I think I’m luckier than my brothers and sisters because I am a legal immigrant to the United States. My brothers and my sisters had to go through hardships to be to get to the U.S. My name is Phuong Van. I was born in Can Tho, which is a small city in Vietnam. I’m the youngest of eight brothers and sisters in my family. I have five brothers and three sisters. My oldest brother is fifty one years old and I’m the youngest. I’m twenty six years old. Even though we have a big family, my mom has raised us up all by herself, because my father wasn’t with us most of his life. She always told us her life story and her experience in Vietnam. I was too young then to understand what she went through for her family at the time, but as I got older, I started to understand the hardship and struggle that she had to go through for her family to survive during those poor times. She lived through the terrible and long Vietnam War and her story is very interesting and exciting to hear. My mom has always wanted a better life for herself and her family. She hates the culture and the injustice for woman in Vietnam. She has always wanted to immigrate to America, because she heard some people told they can get a good life in American after they immigrate there. They can get good benefit, make more money, get a lot of freedom and women get more respect in America. That all reason makes my mom want to come there. My mom wanted a better life not only for herself but also for her kids too. She also wanted gives them a brighter future and greater opportunity. She always tries her best to protect her children. My mother has always sacrificed her life for her children’s. She’s has always stand behind me and support me when I am doing something wrong or chose the wrong choice in life. She is the greatest woman I…
I talked to my great grandmother, on my moms side, and asked her many questions about our ancestors. "Most of the generations I know about have lived in New Mexico. Usually when people ask us we say Spain because we know our ancestors didn't come from Mexico. I'd say Spain" she said word for word. I also asked her how long ago they came and she didn't know so I assume they came a long time ago.…
I am a temporary migrant. My father told me that I should extend my horizon and feel the different culture to open myself, because he knew I am unsociable. I think it is a pull factor because it's so hard for me to join the competitions in China. But I do not intend to immigrate to Canada, leaving home is not what I want even if I left home all the time.…
I was raised in the small town of Hidalgo, Texas, just on the side of the Mexican Border. Living there made me grow up thinking that possibilities were limited and there was not much offered to us. Although, along the years, I realized that this town did not define me , and it actually made me strong enough to take on life elsewhere in the future . I remember being in this town ten years ago, and there was only local businesses . The town has grown along with me, and it has opened up opportunities to its community and myself.…
Title The biggest challenges of being an immigrant is knowing the language of the country that you are in, trying to communicate with people and getting bullied. It is really hard for an immigrant coming to america to learn english and especially speak english. Like in many languages from Asia there are seriant ways to pronounce a word and if you pronounce that word in a different way it could have a whole different meaning. Another reason why it is very challenging for an immigrant speaking and learning english is because their peers might make fun of them if they pronounce a word wrong, like in the book inside out and back again the main character Hà, who is a 10 year old girl from vietnam, moved to alabama during the…
My father is a Sicilian combat veteran from Brooklyn and my mother is an immigrant from El Salvador. The disparity of their backgrounds is immeasurable, but their lives have impacted me greatly. They divorced when I was 3, but their relationship is unbelievably strong. I lived in a diverse environment, speaking different languages and existing in polar opposite lifestyles. The dichotomy molded me and influenced my character, perspective and state of being. Under my father’s roof, I endured a military-style upbringing-but the love was apparent. I was encouraged to play sports and excel in my academics. I am competitive in nature, and exceeding was always my aspiration. However certain events have caused me to falter, but I now understand that the duty of each human is to delegate their time for the advancement of the species and if no one holds you responsible, it is imperative that you do so.…
Growing up in an immigrant household came with many difficulties. Learning English was very easy for me because I was always in daycare but coming home was hard because I could not communicate with my parents. Trying to communicate with my parents was very difficult and frustrating. Even though it was at a young age, it was difficult to live in a household who only spoke Spanish.…
My dad was fifteen years when he did something I can never even imagine about doing; he crossed the border. He sacrificed so much in order to live a better life, without him I would not be writing this essay right now. My mother is a first generation Mexican-American, like myself, and also experienced the affects of her parents wanting more for their family. Fortunately for us, our family has strived in today’s society and would not be where we are without hardwork and dedication.…
For the once isolated immigrant from the hot deserts of the Middle East, never have I expected the open doors of opportunity at my grasp and the growth that soon followed within the freshman year of high school in the US. Before my immigration, I never truly experienced the challenge of a demanding curriculum. As such, I experienced an immense culture shock within my mind. Despite the difficulty of the transition, I knew it was worth it because I discovered an aspect of myself that remained dormant till I entered the gates of my new school.…
The day started off as any normal day. My mother woke me up and said “we must go.” Her voice sounded very urgent for what I thought was just a trip to the grocery store. My mom laid my outfit on my bed and packed by book bag; that’s when I figured out that I was starting school. I wasn’t entirely oblivious to the fact that I was going to familiarize myself with a completely different environment, but I just thought I had a little more time to prepare. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. You see, I wasn’t your average pre-schooler who was nervous about making friends. I was the immigrant child who had never spoken a word of English.…
The policies about legal immigration status that they face to be allowed into the United States present quite a challenge for those wanting to come to the U.S. The rules and proper policies are very detailed and all paperwork with fees must be completed properly in order to be processed. The costs that are charged to file the paperwork are costly. This ensures that individuals that want to come to America are serious and committed to being legally immigrated. If I were an individual that was interested in becoming an U.S. citizen, the entire process could be very overwhelming. It would be more frustrating if I did not know and understand the language. That would make the paperwork process extremely difficult. As an immigrant, there are many…
Growing up I excelled in every educational aspect of school. However the stereotype for someone of my skin color did not allow for me to be both Mexican and smart. My Hispanic peers began to exclude me; the most common way they did that was by taking away my identity as a Mexican. I heard “Diego you white” an uncountable number of times throughout my schooling. I noticed that my grades and vocabulary would trigger that comment so I began to change the way I acted in order to fit in. It was not until recently that I realized the fault in changing and found a peaceful merge between the two speech communities.…
As a child, rather than being told fairy tales and fables, my mom told me her story of leaving her family and the only life she knew to venture to America in hopes of creating a better life for herself, her future family, and her family back home. Her goal was to achieve the desperately sought over American dream. However, this was not the American dream she imagined. Upon her arrival she took on multiple blue collar unskilled jobs in order to make ends meet while simultaneously trying to learn English and assimilate into the new culture. Although, it may be common for immigrants to work these jobs for the first few years before finding a better career to attain that remarkably desired American dream; this was not the case. Over twenty years…
When I was thinking about doing this interview with someone who was an immigrant, I thought I didn't know anybody. Then I remembered that my friend Ben’s parents were immigrants. I have never thought about his family being from a different country before. I decided to interview his grandma because I thought she might know a little bit more about immigrating here and how it affected her life.…
Being an immigrant brings both positive and negative impacts on my life. I cannot say that I was totally ignorant about the decision my parents had made for us. But I was totally unprepared when that day had finally come. Obscurely I remember, when we arrived at the LAX airport, I couldn’t understand a single word of this new world surrounding us. It seemed like all of my endeavors in English classes were useless.…