Twenty years ago, my father boarded a one-way flight to the United States. Unlike the people he left behind, he was going to a new nation that will open doors to new opportunities his motherland could not provide. He wasn’t restricted to his place of birth. Raised by immigrants, I was constantly reminded that my life is full of comforts that I shouldn’t take for granted. My mom always said that the food I enjoy, the roof over my head, and the education I get was simply because of luck. “You have to be appreciative,” my father would always say, “those back in India may not be as fortunate.” As we all sit at the dining table, I recall my parents journey and how they became who they are today. Remembering that every day, it would be past midnight …show more content…
I would know it was father coming home from driving his taxi through the streets on New York City. Mother would be up waiting for him to serve him food, both whispering to each other and making sure not to wake the kids up. His day usually began at 7:00 am and usually returned home around midnight. As a kid, I never really questioned his schedule until we moved to Indiana. The first year was filled with struggles because dad has to stay in New York to earn some money while the rest of us were here. Mother didn’t know how to drive a car and all the local stores were at a further distance. In New York, we just walked everywhere but in Indiana mom has to reply on someone else to get grocery or school supplies. That someone else wasn’t even family, they say that in your hard times you find out who your real family is. Despite that fact that my aunt lived next door, she never asked us if we ever needed anything or get some grocery, it was my mom’s friend who always took us. When dad finally came to Indiana, he got his truck driver’s license and we saw him less and less, usually every two to three days. When I entered high school, I wondered how my dad could work so hard every day of the week, barely seeing his family, yet always be so happy? He drives long hours,
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
In Amin Ahmad’s I belong here, the reader is faced with a sense of sympathy that makes the reader’s view of the world, not only questionable, but alterable. This personal experience, written in the year 2010 shames the fact that this world has and shows how little progress the world has made in the judgment and discrimination of immigrants. These people look differently, speak differently, and live differently; but on the inside they are the same. Nonetheless, they are looked down upon by people from different cultures. The author uses his personal ethos and pathos to support the claim of value that immigrants are not treated fairly. A claim of value is a claim that is based off of what is right and what is wrong.
I have to introduce you to three individuals, not random individuals, but siblings - two brothers and a sister. They may seem just like any other people, but they have a secret that isn’t easily realized unless you know them. They belong here in the sense that they were born here, but their hearts belong to another land. They are the children of immigrants; the first generation to be born in America. It is a unique experience that to others may seem odd or exotic, but for these three is just as normal as learning to ride a bike.
In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America.” She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to conform to said culture.
When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they were in their own countries not able to make ends meet, just to live in the United States. Virtually all immigrants during the 1900’s had the same dream, to become successful and provide for their families as citizens of the United States, but they soon found out that the life in their new country was not going to be easy.
The United States cannot afford to lose the economic gains that come from immigrant labor. The economy would be suffering a greater loss if it weren’t for immigrants and their labor contributions, especially during the 2008 U.S. recession. The U.S. economy would most likely worsen if it weren’t for the strong labor force immigrants have provided this country. Despite the mostly negative views native-born Americans have towards immigrants and the economy, their strong representation in the labor forces continues today. Immigrants aren’t taking “American” jobs, they are taking the jobs that Americans don’t want (Delener & Ventilato, 2008). Immigrants contribute to various aspects of the economy, including brining valuable skills to their jobs, contributing to the cost of living through taxes, and the lacked use of welfare, healthcare, and social security when compared to native-born Americans, showing that the United States cannot afford to lose the contribution immigrants bring into the economy.
Furthermore, Kolker writes an informative non-fiction book about immigrants from different parts of the world. In this book she talks about how immigrants have brought their cultural values with them. Those values have been cherished and accepted in the United States. Kolker goes on to tell us, how immigrant’s lives are more
Throughout the course of my life, I have always encountered individuals wanting to better their economic situation especially those within my community. Those who come from impoverished communities in other countries risk their lives and lifetime savings to come to the United States hoping that one day they will regain everything that they lost. Their only motivation to come to this country is to be able to provide their family with basic necessities and in order to do this, they must work two or more jobs that pay at minimum wage and are taken for granted. However, many individuals do not see this side of the story and categorize immigrants as unambitious people. In order to be completely aware of what immigrants truly go through and how they succeed in life, one must be willing to place themselves in their shoes and hear his/her story. We must acknowledge that the hands of these people work in back breaking jobs in order to sustain their families. While some Americans may be against immigrants arriving to the United States in search of a better life and the American Dream, in The Madonnas of Echo Park, Brando Skyhorse further reveals that immigrants are exploited as cheap labor, and although they contribute greatly to the everyday function of American industry, they are quite invisible.
Stepping out of my first plane ride, I experience an epiphany of new culture, which seems to me as a whole new world. Buzzing around my ears are conversations in an unfamiliar language that intrigues me. It then struck me that after twenty hours of a seemingly perpetual plane ride that I finally arrived in The United States of America, a country full of new opportunities. It was this moment that I realized how diverse and big this world is. This is the story of my new life in America.
... wealthy or being in the middle class. Nate explained that the majority of Indians that were allowed to immigrate, especially in earlier years, had to be well off. This made me think more about various stereotypes and what we associate with different ethnicities and how these may come from historical or social events. If Indians were allowed to immigrate with different skill levels or without needing to be well off would the perception of Indian’s in the United States be different? How many other stereotypes of various ethnicities were created by similar happenstances? These questions, though hypothetical, help situate my thoughts about Indians in the United States as well as different ethnic communities. It is interesting to think about what might have been and how much of my perception of the world has been affected by things that have never even crossed my mind.
When my family and I got in the plane that would take us to the U.S., I was very excited. It was as if I had butterflies in my stomach. I was also nervous because I had heard of people that were turned away when they got to America because the government was not letting as many immigrants into the U.S as they had in the past. Therefore, my whole family was a little anxious. Two things could happen when we arrived at the Washington, D.C., airport. We could either come to the United States to chase after “the American dream”, or we could be turned away which meant that we would have to return to our country of origin.
“We are nation of immigrants. Some came here willingly, some unwillingly. Nonetheless, we are immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants, one, and all. Even the natives came from somewhere else, originally. All of the people who come to this country come for freedom, or for some product of that extraordinary, illusory condition. That is what we offer here—freedom and opportunity in a land of relative plenty.” (Middletown Journal 2005)
"Immigrants and the American Dream." Society 33.n1 (Nov-Dec 1995):3(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale University. 26 Sep. 2006.
Immigrants thought that the streets of America were paved in gold and anyone could go from rags to riches, but this was not true at all. Loewen states how, “textbooks do present immigrant history” even though this include the emphasis on rare success cases such as Andrew Carnegie and Joseph Pulitzer (213). In middle school, my eighth grade history class focused on Ellis Island, a place where many immigrants traveled to begin a “rags to riches life”, but my teacher never mentioned that many of these immigrants never actually become rich. Often times, if you are born poor, your family tends to stay poor for generations and
It is through the events in the journey of life that shapes and molds who we are as people. As for me, immigrating to America was one of those milestones that have shaped who I am. Those who have had the opportunity of moving from a different country to America know what a privilege it is. I felt the same honor to know that I would be journeying to the land of opportunity. Without hesitance, I spent the last two months packing and making the final preparations before moving to a new continent. Although it was a bittersweet time, leaving my beloved family behind, I knew that I couldn’t resist the treasure that waited for me in the new land. Coming from a developing nation the high level of sophistication that greeted me on arrival to America made feel like I was in paradise.