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Social pressure
Children with immigrant parents
Children with immigrant parents
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Like most of Americans, I am a descendant of immigrants. I came to the United States from 9 years ago when I was 12 years old. My parents are just like other traditional Chinese parents who wanted their kids to become talent people. I’ve always have arguments with my parents about their old ideas, especially after I came to America and accustomed to the freedom belief here. However, the experience that I went through between the period of my high school and community college has totally changed my life. I used to living in Oakland and went school there. When I was a freshman in high school, I did not realize how important education is, plus the pressure that added on me from my parents and the environment that surrounds me, I did not wanted to be serious about school at all. My parents always wanted me to take my time to study and telling me the importance of education, but I believed that people can become successful without education. Therefore, under the ordering of my rebellious heart, I started skipping classes and became lazy about school. The first two years of high school were still okay, which I still earning grades between A to C, but things soon got worse since I started my junior year. During my junior year of high school, I often skip classes, sleep on class, and don’t even do any of my homework. By the end of the school term, I ended up with failing all six classes and had my GPA way lower than the passing average. I and my parents had a big fight about the grades that I had and the school even had us sat in the parent center to reconcile our problem with a psychologist. After the talk between my parent, the psychologist, and me, my parents seems changed, they don’t restrain me anymore like before. Even though I still thought that education is not important, but I started working hard to make up all the classes that I failed to get my high school diploma because I realized the hope that they put on me and I don’t want them to be disappointed again. During my senior year of high school, I did not only take six classes, but also working on a program called Cyber High to retake all my failed classes with high grades, and also take extra class to average up my GPA in order to meet graduate requirements.
In Marcelo M. Suarez- Orozco and Carola Suarez- Orozco’s article “How Immigrants became “other” Marcelo and Carola reference the hardships and struggles of undocumented immigrants while at the same time argue that no human being should be discriminated as an immigrant. There are millions of undocumented people that risk their lives by coming to the United States all to try and make a better life for themselves. These immigrants are categorized and thought upon as terrorist, rapists, and overall a threat to Americans. When in reality they are just as hard working as American citizens. This article presents different cases in which immigrants have struggled to try and improve their life in America. It overall reflects on the things that immigrants go through. Immigrants come to the United States with a purpose and that is to escape poverty. It’s not simply crossing the border and suddenly having a great life. These people lose their families and go years without seeing them all to try and provide for them. They risk getting caught and not surviving trying to make it to the other side. Those that make it often don’t know where to go as they are unfamiliar. They all struggle and every story is different, but to them it’s worth the risk. To work the miserable jobs that Americans won’t. “I did not come to steal from anyone. I put my all in the jobs I take. And I don’t see any of the Americans wanting to do this work” (668). These
In this article, Eric Liu presents his life as a native immigrant to an Asian American individual. He shares his experience through his reflection of ideas and emotions. Along with his story, it relates to the ideas of people’s journey from adolescence to adulthood. Eric’s inspirational experience is directed towards minority groups who try to adapt to the American culture and lifestyle. His parents emigrated from China to America, before he was born which he later became exposed to the freedom and diverse society. This results in beneficial effects for his individuality, career opportunities, and lifestyle. Although his parents have lived in a different culture than him, his life in America has made him assimilated into the American society
At the age of two my parents made the long and devastating journey to bring me and my siblings to the United States from Mexico. Wanting a brighter future for us, my parents fought tooth and nail to give us the world they didn’t grow up having. Ever since stepping foot on the U.S soil, going back seemed impossible. The effects of this life-changing move, couldn’t mask the unforeseen disadvantages. Lacking exposure to Mexico’s colorful culture, little to no bonding time with my family from abroad, and the struggle of trying to blend into an environment that was so different, soon began to interfere with my overall identity. Realizing this, my wonderful parents prepared a transformative trip back to my homeland, and back to the past, facing
Chinese immigrants to the United States of America have experienced both setbacks and triumphs in the quest to seek a better life from themselves and their families. First arriving in America in the mid-1800s to seek jobs and escape poor conditions in their home country, the Chinese found work as labors and settled in areas known as Chinatowns (Takaki 181-183). In the early years, these immigrants experienced vast legal racism and sexism as women were forbidden to enter the country and the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented laborers from entering the country for years (Takaki 184-192). Today, the modern Chinese-American experience has changed from the experience of early Chinese immigrants. Many immigrants enter the country seeking better education as well employment (Yung, Chang, and Lai 244). Immigrant women have made great strides in achieving equality to men. Despite advancements, many immigrants still experience discrimination on some level. One example of a modern Chinese immigrant is “Ruby”, a college student who, with her parents, immigrated from Hong Kong to a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island, 7 years ago. Ruby’s story shares insight on the modern Chinese-American experience and the struggles this group still faces. Chinese immigrants have long maintained a presence in the United States, and despite many struggles, have eventually began to reap the benefits of this great nation.
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.
Before you begin reading the main narrative of my essay, I want to let you in on some details about my life and myself. I was born in Manhattan, New York and when I was about twenty two days old, I boarded a plane with my parents on a journey across the United States to the city of San Francisco, then to the town of Grass Valley. This is where my grandmother and grandfather resided. They had been telling my parents that the city of Manhattan was no place to raise a child and that we should move to California and live with them. Before making this life changing decision of leaving most of their friends and loved ones in New York to come to California, my parents sent me off to live in India with my uncle. Keep in mind, I was about the age of two when this all happened. The opportunity of leaving me with my uncle gave my parents about a year to think things over and pull themselves together, in efforts to properly raise a child in a country that was so
Affected by my family, my background, and everything around me, I was born in a family who is the first generation to get here. My grandmother, and my parents, along with some other relatives, moved here in search of better opportunities, like those from other countries for the same idea. They started out fresh but had a hard time to get started, when I was little, I assumed it had to be somewhat easy, but for people who do not know English it is like starting from scratch, but they did well, they’ve made it.
