Social Security vs Seguro Social?

Social Security vs. Seguro Social

By Diana Dudgeon

When I first arrived in Wisconsin, I learned that people needed a Social Security Number to work and they made a big deal out of it. I didn’t really understand how I was to be part of a social security program without having a job in the first place. I thought if someone was willing to hire me, they could just change my visa status from visitor to worker and then we would all be content dancing around. That’s not exactly how things were being doing anyway and now I understand better.

The main point of the SSN is to track individuals for taxation purposes.  It has become the ultimate ID number and it is issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents and temporary (working) residents. It’s needed to get a driver’s license, credit, enroll in college, open a bank account, etc. What basically gives it the social security connotation is that it ensures a pension for retired and disabled people.

Although the social security concept may be the same in most places, providing welfare and social insurance programs, the way that it is delivered can be really different in other countries.

In Mexico, social security is not only for retirement, but almost a synonym of healthcare. Public healthcare is provided as guaranteed in the 4^th Article of our Constitution to all Mexican citizens. Everyone is eligible for subsidized healthcare regardless of their work status through different facilities operating under the Secretaría de Salud (Secretariat of Health).

However, employed citizens and their dependents are also eligible to use the programs administered and operated by the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. The IMSS program is funded equally by the employee, the private employer and the federal government. Besides the medical benefits, it also provides financial and social services for the workers. Clinics and hospitals are the best known aspect of the Institute, but there are also recreational and training centers, daycare facilities, funeral homes, stores and even resorts.

Employees of the public sector are serviced by the Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado, ISSSTE which attends to the health and social care needs of government employees.

Each state’s government also provides health services independently of those services provided by the federal government programs.

A lot of people complain about the public health and social care services in Mexico, and though a list of the good and the bad could very well fit in here, I see the good.

My family has been benefited by IMSS in many different ways: first of all, they have employed my mother for 30 years or so and that, besides a paycheck, has given us good times, friends, learning experiences and growth. Because of them I got my first job. They have also welcomed us in the middle of the night when we felt sick, they have been generous either with an aspirin or with chemotherapy, and in happier times they have been the destination for some of the best family vacations and childhood memories I have.

Child Translators

Child Translators

By Diana Dudgeon 

Learning a second language is a very complex process. It’s especially challenging for adults because it involves a lot of brain stretching in several stages. Kids have it a little easier. Their brains are flexible. They don’t rely on previous knowledge as much as grownups and they are still learning pretty much about it all, so a second language comes just as a part of that process.

It’s been demonstrated that better reading comprehension is developed by bilingual children. They are used to reading, understanding and then explaining the information to their parents. They also develop agile minds, better verbal ability and general reasoning, tutoring skills, civic responsibility and social maturity. On the “not so bright side”, translating for their families can be a real burden for both parents and kids.

Just because kids speak two languages doesn’t necessarily mean that they can translate or interpret.  Most people don’t realize how hard it can be. It’s not just switching words between languages, but ideas that need to be delivered and children may not know the appropriate vocabulary to express the information.

Some common situations where children are asked to translate include parent-teacher conferences, doctor appointments, in stores, restaurants, on the street and texts like receipts, insurance papers and manuals.

There are risks in having the children translate, from not getting the message through and lack of accuracy to hurting the kid’s self-esteem and confidence. At school for example, students may not feel comfortable interpreting for their parents if they don’t like the information being presented or if they’re getting in trouble. I read a case where the teachers reported that some students told their parents that ‘F’ stood for “Fantástico”. This also impacts in the parent-child dynamics. Parents find it hard to discipline kids having to depend on them for some of the tasks at home, like the 12-year-old that has to translate insurance and credit card bills, “government mail and regular tax stuff” and writes checks for his mom.

For these children, the amount of responsibility they feel is overwhelming. It can be really stressing if the child feels responsible for not being able to solve a problem for the parent. In a study where they interviewed the kids, a 9-year-old girl explained how scary it was to translate for her mom at the doctor’s office, she was nervous that she wouldn’t understand the “big words” doctors use. Another teenager wasn’t thrilled to interpret for her mother at the gynecologist’s either.

Even when Spanish speaking parents make an effort to study and try to learn English, their children still play a crucial role as mediators.  Though the commendable purpose of deciphering for their families is fulfilled, it also produces many interesting side effects.

