by Mohd Syahmi Yem

Created on: April 11, 2009

Whenever we talk about immigrants, the first thing that will come out on our mind is the adaptation of the new culture. People tend to believe that when a person was an immigrant, he or she will typically leave his native culture behind and adapt the new culture of the new country they migrated to. However, this is a shallow belief as not every immigrant who migrated to another country; America for instance, truly rejects their native culture.

The United States of America is a nation of immigrants. We could also take our own nation, Malaysia as another real case of the nation of immigrants. In America, the immigrants have their own right to practice their own culture. There were so many benefits of those who migrated to another country. When they adapted the culture there, they will be more well-rounded and likely to be more comfortable with the new atmosphere. It is not only the culture that they will have to adapt, but also the moral outlook, attire, customs and etcetera.
Some of the culture might have its own benefit for the immigrants. Unfortunately, some of the other parts of the culture might also become a bad influence for the immigrant, especially when it was practiced not from the childhood. Let me convey to you a very brief example. When you go to Japan, the hygiene matter is very important and given a very high attention for the government. If you come from a country where the law on cleanliness is still seen as a miniscule problem, you will have some problem on keeping your environment clean in the country like Japan. This is also applied directly the same as the culture of being early, and the importance of time management.
The culture that I mentioned above is good and it would be a quality if someone adapted to the culture. However, some of the cultures are not so good and not suitable to be applied in our native country. For instance, let us take a look at the freedom of speech in America. The right to speak in order to condemn the government is allowed for every single citizen of America. This is to enable the government to fix their flaws, by the critics of their citizens. However, this is inappropriate in Malaysia, where speeches condemning the government requires permits and also not allowed under certain circumstances. As Malaysia is a multicultural nation, freedom of speech could be fatal if applied without proper control being taken to supervise it.
What about the way they raise their children? As far as I know, parental technique also differs

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