Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Cultural Issues with Adult Men and Women
The Experiences of Acculturation Among Cross-Border Marriage: Vietnamese Women in Taiwan
Hwey-Fang Liang, PhD, RN, Nursing, Chang-Gung Institute of Technology, Pu-Tz city, Chia-Yi County, Chia-Yi, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to realize the profound impacts of migration and culture on immigrant women in Taiwan.
Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to facilitate a community health education that is congruent with the way of immigrant women in culture comforting.
Objective: The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to interpret the experiences of acculturation among cross-border marriage --Vietnamese women. The research questions of this study were: What are the Vietnamese wivesˇ¦ beliefs of cross-border marriage? How does the acculturation process impact the Vietnamese wivesˇ¦ living experiences of cross-border marriage? Method: The ethnography method was used for this study to explore the knowledge and ideas of the informantsˇ¦ emic and etic perspectives. Twenty six informants were interviewed while saturation had been reached. A semi-structured open inquiry interview guide was used to collect data for this study. Audio-taped were permitted by all of the participants and transcribed verbatim for qualitative data analysis. Systematic analysis of the information collected from Vietnamese women included identification of descriptors, patterns, and, eventually concluded major themes. Findings: Five themes were extracted from the analysis, including: (1) Yielding to destiny to be assigned for their husband; (2)Struggling with reality and culture shock; (3) While in Rome, do as the Romans do; (4) Expecting tomorrow must be better; (5)Learning new knowledge, techniques and customs to adjust newly contexts. Conclusion & Implications: Health care professionals should be aware of the profound impact of migration and culture on immigrant women. The goal should be to facilitate a community health education that is congruent with the way of immigrant women in culture comforting and without cultural imposition. Assist immigrant women to take active roles to overcome the barriers to adjust diverse culture contexts and environment .Therefore, that they can enhance their abilities to move toward a better level of health and well-beings. Keywords: acculturation, cross-border marriage, Vietnamese women, ethnography

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