Renu Shah is a first-generation immigrant who moved to the United States when she was only 17 years old. After winning the DV lottery (Diversity Immigrant Visa Program) in Nepal, Renu's parents decided to migrate to U.S. in 2005 for a better quality of life. Growing up in Kathmandu, Nepal, Renu belonged to a lower-middle class family who had struggled with financial, social and personal hardships. The DV lottery was a blessing in disguise for Renu and her family. Like many other immigrants, America was the land of opportunities for Renu and her family members. They knew that if they worked hard enough, their dreams and desires would be fulfilled. I am also a first-generation immigrant who moved to U.S. from Nepal. I met Renu while I was …show more content…
Although she is older than me, we quickly became friends after I found out that we had attended the same school in Nepal. I recently learned that Renu had struggled with Dysthymia, also referred to as chronic depression. To inquire about the reasons for her depression, I asked Renu various questions during the interview. After moving to U.S, Renu had a drastic culture shock. She was raised in a conservative family that valued maintaining their own culture and traditions. She had difficulties adjusting to the new environment she was introduced to. She began her journey in America as a senior in high school. While she was excited to be in a new country and explore all the new things that were different from Nepal, she was also very anxious and nervous. Renu felt most of the symptoms that were associated with culture shock; she felt lonely, …show more content…
She was still suffering from dysthymia. Her symptoms included; feeling hopelessness, low self-esteem, lack of appetite and sleep. These symptoms were affecting her education and personal relationship with her family and friends, as she distanced herself from them. In Asian cultures it is particularly difficult talking about depression and other health problems because some of the older members of family do not accept diagnosis of mental illness. They are either reluctant or avoid the issue of mental illness completely. This is a big problem in our culture because if someone is suffering through mental illness, they will not be comfortable enough to share with their family members. They believe that mental illness is shameful or disgraceful in the family. As the enormous stressors in her life had triggered suicidal thoughts, she decided that it was time she got help. Renu sought help from the school’s psychologist for her depression. The psychologist gave her advice to take care of herself, cultivate supportive relationships and do things that she enjoys. After seeking help, she started implementing things that would help her deal with her depression. Setting goals was her primary target, having goals propelled her move forward and helped her believe in herself. Since Renu enjoyed exercising, the psychologist stated that exercising regularly and following a healthy diet would also help her overcome
America is a land filled with immigrants coming from different corners of the worlds, all in hopes of finding a better life in the country. However, No one had an easy transition from his or her home country to this foreign land. Not every race thrived the same way—some were luckier than others, while some have faced enormous obstacles in settling down and being part of the American society. Many people have suffered
I thought it would be an interesting idea to enlighten and inform people about the Lao Iu Mein and our process of immigrating to the U.S. as well as the challenges we have to overcome. I interviewed my parents, Lao Iu Mein refugees who immigrated to the United States from Thailand. Through this interview, I had a chance to hear for the first time the story of my parents' struggles and experiences as they journeyed to a place where they became "aliens" and how that place is now the place they call "home."
