Immigrants In Helen Thorpe's Just Like Us

Immigration is never an easy subject. Sometimes, it will dictate how people perceive others because of the lack of a green card or legality in the United States. Helen Thorpe wrote and published a narrative on four girls who recently graduated high school that each has big decisions to make. For Clara and Elissa, choosing which college to attend is their main concern, and for Marisela and Yadira, applying to college is their biggest concern because they lack having a proper social security number and a green card. In Helen Thorpe’s book “Just Like Us”, she explores the different realities that these girls are facing just of attending college in America. Out of the four girls, Clara and Elissa have it easier because they are legal citizens and
They practically became a family to one another during high school. Each girl had worked tirelessly to achieve their long term goals of completing high school and getting accepted into a college they wanted to go. Marisela and Yadira faced the brevity of the situation because they weren't able to apply to the same colleges Clara and Elissa were able to because they lacked legal status and weren’t able to get the same opportunities. It caused a huge hindrance with the other girls because they were able to apply anywhere they want, get scholarships while the other two weren't able to do any of that. All the hard work Marisela and Yadira put into school felt like it would never pay off. “And Marisela had a good reason to fear that she might lose her friends in the process, for the subject of college had already caused the four girls to suffer their first major rift.” (Thorpe 20) This kept them separated and because they faced huge divide with legality, driving, applying for a bank account, etc became melancholic for Yadira and Marisela because they had very limited options as to what they could do. “The slow accumulation of ordinary things that they could not do became painful for the girls who lacked legal status to endure, especially given that their legal friends were able to accomplish basic tasks without difficulties. But nothing was more painful than the subject of college” (Thorpe 25). Legality had set in ways they
Yadira and Marisela still showed promise and were adamant about still going to college. It may have been a slow start, but the girls wanted very badly to go to college. They may have lacked legal status, but their persistent and tireless efforts of pursuing college paid off. They were finally able to attend college with grants and scholarships from others. Marisela and Yadira had a bond different from the other two girls because they realized they were the same when it came to legality. To them, Clara and Elissa would never truly understand what they had to go through just to attend college. However, college didn’t get much easier for all the girls. Their legal statuses were still brought up in play; they were hindered with what they were able to do; they weren’t able to travel on a plane when the school had special trips and study abroad options. Working on campus wasn’t a viable option because they still lacked a proper and legal social security number, and Marisela and Yadira still felt isolated sometimes because many of their peers didn’t approve of illegal immigrants. “Yadira and Marisela met the income qualification for work-study, yet they could not obtain a job from the university without legitimate Social Security numbers”(Thorpe 115). They kept their legal statuses hidden and only shared it with peers