“Every person’s situation is very different. I moved here when I was so young and my parents and I have had all this time to kind of adjust to here and find a balance between here and India. I know people who have moved here more recently who haven’t found that balance yet.” -Lahari Husor
A The immigrant household comes with a different set of expectations and tolls on mental health BY MARIAM JABRI
The immigrant background is shared by those who are immigrants or have parents that are immigrants. Students with this background may have parents that immigrated to the U.S for college or a work opportunity. Oftentimes, in doing so they make sacrifices like leaving family behind in their home country. For some, those sacrifices gave students access to better education, job opportunities, technology, and other resources that may not have been offered elsewhere. From academics to relationship with their parents, four students with an immigrant background reported a variety of ways their upbringing impacted them. However, what these students had in common is having to navigate life as a student in the U.S with two different sets of cultures, standard and expectations—sometimes, with their mental health taking a backseat.
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n immigrant household is just like any other, but oftentimes standards and expectations do differ from your typical American household. Junior Lahari Hosur immigrated to the U.S from South India when she was 2 years old, after her father got a job in the states. “They raised me as if I was growing up in India,” Hosur said. She did not find it a bad thing, but explained it meant growing up with a different culture and set of expectations than the typical American student. “All my parents really want for me is to make them proud…and they do have a lot of expectations for me because they assume high school here is like high school in India,” Hosur said. “It definitely comes with a lot of stress.” Hosur is not the only one who experiences stress at home. Junior Akshaya Somasundaram also immigrated here from South India, first when she was a toddler. Then she went back to India and immigrated here again in the 4th grade. She and her family have been here ever since. “I came out as bi, and my parents don’t know that obviously. So trying to hide that part of me is kind of stressful at times,” Somasundaram said. (She added that she was comfortable with this information being written.) She has been struggling with her identity and connecting with her cultural roots: “This year, I just realized, I’ve been in America more than I’ve been in India. So what am I?” Somasundaram continued, “I’m also not the perfect Indian daughter, so I’ve definitely realized I will not be what my parents expect me to be. I’m more inclined towards the culture here.” Household rules for Somasundaram was another thing she had to navigate at home along with her culture and identity: “I’m from a very traditionally Indian