The story is about two sister who currently lives in America. It has to deal with moving to the United States in the 1960’s. Both sisters moved to the United States in hope to pursue their dreams and to achieve they goals with college and further education. Both having similarities in appearance and religious values. Both Bharati and her sister Mira had planned to move back to their homeland India after their education. This story relates to our point of culture having a major impact on how people judge each other because it has a huge impact on how people view the world differently because, in this example, I feel manipulated and discarded. This is such an unfair way to treat a person who was invited to stay and work here because of her talent” it is basically stating on how even immigrants (like the sisters themselves) who have come into the U.S., are sometimes given fewer benefits and rights than everyone else and that they feel discluded from being able to express themselves if they wanted to, or to have good thoughts that America is as good as people has said it was, with all this freedom. The last example is, I feel some kind of irrational attachment to India that I don’t to America. Until all this hysteria against immigrants, I was totally happy.” This demonstrates that it isn’t the country itself that makes people unsafe or unsure, it’s the people running it who try to put limitations
I thought that Diane Guerrero who is an American actress speech about her family’s deportation was interesting. She recently appeared on an immigration themed of Chelsea handler’s talk show. Guerrero is the citizen daughter of immigrant parents. Guerrero mentioned how her family was taken away from her when she was just 14 years old. “Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if i had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, i found myself basically on my own”, Guerrero added. Luckily, Guerrero had good friends to help her. She told handler how her family try to become legal but there were no sign or help. Her parents lost their money to scammers who they believed to be a lawyer. When her family’s
Everything that went completely wrong encouraged his fiancé’s decision of breaking up with him for good. With the unjustifiable actions he committed, the constant deprivation of all the mutual friends and even family members that loved him only because of her or loved her more in general damaged his social pillar of resilience. With all of this going on, his physical and mental pillars of resiliency are being challenged. Stages of despair start to show as he doesn’t work out at the gym anymore, which in the long run harms physical health. An excessive amount of filthy clothing continues to pile up along with seizing all daily life routines and activities that contributed to his character and grooming requirements. With more heavy drinking and having impulsive thoughts of suicide while under the influence of alcohol, the challenges to deal with everyday life are becoming more demanding. “Depression is a common mental health problem which can be caused by different factors, ranging from environmental to neurochemical, which may be experienced for a short period only or persist long term, and which can present with a range of symptoms, including low mood, lack of energy, loss of appetite, inability to experience pleasure
Gradually, she began to show symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa but the disease got worse over her summer break as she started skipping meals and creating elaborate lies to cover her unhealthy habits. At first, Chhaya started watching what she was eating in order to become healthier. When she was finally able to lose weight, she was elated that she was able to be successful at something for once in her life. Her obsession and accomplishment of losing weight replaced her obsession of academic success in order for her to establish self-worth. Over time, her new thin identity led to a self-destructing cycle in which she lost weight to bring satisfaction and fulfillment to her life while gaining weight signaled that she was losing control of her life. When Chhaya returned to school, all of her peers and teachers were shocked at how much weight she had lost, so she tried to cover her behavior by saying that she was sick. Chhaya had lied to others stating that an illness caused her to lose weight, however, her lie was actually the truth for she obliviously possessed a mental
“We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life” said former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Since its establishment, the United States has grown through immigration, lending to a multicultural society. However, immigration and its government policies have become of great public interest due to illegal immigration at the Mexican border and violent events in the Middle East. For this reason it seems sensible to investigate the lives of immigrants so that U.S. citizens may take a stance on this disputed topic. Regardless of their origins, whether they are from Latin America, Asia, or anywhere else, immigrants seem to encounter similar endeavors. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, the author depicts the immigration of Indian citizens to the United States. Noting various matters ranging from motives to the cultural identity crisis, Lahiri exposes the struggles and ramifications of American immigration. The collection elucidates the lives of first and second generation
“ Ironically I faced discrimination from other immigrants rather than Americans themselves”, stated Valentina Luma when she was been interviewed. This quote was the most relatable to my experience of being an immigrant to United States of America compares to hers. Valentina Luma was the age of nine when her and her family immigrated from Dominican Republic to the United States. Luma’s journey to the United States wasn’t arduous physically rather mentally where the process to get accepted took almost a decade, she admits to understand why some immigrants would rather come to America illegally than wait almost a decade to come. Some of the positive
The immigrant’s journey to America, as depicted throughout history, transports culture, language, beliefs and unique lifestyles from one land to the other, but also requires one to undergo an adaptation process. The children of these immigrants, who are usually American-born, experience the complexity of a bicultural life, even without completely connecting to the two worlds to which they belong. Potentially resulting is the internal desire to claim a singular rather than dual identity, for simplicity, pride and a sense of acceptance. Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian-American author and writer of “My Two Lives” could never classify herself as.
