| Author: | Chan, Chi-yiu |
| Title: | Cultural adjustment and help-seeking pattern of the Nepalese youth in Hong Kong |
| Degree: | M.A. |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Subject: | Nepalese -- China -- Hong Kong Youth -- Services for -- China -- Hong Kong Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Applied Social Sciences |
| Pages: | vii, 115 leaves ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | With China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, the Nepalese, formerly seved in the British Army, chose to stay in Hong Kong and brought their families here. They formed one of the groups of new arrivals in Hong Kong. Despite their living in Hong Kong, the government failed to have a comprehensive picture of their needs. This study is an initial one to explore their living in Hong Kong, of which the cultural adjustment and the help-seeking pattern of the Nepalese youth are selected to be the aims of this study. There were different studied on the adjustment of new arrivals of Hong Kong, but most of that were focused on the new immigrants from Mainland China. To those non-Chinese immigrants, there is so far no study to address to their needs. According to the frontline experience of an outreaching social work team, the Nepalese youth have to face two challenges: one is the developmental task to build up their own identity, and another is their adjustment to the life of Hong Kong as a new immigrant. They need assistance to facilitate their going through these two challenges. Social work practitioners play a very important role in this regard. This study adopts a qualitative research method, using in-depth interviews to explore precious information from 5 Nepalese youth coming to Hong Kong for at least one year and two social workers who have committed all of their time in serving the ethnic minority groups. Through understanding the living of the Nepalese youth in Hong Kong, their views and perception towards their own culture of origin and that of Hong Kong are explored. It is found that they still maintain many parts of their culture, like their own language, food, religion and choice of entertainment, which reflect their strong identity as Nepalese. Added with the language barrier and the lack of understanding of them by the local people, their interactions with local youth are very limited and they have no way to connect with the local culture. On individual level, they are exhibiting separation with the host society of Hong Kong in the process of assimilation. With the government's failures to pay attention to their needs, provide resources for them and recognize them as new arrivals having their special needs, the Nepalese were being marginalized. With reference to the problems the Nepalese youth face, social work practitioners can develop intervention strategies for them from individual to policy level. The strategies include adjustment programmes for new arrivals of Nepalese youth, mutual help groups and joint programmes with participants from both Chinese and Nepalese youth. The approach of empowerment and multi-cultural counseling and therapy are particularly important, in the sense that self-help groups to fight for structural change in the policy of resource re-allocation for the Nepalese immigrants can be effected. Social work practitioners have to adopt a culturally sensitive practice that strives to understand, accept and respect the culture of the Nepalese. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b15417785.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 3.3 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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