My parents sometimes got the notion that they knew everything in my life. They constantly advised me to eat my vegetables, do my homework, and put the toilet seat down after going to the bathroom. Yet, I felt as if my mother and father never understood what I went through in school due to the fact that they grew up in a totally different country. I’m sure that if I were raised in an Asian country, no one would pull their eye sockets back and start singing some gabble that didn’t even include a real character in any Asian alphabet, because we would all have the same face. My folks just moved to the “land of opportunity” in hopes of getting me a bright future; a land that has high school kids shooting up fellow students and teachers. Some future.
How your culture had shaped who I am today? I was born and raised in China for at least 8 year, and my parents’ culture have once deeply influence my choice of the future and limit my vision. As everyone know, China is once a communist country, similar to old Russia (USSR). People are not allow to be wealthier and education are limited. In Chinese culture, it is necessary to subject one’s own desire for a greater value to the family. If I don’t follow my parents order, it will brings shame to the family. There were moment in my life where I would follow the tradition and culture as a nice son, but I am tired of following the tradition. Sometimes, we have no clue that we live under the internalized oppression from culture and elder. Internalized
The United States is a country known for its variation of nationalities and ethnic races. After extensive research, and questioning I discovered that my ancestors originated from Norway and Switzerland. My family migrated to the United States in the late 1800’s from Norway due to social, economic, and religion reforms as well as, a surplus in the population. Learning of my ancestor’s migration to America has very much influenced my views on the existing immigration problems that the U.S. currently faces.
At first, my very first experience in the United States is so bored, depressed, and hopeless. It was a new journey for me, I learn a language that I had never learned before, I get bullied just because I am the only one Asian who do not speak English. However, my life has become better when I realized that the “American Dream” is possible. Well, for me, the term “American Dream” is fitting for the one who attends at school, who has confidence and hard work. It might be a dream for my generation but not my parents. I saw my parents struggle to keep my brother and I fed. They worked more than two jobs, just to help us finish our education, paying our rent, and everything. I saw them suffer in tears, to sacrificed their future to let my brother and me to get a better education and opportunities to
There are some people who did not do very well in grade school. Some may have even dropped out. But do not fear, because college can be like a second chance. There are many things that college can offer. It can give someone a degree or help them get back on their feet. College can open doors to places that high school never did, such as a new job, how to keep a job, and how to make more money. It can also help an individual look into subjects at larger depth. Personally, I hope that this happens to me. I am not doing too well in high school, but I am not doing horribly either. My parents are not proud of it. They expect me to be a straight A student, but I’m struggling to complete their expectations. It causes my parents to be stricter towards me. However, I hope that once I start doing full time at a college that I can do better than I did in high school for a few reasons. For the first reason, I want to have a better relationship with my parents. I want my mother and father to see that I am successful. Secondly, I want to get a degree for my own good. Lastly, I want to have a good future for myself. I do not want to be working at a job that is difficult and stressful physically and mentally. My parents always tell me to do well in college so I don’t have to work at difficult job like they do, which is brick laying and welding. Whether someone is a high school dropout or someone who did well
Many years ago I remember my parents telling me that in order for me to become successful a college education was a must. They always told me that if I wasn’t in school I could no longer live at home. Both of my parents attended college but neither of them finished. They did not want me to go down that same road because they really regret not getting their degrees.
I feared I wouldn’t be able to uphold my family’s standards. All the work given to me from my five core gifted classes and the stress started accumulating. My life was spiraling right before my eyes. I lost control of the steering wheel and ran myself right into a ditch; a ditch, more like a bottomless pit of scum. I thought I was strong enough to hold on for the ride but apparently I wasn’t. I reluctantly handed over the wheel to my parents and let them guide me to where I needed to be. Eventually, tenth grade rolled around and I put myself back together. I was broken glass taped together trying to refurbish myself. At this point I just had to make it through high school. At the end of tenth grade, I aced every class I had taken from band to chemistry. Eleventh grade creeped around the corner and the anxiety started to build up again. I wanted more for myself. I was no longer satisfied with being every other person in Hialeah Gardens High School. My options were to either get into dual enrollment or finish high school all together. Dual enrollment was ruled out when my test scores were not at the new passing score they had recently made. There were two months left of school and it was until then that I decided
Living up to my resolution, I joined several clubs, both in and out of school and academic and recreational. I also met some of my very best friends in high school. Achieving all of this, friends, memberships to academic clubs and good grades, made up my first successful experience in high school. I was driven by the years in middle school and the promise that I made to myself at the end of eighth grade. Throughout my under classmen years I exceled in all subjects and thoroughly enjoyed the clubs I had joined. I think my downfall for the last two years of school was that I took for granted my good grades and as my classes got more rigorous I didn’t change the way I learned the material, but continued on the same path that I had been following my entire academic career, even when my grades were slipping slightly. Halfway through my senior year, I realized I needed to change the way I was learning the curriculum my instructors were teaching. I’ve always been the type of student to take good notes or listen to a lecture and understand everything the first time around, as was the case in elementary school and middle school. But my more rigorous classes proved to be a challenge for me and I did not know the proper way of learning the material on my own. I started by asking more questions in class and then going to my friends for help on subjects I didn’t understand. After many questions and after school tutor