“I am a first generation immigrant and a woman, but I don't really write about that because I feel like I'm a human being. There are universal human experiences.” (“Evelyn Rodriguez”). As a first generation woman myself, I can relate to the notion that I am more than my background. While there are universal experiences people go through, my cultural experience is something that sets me apart from others. I believe that it is essential for me to find the balance between assimilating into American culture while keeping my cultural identity.
The subject of this paper is Liz, a 52-year old, 1.5 generation female immigrant from Hong Kong. What this means is that she immigrated to the United States when she was a child, around 7-years old (Feliciano Lec. 1/4/2016 -. As a child of a family that consists of five siblings and two parents that did not speak any English prior to immigrating, the focus of this paper will be on the legal processes that the family went through to become legal immigrants and the various factors that aided in her path towards assimilation. Liz’s family is from a city called Kow Loon in Hong Kong.
Immigrants must overcome many barriers to succeed in America. First, migrants frequently must learn a new language. Inability to communicate is a critical barrier for accessing the health care system (Urrutia-Rojas, Marshall, Trevino, Lurie, & Minguia-Bayona, 2006). Second, the processes of work and schooling for themselves and their families can be daunting. Lastly, immigrants use the established social network of longer duration residents for reference and knowledge (Nandi, Galea, Lopez, Nandi, Strongarone, & Ompad, 2008). For purposes of this report, there are three different types of immigrant: legal, undocumented, and refugees or persons seeking asylum. All three types of residents want to succeed and achieve their personal dream.
To say that immigrants in America have experienced discrimination would be an understatement. Ever since the country formed, they have been seen as inferior, such as African-Americans that were unwillingly brought to the 13 colonies in the 17th century with the intention to be used as slaves. However, post-1965, immigrants, mainly from Central and South America, came here by choice. Many came with their families, fleeing from their native land’s poverty; these immigrants were in search of new opportunities, and more importantly, a new life. They faced abuse and Cesar Chavez fought to help bring equality to minorities.
The American Dream can mean a number of different things to number of different people. Over the years this ideal has evolved and its definition will continue to change for many more years to come. What has not changed is the desire to achieve this dream. For decades now, people from all over the world have immigrated to the United States with hopes of obtaining this dream. However it seems that, to many immigrants the American dream has a very different and more modest definition. To many foreigners it means having the basic necessities in life and giving their children opportunities and life they ever had. Immigration can be a good and a bad thing. On one hand the overall standard of living is better but on the other hand it is almost inevitable that the family, especially the children, will lose some of their culture as they Americanize and assimilate. This is partially the reason why the mothers of The Joy Luck Club continue to have the Joy Luck Club meetings. Even though they are now in America, they want to make sure their daughters are exposed to and maintain the Chinese culture. Mother/ daughter relationships are a large component in Amy Tan’s award winning novel, The Joy Luck Club.
They also have the tendency to isolate themselves. These symptoms appears most vividly in Naoko. At the beginning, Naoko’s only friends are Kizuki and Toru. She doesn’t speak to anybody else. She finds it hard to actually love somebody because she’s afraid she might hurt them. Even her boyfriend Kizuki is no exception. Even though she loves Kizuki than anybody else, she “never opened to him” and “couldn’t get wet.” (112) The reason for such behavior is possibly due to the death of her sister. After such event, she “don’t want to interfere with anybody’s life” (146) as she’s afraid she might take them with her. People going through depression when they are young have “higher risk of poor outcomes during young adulthood,” (Liu) and it is true for Naoko. She tries to stay strong as she clinch to Toru and make him her boyfriend, even though she never love him. (10) She is very selective of her word and never relax herself. She believes if she does so, she would “fall apart” (8) When Naoko is on a date with Toru, she would walk “with no destination in mind.” (27) Her depression carries her all the way to college and reach its climax at her nineteenth birthday. After Toru accidently mentions Kizuki, Naoko breaks down and runaway. Up until that point, her view of life is pessimistic. She believes “whatever happened- or didn’t happen- the end result would have been the same.” (43) She let