Transcript Culture SPI 9.2010 - Rhonda G Patrick, LCSW, MPA

Border Violence
Cultural Perspectives
Rhonda Patrick, LCSW, MPA
Objectives
Contextualize Border Violence
Investigate the issue of Border Violence with the lens
of Cultural Competence
Identify the Myths and Realities - When Myths Frame
Policy
Media images of border Violence
MESSAGE???
What is it?
Culture has been defined as "the shared values, traditions, norms,
customs, arts, history, folklore, and institutions of a group of
people.
Understanding culture helps us to understand how others interpret
their environment. We know that culture shapes how people see
their world and how they function within that world.
Culture shapes personal and group values and attitudes, including
perceptions about what works and what doesn’t work, what is
helpful and what is not, what makes sense and what does not.
A cultural script is a pattern of social interaction which is
characteristic of a particular cultural group.
Cultural Concepts
Simpatia, and its component harmony, or the emphasis on positive
behaviors in positive situations (e.g., complimenting somebody who has
done a good job) and the de-emphasis of negative behaviors in negative
situations (e.g., criticising) is a Latino cultural script.
Latino culture is very much people-oriented; Latinos value relationships
and often demonstrate behaviors that promote strong and agreeable
interactions. Latinos value a person’s ability to maintain these cordial and
positive relationships even in the face of adversity or stress.
Similar to empathy, simpatia highlights a person’s ability to identify with
others’ feelings, and therefore, considers others with formality and
respect. Minimizing confrontational situations and maintaining agreement
is an important element of simpatia. This might translate into an individual
encouraging harmonious social relationships and preferring cooperation
over competition.
Cultural Concepts
The concept of Personalismo, often defined as "formal
friendliness," basically means that Latinos place great emphasis
on personal relationships. Latin culture is both people-oriented
and collectivist, meaning that Latinos generally value personal
relationships over status, material gain, and institutional
relationships.
Although a health care provider likely has the immediate respect
of a Latino client, that respect may not become trust unless the
client is convinced that the health care provider genuinely cares
about them on a personal level.
Cultural Concepts
Familismo (familalism) is considered to be one of the most important culture.
Stemming from a collective worldview, familismo involves the strong
identification and attachment to nuclear and extended family. Loyalty,
reciprocity and solidarity among members of the family are associated with
this attachment.
Specifically, the concept of familismo includes "(a) perceived obligation to
provide material and emotional support to the members of the extended
family; (b) reliance on relatives for help and support; and (c) the perception of
relatives as behavioral and attitudinal referents.” More important, these
dimensions remain fairly strong among Latinos across generations and
regardless of the length of time living in the United States. In essence,
aspects of familismo such as a sense of pride, belonging, and obligation to
the members of the family continue to be distinctive features.
Applying Cultural
Competence
How can these concepts help us better understand
and provide services for Latinos and the broader
border communities?
Challenge Assumptions/Myths
Advocate for change based on realities
Develop community ties and services that reflect the
value of personalismo
Understand grief and familismo related to violence
across the border
Drug Trafficking Myths
MYTH: Mexico is descending into
widespread and indiscriminate violence.
FACT: The country has certainly seen a big
rise in drug violence, with cartels fighting for
control of major narcotics shipment routes -especially at the U.S. border and near major
seaports and highways -- and branching into
kidnapping, extortion and other illicit activities.
Ciudad Juarez, in particular, has been the
scene of major battles between two crime
organizations and accounted for nearly a third
of drug-linked deaths last year.
The violence is not as widespread or as
random as it may appear. Though civilians
with no evident ties to the drug trade have
been killed in the crossfire and occasionally
targeted, drug-related deaths are
concentrated among the traffickers. (Deaths
among military and police personnel are an
estimated 7 percent of the total.)
Washington Post March 2010
Picture from LATimes - deaths from 2007 to 2008
Drug Trafficking Myths
MYTH: The Mexican government lacks the
resources to fight the cartels.
FACT: The Mexican newspaper Milenio
released a survey indicating that 59 percent of
Mexicans believe the cartels are winning the
drug war; only 21 percent believe the
government is prevailing. Such assessments
are well founded, but the battle against
organized crime is not a lost cause.
To strengthen law enforcement and restore
public confidence, there is an urgent need to
modernize and professionalize Mexico's police
and courts. The 2008 passage of constitutional
reforms in this area was a good start. As they
are implemented, the changes will transform
the country's judiciary from one that relies on
closed courtrooms and mostly written evidence
into a system where evidence is presented in
open court.
Washington Post March 2010
Drug Trafficking Myths
MYTH: Endemic corruption allows the
cartels to flourish.
FACT: Corruption does continue to be a
major challenge for Mexico. In 1997, for
instance, the country's drug czar was found
to be on the take from the Juarez cartel, and
last year, the Federal Investigative Agency
was dissolved after a third of the force was
placed under investigation for corruption.
But there appears to be a real commitment
by honest officials to root out malfeasance.
Recent arrests and prosecutions have
brought down the head of Mexico's Interpol
office, senior officials in the attorney
general's office, three state public security
chiefs, hundreds of state and local police
officers, and a few mayors and local police
commanders. Mexico is slowly cultivating a
culture of lawfulness, thanks to courageous
journalists and new civic organizations
calling for greater accountability.
