Our New Status

I have finally completed Mead's book and have begun reading Symbols, Selves, and Social Reality: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to Social Psychology and Sociology. My family and I have been adapting well to our new Canadian home, and are beginning to discover our new status as Canadians. 

Sandstrom et al.'s book has been very interesting so far. Sandstrom et al. brought up the concept of status passages. A status passage refers to movements in and out of social statuses. Sandstrom et al. explains that during a status passage, people undergo the process of socialization into their new status/role. Essentially, when one undergoes a passage, they are socialized by others and learn what it means to occupy their new social status (Sandstrom et al. 2014, 107). 

When my family and I moved to Canada, our status changed from "Syrian citizen" to "Canadian citizen". It is important to my family and I to embrace our new country, and the Canadians whom we live alongside have been teaching us what it means to be Canadian by teaching us about the norms and values they possess. My family and I wanted to come to Canada to experience a better life, and our passage was voluntary, important, and desirable, so we had a smoother transition into our new roles. 

Sandstrom also mentioned in his writing that some status passages "become powerfully transformative events in a person's life. These 'turning point moments', or epiphanies- moments of crisis or revelation that disrupt and alter a person's fundamental understandings, outlooks, and self images" (Sandstrom 2014, 111). Sandstrom suggests that these moments typically come up when one is "rapidly propelled from one status to another, willingly or unwillingly" such as my family and I were (Sandstrom et al. 2014, 111). This concept is especially applicable to my family's situation, as we gained a new status quickly. We really begun to make sense of what it meant to be Canadian.

The photo I have included this week is a photo of my wife and I. We are beginning to adapt to Canadian culture, and excited to continue our journey of discovering what it really means to be Canadian.