"Why did she sing when she can’t even pronounce the words right? Haha that F.O.B. is so stupid!" These were the haunting words that I overheard my classmate utter to her friend as I was walking off the stage from my solo singing performance, cold sweat trickling down my face and warm tears welling up as my vision got blurry. These words remained etched in my memory as I was constantly reminded of the fact that I needed to improve my American accent to conform and assimilate into the American society. When the class was first asked to think of a topic for our reflective paper, this scenario was one that I could vividly remember as if it had just occurred yesterday. After I read Jose Antonio Vargas’s “Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” and Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”, I noticed a common theme across these two pieces that I could very much relate to. Jose Antonio Vargas’s mother reminded him to fit into the American way of living by saying “If anyone asked why I was coming to America, I should say I was …show more content…
My mom, with her camera in her hand, was so excited that she lined up at the front of the church one hour earlier to get a good seat at one of the church pews. Dressed in a shepherd costume, I sang the opening to the musical piece “Will You Be Ready for the Light” by Mark Patterson. On my way back to my seat, I experienced linguistic discrimination, the judgment about a person’s intelligence, social status, or character based on his or her use of language, for the first time in my life. My fourth grade classmate at the time probably did not even know that what she said was a form of discrimination and microaggression. To be honest, I also had no clue about what F.O.B. meant until I researched it in google and found that it meant “Fresh Off the Boat”, a phrase to describe the new immigrants who were not yet accustomed to the American
Humans have a never ending thirst for a better life, and a better existence for themselves and those they hold dear. Jose Antonio Vargas was sent away from the Philippines by his mother hoping that he would be able to achieve a better life, and be happy. In “Outlaw: My Life in America as an Undocumented Immigrant” Vargas is able to find his better life and happiness in America but also fear and anxiety. Vargas gives us a look into the life of an illegal immigrant the good, the bad, their achievements and their constant struggles. Very much like Vargas my father immigrated to America, but legally in 1986.
Anthropologist Leo Chavez presents a very descriptive and detailed account when he wrote Shadowed Lives, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY it takes readers into the lives and experiences of illegal immigrants. Chavez is detailed within the book points are placed regarding people's choice to migrate as well as their stories of crossing the border into the United States We can learn a lot from Chavez's book, making distinct opinions on immigration itself, and the difference in immigration culture after migrating.
Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong somewhere? Do you know what it feels like to be told you don’t belong in the place of your birth? People experience this quite frequently, because they may not be the stereotypical American citizen, and are told and convinced they don’t belong in the only place they see as home. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldúa gives the reader an inside look at the struggles of an American citizen who experiences this in their life, due to their heritage. She uses rhetorical appeals to help get her messages across on the subliminal level and show her perspective’s importance. These rhetorical appeals deal with the emotion, logic and credibility of the statements made by the author. Anzaldúa
Bestseller journalist, Sonia Nazario, in her literacy non-fiction, Enrique’s Journey, describes a young man’s journey trying to reconcile with his mother in the United States, but has to go through many obstacles to reach her. Nazario’s purpose is to inform readers about how immigration affects children and their mothers in Central America. She adopts an optimistic/determined tone in order to reveal to her readers the difficulty and bravery the children have to face to get to the United States. Nazario begins her credibility with ethos to retrace an abandon teenager’s journey through Central America, pathos to follow the mother son relationship, and logos by giving facts and statistics for illegal immigrants in the U.S.
In a country full of inequities and discriminations, numerous books were written to depict our unjust societies. One of the many books is an autobiography by Richard Wright. In Black Boy, Wright shares these many life-changing experiences he faced, which include the discovery of racism at a young age, the fights he put up against discriminations and hunger, and finally his decision of moving Northward to a purported better society. Through these experiences which eventually led him to success, Wright tells his readers the cause and effect of racism, and hunger. In a way, the novel The Tortilla Curtain by T.C Boyle illustrates similar experiences. In this book, the lives of two wealthy American citizens and two illegal immigrants collided. Delaney and Kyra were whites living in a pleasurable home, with the constant worry that Mexicans would disturb their peaceful, gated community. Candido and America, on the other hand, came to America to seek job opportunities and a home but ended up camping at a canyon, struggling even for cheapest form of life. They were prevented from any kind of opportunities because they were Mexicans. The differences between the skin colors of these two couples created the hugest gap between the two races. Despite the difficulties American and Candido went through, they never reached success like Wright did. However, something which links these two illegal immigrants and this African American together is their determination to strive for food and a better future. For discouraged minorities struggling in a society plagued with racism, their will to escape poverty often becomes their only motivation to survive, but can also acts as the push they need toward success.
Jose Vargas, an undocumented immigrant, believes hard work can greatly impact the ability to gain citizenship in the United States. In the article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” Vargas explains his life and how much he struggled lying his way through school and work. To persuade the reader to believe that he should be considered an American citizen, Vargas uses rhetorical strategies throughout his essay. Vargas’ use of pathos was very effective because it caused the reader to empathize for him and providing information about his background made his character more reliable through ethos, however his lack of logos made a big difference throughout his article.
Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human group (Scheuble, 2013). The book Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe studies the social behavior of illegal immigrants between their own group and those towards the out group. In the book the author observed that most illegal immigrants get fake Mexican identity card because their current circumstance would not meet the eligibility to get a real Mexican identity card. This is what happened to Yadira, she did not meet the requirements to get an ID card, so she had no other choice than to get a fake one (Thorpe,106). The author realized that sometimes circumstance had to be taken into consideration when trying to figure why a person committed a deviant act. The author also noticed that the girls became friends due to the fact that they were in similar situation in regards to their legal status. All four of girls bonded over the fact that they all shared a similar background (Thorpe, 23-24)
Jose Antonio Vargas’s article on My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant is a writing about his childhood journey from the Philippines to the United States as an Undocumented Immigrant. Vargas writes this article to emphasize the topic of immigrant and undocumented immigrant in the United States. He uses all three appeals: pathos, ethos, and logic in his writing, in specific, he mostly uses pathos throughout of his entire article with a purpose for the reader to sympathize and to feel compassion for him. The use of these appeals attract many readers, they can feel and understand his purpose is to ask for others to join and support other people who undocumented immigrant like himself. In addition, it gives other undocumented immigrant people courage
Jose Antonio Vargas gives personal experiences he encountered throughout his whole life. He mentions his legal status in order to connect more with his readers. This piece of work is both an astonishing and reflective since most of the individuals in America are undocumented. He properly discusses personal encounters with individuals with a different mindset than him and he is able to provide them more knowledge towards his illegal status. Vargas provides various facts and information regarding the immigration laws that are currently happening in the United States. I personally connected with him throughout his whole article due to having personal experiences with this topic. It astonishes me the most that Vargas was brave enough to go public with his own personal story. He was not afraid to tell the rest of the
There is a common consensus among people around the world that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world because it is the land of opportunity, and the land of immigrants. In fact, the United States of America has always been the epicenter for the world 's greatest minds, and where hard work is recognized and rewarded. A place where boys become the future leaders of the world. A place where everyone, regardless of the color of their skin and their religion collaborate to solve the world’s future/current problems. Recently though, many Americans claim that undocumented immigrants steal their jobs, don’t pay any taxes, and still reap the benefits such as free public schooling. However, the author of “My Life as an Undocumented
As a young child, I had a feeling of resentment towards my parents as I naively believed that they were not working hard enough to obtain a career that would result in them being able to fulfill the necessities of the family. I thought that my parents were incapable of providing my siblings and I with a stable place to live and with a reliable source of transportation. That was my assumption until I saw a documentary on what undocumented immigrant families left behind in their countries for the better of their family in addition to the setbacks they must undergo to make a living in the land of opportunity.
The laws for immigration and undocumented people are very harmful to the young people who come to America as children and live here most of their lives and work in an effort to achieve the American dream. The author of A Dream Deferred: Undocumented Students at CUNY talks about undocumented students she’s encountered whose educational experience was over shadowed in some way by them being undocumented.
Undocumented citizens should receive the same rights as American citizens. While in America, everyone should be protected from discrimination, unfair treatment, and injustice. This is because no one should be denied basic human rights. Also, immigrants will always attempt to come to the U.S., whether it's allowed or not. There is no reason why while in America, they should have less rights than regular citizens. It is only discriminatory and unnecessary. Lastly, immigrants have always provided for this country more than they have hurt it. If undocumented citizens help contribute to America, why should they not be allowed American rights?
Introduction: America now houses 42.2 million legal and illegal immigrants, according to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. Ten million of these immigrants live in California, approximately ¼ of the total population. The subject of this paper, a 54-year old undocumented women employed as a domestic worker referred to as Myra, was interviewed with the purpose of obtaining a better understanding of the intersecting factors of race, class, gender, and legal status in the experiences of immigrants in the United States. Myra represents only one of 10 million, and as such she cannot be held as a representative of all undocumented women from Mexico, much less all immigrants. However, her experiences do provide some useful insight into the daily lives & perspectives of women in similar situations. In particular, her role as a mother shone through as a motivator in remaining in the United States and obtaining access to social services such as healthcare.
This week we analyzed two documents and two song selections that portrayed the fears and lives of immigrants that live in the United States with fear of being deported. They build a life in a country where they could never be free, they are portrayed as a united, hardworking community. Undocumented families come to the United States every day in search of a better life but they face injustice, fear, and loss of culture as the transition to another country. The children of undocumented parents are devastated because they dream of obtaining a post-secondary education but they require too many documents that will prove their citizenship and the cost sums up to thousands of dollars. As stated in document Higher Education Access for Undocumented