Immigrant Life In America

Immigrant life in America is filled with obstacles such as abuse, discrimination, and poverty.They're constantly neglected and aren’t provided with any opportunities to be successful immigrants.They struggle with assimilating and having to change their identity in order to be a successful individual.

For immigrants life in America is filled with obstacles, shame, and discrimination that limit their success in life. In “Always Running” Luis J. Rodriguez discusses his mother confrontation to discrimination and language barriers that kept her from standing up for herself. A american woman states, “Hey, get out of there that’s our seat.” My mother understood but didn’t know how to answer back in english. So she tried in spanish. “Look spic, you
can’t sit there!”, “you don’t belong here” (Rodriguez,1). Essentially Rodriguez’s mother was discriminated by a American woman who shames the mother for simply being an immigrant and who was sitting on a bench that she claimed to be “her” seat. But because of the language barrier the mother is forced to stay back and let it all happen. The American woman’s tone and repetition of phrases emphasize her aggressive and hateful nature towards immigrants. The use of the phrase “You don’t belong“ and words like “spic” which is a insult to all hispanics, clearly shows her intentions. This is significant because the American woman makes the mother feel hopeless and defeated which is exactly how she wants her to feel. In order to get what she wants which is to make the mother feel vulnerable and weak so that she feels less than others and is willing to obey her commands or even push her to feel out of place and get her to go to her home country.

Karen Williams shows the difficulty of immigrants struggle through assimilation and having to change what makes them who they are.
In “My Name is Sangoel” Karen Williams discusses how after immigrating to America Sangoel feels that he has lost part of his identity. Sangoel states, “ In America I have lost my name,” mama sighed, her eyes sad. “America is our home now. Perhaps you need an american name” The wise one sang in his memory “you will always be Sangoel” (Williams,8) In other words after arriving to America Sangoel feels that he’s lost his name and is no longer the same person he used to be and although his mother wishes to stay true to her culture and traditions she figures it’s for the best. Even though Sangoel doesn’t want to accept changing his identity. Sangoel’s mother word choice and even the way she’s described suggest her feeling of defeat and sadness of not staying true to herself and culture. Williams states “Mama sighed her eyes sad” which show her resistance and resentment of coming to America and leaving everything behind. The use of “The Wise one” refers back to someone from Sangoel’s Dinka tribe that told him to stay true to himself. We can conclude that Sangoel’s mother is showing her willingness to assimilate this is because she suggest Sangoel should change his name to a American name in order to be successful and “Normal” with this we can infer that she wants the best for her son and if that includes giving up his identity she is willing to have
him assimilate.But on the other hand Sangoel doesn’t accept the changes this is because he repeatedly mentions ”The wise one” who told him that he would always be Sangoel no matter what. Williams use of The wise one’s words foreshadow Sangoel’s dedication to staying true to who he is and it also show how assimilation is a hard thing even to children.

Luis Rodriguez depicts the struggle of immigrants who thrive for a better life for themselves but are constantly shamed and neglected. In “Always Running” Luis Rodriguez discusses how immigrants are never given a chance for success. Rodriguez states, “We are invisible people in a city that thrives on glitter, big screens and big names, but this glamour contains none of our names” (Rodriguez,2).This is to say that Rodriguez has come to a realization that immigrants who come to America for a better life and opportunities are shut down, treated as less than a minors and aren’t given a chance at success. When America thrives and is known for success. Rodriguez use of the phrase “Glamour that contains none of our names “ is used to define America’s success and opportunities, it also refers to his disappointment of coming to a country where he believed he would have a better life but instead its life standards aren’t distributed to immigrants. In other words Rodriguez statements tell us that even though immigrants thrive for a successful life and risk it all to come to this country they’re constantly put through obstacle where it gets harder to be successful. And this cycle repeats until they’re left with no hope or dreams. Immigrants are set out to fail.