other characteristic that helps to shape a person's being.

In this context, diversity can include any way that people differ. Diversity is not a legal term, such as affirmative action or equal opportunity.

English as a second language, ESL (English as a second language), ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), and EFL (English as a foreign language) all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with a different native language. These programs typically combine literacy and language instruction.

The next time Ana hears about a new person at work, hopefully she will consider more than the person's "strange" name. Diversity affects all of us and understanding, managing and valuing diversity requires new skills based on increased knowledge.

About the Author

Say -- Susan Klopfer, diversity author and speaker,offers a free daily newsletter to subscribers. Visit her website at
http://susanklopfer.com
to learn more. Or see her Diversity Briefings newsletter at
http://diversitybriefings
. Susan is the author of Profit From Diversity; Getting Along With Others. She is also author of three civil rights books, including Who Killed Emmett Till?

are alien wedges legal for United States Golf Association play?

As long as it has a visa or green card you can use an alien.

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