Mexiquette: Handshake? Kiss? Hug?

By Diana Dudgeon

 All of the above… we’re Mexican! After finding some articles offering a list of social graces and rules of social etiquette in Mexico, I realized we do have this sort of tacit code when it comes to the meet and greet dynamic in our culture. However, I don’t believe we need to become the embodiment of sophistication, as some of those rules suggest, to come across as we really want to.

In Mexico, we can be a little too polite. It is common to refer to people differently depending on the context. Sometimes, with the Spanish language, we use the formal form “usted” when dealing with people we don’t know or to show respect, instead of “tú” which we use with friends and informal situations. In a work environment, a person is often addressed by his/her professional title, such as “Licenciado” (e.g. Lawyer, BA and BSc), Engineer, Doctor, etc.  

We also like to get physical. The show of affection may vary depending on the situation and/or the closeness of the relationship. A handshake can’t go wrong for a first introduction. It is formal and simple. If you don’t know the person, handshake is the safest choice – for a business meeting or if you just don’t feel comfortable. Comfort is probably the key. I was reading a blog about an experience in Mexico and she said she would kiss everyone at the slightest attempt of leaning, leading to many awkward moments like when a guy was just trying to tell her something and she kissed him out of the blue instead.

The kiss is a tricky one. I guess you can say you kiss among friends and family, but sometimes it can be extended to friends of friends and family of family… I’m thinking about a party, for example. I kiss everyone they introduce me to. I kissed friends at school and friends at the office twice a day, one kiss hello and one kiss good-bye. If you’re a celebrity at work like my mother, you could be kissing an average of 50 people on a regular day. Don’t worry about the swine flu. The kiss doesn’t need your lips to make contact with the kissed entity. Really, it’s more like a cheek to cheek air kiss type.

The best gesture is the one that comes genuinely. No greeting formality can top that. I am a hugger. More than a cultural thing, it’s just personal style. I remember at work, it was one of the volunteer’s birthday and that’s pretty much I needed to know about the lady to jump and give her a hug. The intern working that summer shook her hand instead explaining she didn’t like to hug or be hugged because of the invasion of personal space. Fair enough. Fascinating concept when you come from a city with a population density of 5,900 souls per square kilometer.

county is multilingual

Dear Editor:

Congratulations to the Watertown Police department on accepting the responsibility for providing qualified language interpretation for our community by contracting with a reputable multi-language telephonic interpretation service. Being bilingual is not enough when life, death or possible prison time are on the line.

As a Wisconsin Certified Court Spanish interpreter, I am a spokesperson for the profession and the need for more organizations to provide qualified, trained interpreters and certified interpreters as a priority. Just because a person can speak another language, does not insure skills as an interpreter. (Interpret means oral rendition from the source language to the target language.) Translation is a completely separate set of skills and need. (Translation means the written rendition from the source language to the target language.)

Sgt. Leon Ruder was quoted that the new program will better serve our Hispanic citizens. While he is correct in how it will better serve our Spanish speaking population, I believe that it will truly benefit our entire community. While it is always recommended to have an on-site interpreter, the telephonic option is a good option. Considering Jefferson County’s location, it is logical that many languages pass on our highways and shop in our stores – many languages, not just English and Spanish; Mandarin Chinese, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Albanian, Russian, Punjabi, Zapoteko, French, Hmong, Vietnamese, Serbian-Croatian, Tongan, Somali, Laotian, Burmese and Maay-Maay, just to name a few.

Jefferson and Dodge Counties (WI) are not just bilingual, but multilingual. Thanks again for making everyone’s voice important, without making language the issue.

Best wishes for continued success and thank you for all you do for our community.

Shawna Stevenoski

A Chilanga in Wisconsin part 2

A CHILANGA IN WISCONSIN part 2

By Diana Dudgeon, BTC Consultant

I was asked if I had been treated differently because I spoke English. I’m afraid I have no way to know how I would have been treated if I didn’t, so the best I can do is to tell you what I sense from fellow Mexicans and how I feel about it.

To discriminate means to note or distinguish differences. So, yes, there is discrimination. I want to be very careful not to give this a value judgment. I’m not even sure we have decided if that’s what we want or that’s what we need to prevent, because on one side we are told to celebrate diversity, but on the other we don’t like the idea of being the different one. We like to stand out, but we also like to belong. So for now, let’s say it’s neither a good nor a bad thing… it just happens. Especially in a small community like Jefferson County, these differences are easily spotted. To make them just a little more obvious, there comes the language thing.