Washington Post March 2010
Picture from 2008 bust of four anti-drug officials
Drug Trafficking Myths
MYTH: Drug violence is a Mexican
problem, not a U.S. one.
FACT: Hardly. Mexico and the United
States share a 2,000-mile border, and our
southern neighbor is also our third-largest
trading partner. Since the drug cartels run
a binational business -- moving drugs from
south to north and weapons from north to
south -- both the problem and the solution
will inevitably involve Washington.
Perhaps the top contribution the United
States could make is to redouble its efforts
to reduce American demand for illegal
narcotics. The trafficking in Mexico is
driven overwhelmingly by U.S.
consumption -- especially of cocaine,
marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine - which is estimated to exceed $60 billion
annually.
Washington Post March 2010
Drug Trafficking Myths
MYTH: Mexican drug violence is spilling
over into the United States.
FACT: Despite the violent confrontations
between drug-trafficking organizations in
Mexico, there has been little of the same
spectacular violence on the American side
of the border, even though the cartels
operate with U.S.-based distribution
networks. El Paso, one of the least violent
cities in the United States, sits right across
from Ciudad Juarez, the most violent in
Mexico.
Washington Post March 2010
Photo from telegraph.co.uk - Story about thousands of Mexican troops
deployed against violence in border towns.
Immigration Myths
MYTH: Immigrants bring crime to
our cities and towns.
FACT: Immigrants are actually far
less likely to commit crimes than
their native-born counterparts. Even
as the undocumented population has
increased in the United States, crime
rates have decreased significantly.
•
According to a 2000 report prepared
for the U.S. Department of Justice,
immigrants maintain low crime rates
even when faced with adverse social
conditions such as low income and
low levels of education
Immigration Myths
INS Statistical Yearbook
•
MYTH: Most immigrants are
undocumented and have crossed
the border illegally.
•
FACT: Two thirds of immigrants are
here lawfully—either as naturalized
citizens or in some other lawful
status. Moreover, almost half of all
undocumented immigrants entered
the United States legally.
•
According to the Pew Hispanic
Center, one third of all immigrants
are undocumented, one third have
some form of legal status and one
third are naturalized citizens. This
applies to immigrants from Latin
America as well as others
Immigration Myths
MYTH: There is more crime in
border states than ever before, due
in large part to immigration.
FACT: According to FBI statistics,
violent crimes reported in Arizona
dropped by nearly 1,500 between
2005 and 2008. Property crimes
also fell, from about 287,000
reported incidents to 279,000 in the
same period. Decreases are
accentuated by the fact that
Arizona's population grew by
600,000 between 2005 and 2008.
FBI Statistics 2010
Immigration Myths
MYTH: There is a nation-wide increase in
immigration.
FACT: According to the nonpartisan Pew
Hispanic Center, about 300,000 immigrants
illegally entered the country each year from
March 2007 to March 2009. That is about twothirds fewer than the 850,000 who crossed the
border each year from 2000 to 2005
Pew researchers also said the top five states
to see the largest decreases in illegal
immigration in 2008 and 2009 were Florida,
New York, Arizona, New Jersey and
California.
The 8 percent reduction from 12 million to 11.1
million undocumented persons currently living
in the U.S. marks the first significant reversal
in this population in two decades.
Pew Research Center 2010
How do words of the powerful frame an issue?
"At a time when the Mexican government has so
courageously taken on the drug cartels that
have plagued both sides of the border, it is
absolutely critical that the United States joins
as a full partner in dealing with this issue ...
also on our side of the border in dealing with
the flow of guns and cash south," April 2009
“We have to address America's growing
consumption of drugs.” April 2009
“Mexico‘s violent drug cartels increasingly
resemble an insurgency with the power to
challenge the government's control of wide
swaths of its own soil” September 2010
"We face an increasing threat from a wellorganized network, drug-trafficking threat that
is, in some cases, morphing into, or making
common cause with, what we would consider
an insurgency," September 2010
What happens when the story of one man’s
death frames a major policy decision?
• Mr. Krentz was fatally shot on
March 27, 2010. Law
enforcement officials tracked
footprints from the scene back
to the border, sparking
speculation that the killer was an
illegal immigrant.
• The murder heightened the
tension surrounding the
immigration reform debate, with
advocates of much stricter
immigration controls saying
Krentz's death highlights the
urgent need for significantly
increased border security.
Challenging the Myths
The nonpartisan Immigration
Policy Institute, state that
proponents of the bill
"overlook two salient points:
Crime rates have already
been falling in Arizona for
years despite the presence
of unauthorized immigrants,
and a century's worth of
research has demonstrated
that immigrants are less
likely to commit crimes or be
behind bars than the nativeborn.
Challenging Myths
“[Politicians] are creating the
artificial reality that the
border is out of control, that it
spills over. None of that is
true,” says Fernando Garcia,
the executive director of the
El Paso-based Border
Network for Human Rights.
“We have a very sustainable
sense of security in the
community, good relations
with local law enforcement.”
Challenging Myths
“There is a perception of the border that whatever ails the U.S.
as a country has to come from the outside rather from looking
internally,” adds Maria Jimenez, an immigrant rights organizer
who works with America Para Todos in Houston.