Mind Moves:Immigrants have much to adjust to emotionally. Even before departure there is the dilemma of whether to stay in one's own country or go to another, anxiety about what lies ahead and the strongest emotion of all, that of hope.
To hope is to expect. To confront one's hope is to face the possibility of that hope being unfulfilled. Moving to another country and hoping it will bring what one desires means that hope will either be achieved or quashed; the promise of a better life will be rewarded or thwarted; one's dreams will become reality or reality will be a disappointment.
There is more than a geographical journey ahead for those who leave home for another life. It is an emotional odyssey, a social voyage, a psychological excursion and a linguistic expedition.
There are risks involved in moving to another culture: of not being accepted, of not fitting in, of not being welcomed, of making inadvertent cultural errors. There may be fundamental ideological differences to be accommodated, ways of living, modes of dress, home decor, choices of food and leisure activities.
There are bureaucratic burdens to be endured, endless paperwork to authenticate one's identity, legitimacy and entitlement to work.
Different work ethics may inform work practice and it is not easy to know what is expected, what one may expect and how to define one's rights and roles in a different country.
Finally, there may be fear of loneliness, of being excluded, of being ghettoised among one's compatriots, of being tolerated or being resented, of being scapegoated or of being unable to understand what one is meant to do to fit in.
Even when welcomed warmly, the immigrant has to discover what the local person takes for granted, such as how to respond to invitations, what time to arrive and leave, what jokes are permitted and what subjects are strictly taboo.
Simply joining friends for a pint can involve a rigmarole of rounds that is incomprehensible to those who do not know how it works, and frustrating for those who do not believe it is a sensible way of socialising.
Language proficiency does not mean that the immigrant understands the native idiom, or what is colloquially called "the vernacular".
Language in its articulation is local and few idiomatic idiosyncrasies can compete with the manner in which the English language has been appropriated by the Irish. It takes a lifetime to decipher that.
Entry to the workforce is particularly difficult for immigrants working in the mental health professions, particularly psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy because they are professions that depend upon linguistic skill and where literal interpretation of local idiom may either lead to laughter or litigation depending upon the clients.
One must have sympathy for the new psychologist who misinterpreted the Dublin adolescent's declaration that his ma was wrecking his head, as a disclosure of physical ill-treatment and that the ma who ate the head off her kids was not engaging in some bizarre form of cannibalism.
Being ossified does not refer to the condition of one's bones; to loaf has nothing to do with bread. Mitch is not a name but a form of truancy. To bang on about something means boring people, while the exclamation "bang on" does not mean to hit repeatedly but to be absolutely correct. Acting the maggot is not imitation of insects but a form of nonsensical behaviour.
To receive a referral for someone who has fallen off the wagon is confusing, particularly when a wagon also appears to be a derogatory term for a female. A scrubber is not someone engaged in domestic cleaning and Janey Mac is no more a person than Holy Joe, while the term out of sight, out of mind does not refer to someone suffering either from blindness or mental incapacity.
Apart from the obvious cliches, that those in search of craic are not seeking illegal substances, the immigrant has to learn that having a gargle is not using mouthwash; that an old cod is not out-of-date fish; that declaring something to be thick is a cognitive rather than a physical evaluation; the full shilling is not a financial statement; something deadly is neither dangerous nor deceased; and making a holy show of oneself is not a religious demonstration.
The dictionary is of little use to the immigrant confronting our polysemous parlance, for we are a people who have always expressed the ineffable through euphemism and the effable in inexpressible ways, resorting to and augmenting the letter f when other modes of utterance fail.
The Irish may be difficult to interpret but most of us are glad that you have chosen to come here. Or to put it another way, take heart dear immigrants, for although it's brutal trying to figure out what we are on about, it's deadly when you do and it's massive that you're here.
mmurray@irish-times.ie
Clinical psychologist Marie Murray is director of the Student Counselling Services, UCD.