I suspect Mexicans have an English chip installed just waiting to be used. Of course I’m mainly kidding; the only software we actually have pre-installed is for salsa dancing.  But my point is that we are very familiar with this language. I studied English since my first day at school, like many other people in Mexico City. English is no stranger there. It’s in the movies we watch, in the music we sing, in the lessons at school and hopefully in your resume if you want a good job. I believe a large number of Chilangos manage it fairly well.

Now, one might think that the knowledge itself would be enough. That you either speak the language or you don’t. But there’s a lot more than grammar and vocabulary when it comes to truly understanding. There are cultural references, idioms, alternative meanings and different accents that in more than one occasion have made me shy no matter how much I’ve learned. So even when we might have some English background, it’s still very intimidating to be surrounded by it all the time. This leads me back to the insecurities that we face as foreigners and the negative connotation that we might end up giving to the discrimination I was talking about before.  It isn’t that there is necessarily a problem with our English or our accent, but with our own lack of confidence.  And that may be enough to make us feel vulnerable.

At the end, it doesn’t really matter if we receive certain treatment from others.  What we’ll see is a reflection of what we really think about ourselves. For some of us the language discrimination may be a problem, for some it may be a challenge, and for some of us it’s just plain fun.

A chilanga in Wisconsin part 1

 A CHILANGA IN WISCONSIN part 1

By Diana Dudgeon, BTC Consultant

I’m from Mexico City, that makes me a “chilanga”. The biggest city in the world they say. A lot of people, a lot of traffic, a lot of museums, a lot of smog… a lot of pretty much everything, including business opportunities and people willing to take them. To the rest of the country we’re selfish, snobbish, manipulative and rude. We are very ok with that. After all, anyone who deals with our great city ends up a little wicked, we think. The thing is that we always welcome out-of-towners that like us enough to move in searching for a better lifestyle. In my mind, that’s what immigration means.  

The United States is a very nice place to travel; beautiful sceneries, interesting places and even snow. How fun! Of course there is Los Angeles; where it is said that a lot of Mexican people live there. Or, you know, people from the border cities like to go shopping in Laredo. People who can’t make a living are moving north. It has been in the news and frequently mentioned in political speeches. It felt like something so distant to me.

I can’t say no traveling. So, I got a ticket to Wisconsin and I had to go. This trip was different. I arrived at a Mexican family’s house. They are immigrants who left Mexico with the greatest hopes. They left home and a career that could no longer provide for their families, and as upsetting as that was, they still had this brave, high-spirited and hard working attitude that was nothing but inspiring. I found a whole Mexican community, they lived in the Mexican neighborhoods and they even had Mexican stores. The very few Mexican dishes I cook, I learned while I lived there. The more I got involved, the more impressed I became. Everyone was learning English, sending kids to school and they were going to church.

From all the practical challenges that they coped with as foreigners, perhaps the most decisive one was that of finding a job. Placement agencies were a popular choice among them in Jefferson County.  The recruiting process was limited to sending applicants to a certain job without considering education, experience or ability. Guys who had had management positions in Mexico are now working more than one shift, nights and even out of town jobs.

When I first arrived, I couldn’t help but noticethis sort of “collective low self esteem” in the Mexican community, and understandably so. The relationship between job satisfaction and self esteem is obvious.  The way we feel about what we do profoundly affects the way we feel about ourselves and our value as a person, especially when we’re immersed in an entirely new environment.

My experience in Wisconsin was one of those that can change the perspective on things so strongly that it makes me want to stay involved, participate and profess the deep respect I feel for my working class heroes in any opportunity that I may have.  We might be in this country for different reasons. It doesn’t really matter. What we do share is our vast cultural background, our family oriented ways, the pride for our heritage and the kindness and hospitality that come from within.

But not everything was helpless. If not many, more Americans than I expected were trying to speak Spanish. They were at the Literacy Council, at the clinics, at the bank, at the court… and they liked the Mexicans! They were helping, they were cool and they had past the debate about who is obliged to learn whose language. For a community of mostly first generation immigrants, this looked good.