Personal Narrative: Why People Immigrate To America

English 101
Essay 4

Why People Immigrate To America and How The United States Benefits

Millions of people immigrate to America looking for the “American Dream,” in search of a fair government and all types of various freedoms offered to people. America still has millions of people immigrating to the states every year and should continue to do so. People from various cultures and backgrounds populate the land, looking for a new way of life and a chance for new beginnings. In the essay 300 million and counting, by Joel Garreau, in Chapter 1 of the book “What Matters in America by Gary Goshgarian,” the author explains how almost every individual living in the states today arrived to America from somewhere else at some point or another
throughout history, other than the Indians. I too moved with my family to the states about 20 years ago. For many it is hard to understand all the reasons of why so many immigrants choose to abandon their country, their language and their way of life. I will be explaining in greater depth of how I moved here, what my families life was like in Russia and the various reasons people choose to move to America and how the United States benefits from all these people and why we should continue immigration. When I was four years of age my parents decided to move out of the beautiful city of Krasnodar, a city located just south of Moscow.
Looking back at my early childhood I still can’t believe they did such a bold and courageous thing. In Russia, my parents were living a very luxurious life, where they were wealthy and very well respected. My mother was a boss of a huge factory chain, and my father was a well known professional photographer. He even had a lot of his art in a well known museum in Moscow; it was a museum that seeked out talented artists and displayed their creative work. My parents made more than enough money to support our big family, and even though they lived a life than many only dream of, they still decided to move to America, their main reason was for religious freedom and a land filled with opportunity. When people heard that we were leaving behind everything that we had, they were in shock. My parents left their careers, their home, furniture, close relatives and a big portion of their belongings. This is just a glimpse of what we have faced, but I want to take a closer look at why my family and so many others immigrants were and still are desperate to leave behind their
homeland. Life in Russia was not easy, many people that were religious (from various religions) faced persecution on a daily basis (Service,191). Churches were burned down, invaded, and destroyed. People would try to gather in small houses just to worship, pray, and preach. Thousands of pastors and preachers were faced with long term prison sentences, and many were even killed. My dad had a close friend in Russia, name Sergey who was a pastor of a very small church, when the government came to know of this, he was sentenced to serve 20 years in state prison. Millions of people only dreamed to build great churches and never got a chance to do so. Cops did not have any set guidelines that they needed to abide by, they were cruel, harsh and did as they pleased. Many cops were also bought out by the Mafia, and were known as “dirty” cops. But this was just a small percentage of the corruption that people hear about.

Violence was also very widespread throughout the majority of Russia. Their was lots of theft, corruption, drug dealing, money laundering, contract killings and large Mafias. In fact the Mafia was created for peoples protection. Thousands of people would join a Mafia just in order to protect themselves from the corrupt government, that would try to take money from citizens, especially those that owned businesses, or those that were wealthy. People would pay a percentage of their earnings to the Mafia just to have a sense of safety in their lives, that just shows how desperate people were. Many citizens were afraid to have large investments, houses, and cars, because at any given moment the government may come and try to take any of your possessions, and even falsely accuse people that were successful. This didn’t let people to reach their full potentials in life or in their careers. (Freeze, Chapter 14) Many people were able to get out of any situation that they were faced with if they had money. Cops often took bribes and if you had any enemies they could be easily destroyed, through a contract killing or through the Mafia. When I was very young my family was shopping in Moscow and on our way back home my parents were pulled over, in order to get out of a ticket my dad bribed the cop with a cake that we had purchased early that day from a bakery. The cop didn’t even argue, and was able to immediately let my dad go. This is how easy cops could be bought out, and corruption was able to flourish. Corruption soon began to take place in the government as well as politicians, leaders and other state officials. Even though immigration was hard on millions of people, America did benefit in many ways.
For a long time America stood as a very strong and wealthy nation. America was receiving immigrants from all over the world, immigrants that at were many times very talented in various works/skills, and very well educated. Immigrants were known to accept jobs that had very low wages, long hours and low benefits, in many cases businesses were prospering, causing the economy to stand strong. In the essay “What Dream: by Marc Cooper, in chapter 4 of the book, “What matters in America by Gary Goshgarian,” he writes, “ Is America still a confident land of hope and promise, a place still potent with possibilities,” I would have to agree with Marc, we need to remember that immigrants are an important part of what America is, and America has benefited from them in many ways. And no I’m not at all implying that we should be letting everyone into this country, or that people should come here illegally. I’m saying that we shouldn’t be discouraged with immigrants, they are amazing people with real stories, much wisdom, and many with amazing skills and we need to remember that, that is what makes America the country it is today. State officials should not be restricting immigrants from coming into the country but encouraging them. Yes, there should be guidelines and proper procedures to follow, but I believe that it would help in this rough economy. Many immigrants today have small business and the
ambition to work hard making it possible to slowly help our economy. In the Essay “Immigration Quotas Versus Individual Rights: “The Moral and Practical Case for Open Immigration” by Harry Binswager in chapter 40 of the book, “What Matters in America by Gary Goshgarian” he explains the true value of immigrants and how they uplift and revive America, their willingness to prosper in a land of freedom shows Americans to value their land that offers so much opportunity. (1231 Words)