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Struggles of immigrants essay
Immigrants and their struggles
The hardships of being an immigrant
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Diving Deep into Immigration and Aspirations
There is no worse feeling than when it feels like the whole world is against you. In the novel, Spare Parts, lies this feeling for 4 undocumented students from Carl Hayden High School. This feeling of opposition did not stop Oscar, Luis, Cristian, and Lorenzo from reaching their goal of competing in an underwater robotics competition. The boys did more than just compete, they blew their goal out of the water. They accomplished finishing in first place against top colleges and yet, the world seemed like it didn’t want them. This novel got me thinking about why is it so easy for someone like me to go to college without any problem. While they, who have done more than I ever have, have to drop out because they don’t have papers. Education, in my opinion and many others, is the most important thing someone can possess. I know some people are born with a passion for what they are going to do for the rest of their life, but education can open up so many more opportunities than just a blue collar job. I think education should be available to everyone who is in the U.S.. Cristian was one of the highest-ranked kids on the team, who beat MIT, and now he sits at
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That is a scary thought because what if someone didn’t have their papers on them, would an innocent man be shot? Even if a person is illegal, why does he have to lose his life. The biggest thing that challenged my thinking was, Why did Oscar get banned from the U.S. for ten years when all he did was the right thing. He didn’t get caught, he gave himself up. This made me think because I always thought that the immigration system was pretty good, but now I think it is broken. The biggest problem I see with the immigration system is, how a person who has done nothing but want to help the country get
Part Three of the book “Just Like Us” written by Helen Thorpe is comprised of illegal undocumented individuals residing in Denver Colorado. The individuals consist of a group of four Mexican young adults all with the dream of one day attending college and finally obtaining a legal status within the United States. In this portion of the readings, Yadira, Marisela, Clara, and Elissa are entering their senior year at their University and have defined the odds of successfully completing college while maintaining an illegal status. Helen Thorpe clearly demonstrates a passion in tracking individuals that are determined to become legal citizens within society; however, lack the proper advocacy and documentation to do so. Part Three of the book envelops the complexity of maintaining a legal status among society members through the lives of these four influential young ladies striving to achieve higher education in the
The authors mention Miguel Fernandez, a fresh graduate from a small high school who has had struggles that have affected his opportunities to go off to college. These struggles include financial hardships and also that Miguel “was undocumented and in the country illegally” (Noguera and Kundu par.8). Though Miguel
In Lives in Limbo, Roberto G. Gonzales dissects the disastrous effects of US immigration policy on young Latina/os struggling in the often untouched, unnoticed, uncared for, American underbelly. Through a striking ethnography, Gonzalez examines 150 illuminating case-studies of young undocumented Latina/os, shedding light on their shared experience in the struggle for legitimacy in the United States - their lives, effectively, in limbo. He develops two major groups with which to classify the struggling youth: the college-goers, like Cesar, who received strong marks in high school and was able to land himself a spot within the UC system, and the early-exiters, like Silvia, who was unable to attend college, resigned to a paranoid life plagued
Joshua Davis writes how on a drive back to Phoenix there was an immigration checkpoint, “Everybody’s heart rate kicked up…and Oscar prepared for the worst. He imagined being torn from his family and dropped across the border” (107). This is a constant fear illegal immigrants live with. Since my parents and oldest brother had no papers, I lived with constant paranoia. I was scared that from one moment to the next my family will be taken from me, and that I would have to grow up in a foster home without them. This fear was always there whenever I saw police, no matter the reason police was there. Illegal immigrants wake up every day with the uncertainty if it will be last day they see their families. I felt the same fear Oscar and the boys felt that day, because it will be horrible to be separated from a
Even if these students have achieved the highest honors and have the brains of an engineer, they aren’t able to reach their greatest potential because they simply do not have documents. Those who are undocumented are doomed to working backbreaking jobs that pay substantially below minimum wage. Spare Parts has challenged and shown me that it takes an immigrant double, or even triple the amount of toil to achieve anything in life. These boys endeavoured through adversities that many of us will never encounter. Luis luckily had a green card, but Lorenzo, Oscar, and Cristian were all living under the fear of deportation. They all wanted more after graduating from Carl Hayden but their dreams quickly vanished because the reality was that they’re illegal immigrants. When we hear the word “immigration”, we automatically think “illegal”, but what we don’t see is that these illegal immigrants are trying to reach their own American Dreams by coming to America. As the author includes Patrick J. Buchanan’s perspective on immigrants, “...families came to the United States to leech off government services.” (35), it shows us how immigrants are perceived.
