GUIDE TO CULTURES OF THE FOREIGN-BORN MONOGRAPHS ONLINE
The Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange (CIRRIE) has developed an eleven-volume monograph series, The Rehabilitation Provider's Guide to Cultures of the Foreign-Born (at http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/monographs/#series), which provides specific information on cultural perspectives of foreign-born persons in the U.S., especially recent immigrants. The monographs contain specific information about culture that rehabilitation service providers (and others) can use to more effectively meet the needs of foreign-born recipients of services.
The monographs focus on the top ten countries of origin of the foreign-born population in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: Mexico, China, Philippines, India, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Korea, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Cuba. There is an additional monograph on the culture of Haiti. Each monograph contains general information about the culture, its values and recommended ways to interact with persons from that culture. There is also specific information about how disability and rehabilitation are viewed in each culture. The monographs are concise and written in non-technical language.
The series also contains an initial introductory monograph, Culture Brokering: Providing Culturally Competent Rehabilitation Services to Foreign-Born Persons. This monograph explains the role of the rehabilitation provider as a "culture broker." Practical information, such as general outreach strategies, actions needed to become familiar and trusted by other cultures, the importance of understanding our own culture, and how to use translators effectively, are also included.
Excerpt from Culture Brokering: Providing Culturally Competent Rehabilitation Services to Foreign–Born Persons by Mary Ann Jezewski, Ph.D. and Paula Sotnik http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/monographs/cb.html :
Very often, when we first begin to learn about different culture groups, the tendency is to take the facts we learn and apply them to everyone who is a member of the group. We do this without evaluating the extent to which the individual members adhere to the dominant values and beliefs. This is a form of stereotyping. Stereotyping refers to action that is based on the assumption that all members of a group share the same characteristics, values and beliefs, and basing one's actions on this premise.
One way to avoid stereotyping is to look at new knowledge about an ethnic group as a generalization, which is a beginning point, knowledge that indicates common trends for beliefs and behaviors that are shared by a group. Stereotyping is viewed as an end point, that is, no attempt is made to learn whether the individual in question fits what is known about the group.
Stereotyping assumes that every member of the group possesses certain characteristics, adheres to the same beliefs, and behaves in the same manner in any given situation. Generalization, as a beginning point, acknowledges that additional information is needed to determine whether the information known about the group applies to a particular individual within the group.
-Adapted from: http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/monographs/index.html5/07