Lacking the necessary support, many start to devalue the importance of doing well in school deciding that perhaps school isn’t part of their identity. In Susan’s case she’s eliciting multiple forms of subordination, and within each dimension she’s being subjective to different types of oppression; racial oppression, gender oppression, and class oppression, she’s experiencing cultural alienation and isolation and is not only based on her ethnicity as a Latina but is also influenced by how she is treated as a female, as a member of a certain socioeconomic class, and in relation to her English language proficiency, and even her perceived immigration status. In this sense, students like Susan experience different forms of discrimination or marginalization that stems from
\ While reading Spare Parts by Joshua Davis, I came to understand many important topics in four boys lives, whether it was about their home lives or about beating MIT. The one that sticks with me the most was the struggle these boys had to go through because they were not American citizens.
As a college student facing graduation in a year, I’ve lost my faith in the accessibility of the American Dream. Thus far, I have been fortunate to surpass a large percentage of my peers from high school in my preparation for future success. I’m not still living at home. I did not get married at 18. In fact, I worked extremely hard in school and even harder in athletics so I could get a full scholarship to a prestigious university and graduate debt-free.
Ever since high school, all students are told about the many different financial options available to them to help pay for their college education. However, there are also students who are told that they are available for additional aid because they are considered to be underprivileged. For students like me, the term “underprivileged” is placed on them early on in schools and will continue to follow them for most of their undergraduate career. I am able to relate to this article because I am considered to be an underprivileged student. For as long as I can remember, I have been identified as such and for a while I got made fun of because I was labeled as being underprivileged. I know what it feels like as a child to be ostracized just and having to deal with the label as a college student can be just as embarrassing at times. While the additional funds that are available may be helpful for an already struggling college student to pay for courses; the term “underprivileged” itself can be damaging to the students emotionally. As the Phoenix newspaper editor, Natasha Rodriguez, expresses in her article “Who Are You Calling Underprivileged,” (p. 206) colleges often label students as being “underprivileged” based off of their lower income, their backgrounds, or even their ethnicity. Rodriguez points out that though the assistance is appreciated, being called underprivileged or told that you have lived an “underprivileged” life could invoke a lot of different emotions in a student. Rodriguez then goes on to question the use of the term “underprivileged” by colleges and why another word should be adopted to identify students in need. She argues that colleges should adopt a phrase similar to “students in n...
Education is the key, and the power source to our future. Living in this day in time, no human should settle for less and not want to attain higher
When it comes to achieving success in the working industry and accomplishing a successful career an education is important. Getting a degree is essential to be successful. The issue is the higher the education the person wants the higher the cost is. Nowadays, not everyone can afford paying out of pocket for an education, which mean that students are forced to take out large amount of student loans to achieve that degree. Student debt is an ongoing problem, students are gaining oversized debts that most of the time if not ALL are defaulting and jeopardizing future credits. How much debt it too much debt? Everyone should have the liberty to
...tion was only for the rich and powerful. Now it is available to everyone, this will have many advantages for our country, our people, and even our world. I definitely believe that it is impossible to be overeducated. The more people are educated, the better the world will be, because people will be able to discuss and exchange ideas. Another pro is that people with degrees have many more opportunities. They can take a wider variety of jobs and do what they enjoy doing, instead of being forced to take a job they dislike. Finally, although there are undoubtedly some problems with college as a business, I feel strongly that each and every individual can excel and gain from having a college education. A college education is the most valuable tool we can use; it’s a foundation that will carry anyone through a successful life. Remember Senator Kerry’s words on making a college investment your most important investment. We may only be 20 percent of the population today, but what we do and the choices we make are going to determine the future. And to me, a college education is a sound investment. An investment that with great dedication and determination will reap the very best rewards!
However, the second type of illegal immigrant is much more difficult to find because the government is unaware of their existence. Out of all the critical issues of illegal immigration, one that stands out amongst all of the concerns is the issue of national security. Therefore, a large number of illegal immigrants take advantage of crossing the border undetected. With such a large number of illegal immigrants entering our country, the safety of our citizens is hindered because not just illegal immigrants can cross our borders but criminals and terrorists can come across virtually unseen.
Education is essential for everyone. Education plays a critical role in the development of a generation of individuals that is virtuous and in turn contributes to the development of good people. Through education, a person is able to develop mentally, but also physically and socially. To the youths, education is important as it helps them to develop the principles of life, enables them to make the correct career decisions and also prepares them in the pursuit of the goals that they may have set for themselves in life. I strongly believe that a good, heck, or even a regular education is a right that cannot be taken away. Education is a right and not a privilege.
Education is as important as the air we breathe. It is the most important possession a person must have. Education is beneficial in many aspect of life especially, personal and social it is the only possession that cannot be taken away from you. Education is important because it will open up the windows of opportunities. In this competitive world having a good education is as important as the air we breathe because it is our weapon to conquer the world.