Stella Raukhman, currently 66 years old, immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union on February 11, 1981. Hers was one of the last families to leave during the immigration wave at that time. It was a difficult decision, leaving the home she had grown up in, but she didn’t want her children to grow up experiencing antisemitism. Latvians were proud, and judgemental of those who differed from them, as were Russians. Both disliked Jews. She also wanted her children to have better opportunities in life. Even so, it was still scary considering leaving her friends and many relatives behind and become dependant on others in a different country.…
Ana Rubia Andrade is a 20 year old Brazilian American. She was born in Brazil and then immigrated to the United States of America in 2002 at the young age of 6. Ana went with her younger brother, her parents, and her aunt on a 10 hour airplane trip and arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She stayed in Florida for one year before relocating to Saugus, Massachusetts an area where some family friends were also living in. Her family decided to move due to economic problems. The United States offered better opportunities to become successful. This is demonstrated in Ana’s aunt situation because her aunt was a nurse in Brazil and made less money there then when she worked part time at a gym in America. The Andrade family has not regret the decision to immigrate to America. Ana is just one example of thousands of immigrants that come into the United States of America yearly.…
Immigrants and their assimilation into America is a long standing occurrence, with initial experiences by the Pilgrims of the early 1600s to the first documentation of mass immigration with the arrival of Catholic and Jewish immigrants, from Italy and Russia during the colonial era in the late 1800s to early 1900s. With this influx at the time being labelled as “New Immigration”, “Nativists feared the new arrivals lacked the political, social, and occupational skills needed to successfully assimilate into American culture” (Wikipedia). These historical concerns continue to evolve in modern debate of the pros and cons of immigrant assimilation, the conflicting interests of Immigrant and Nation, and examination of the meaning of the term “assimilation’…
The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American society.…
In this essay, Anzaldua reveals her thoughts about the issues of racism, identity, and low self-esteem faced by Mexican immigrants living in the United States. Anzaldua states that a person’s identity is linked to the way they speak. Anzaldua begins her essay with a metaphor demonstrating how immigrants are suppressed in society. She uses ethos to establish her credibility throughout this essay such as in paragraph 35 (“Until I can take pride in my language…”). Today there are still issues where immigrants are judged by the way they speak and made to feel ashamed of their own language and culture.…
In the vignette A House of My Own, Sandra Cisneros perfectly depicts the common experiences faced by female immigrants in new counties. This vignette has many meanings, ranging from gender roles to immigrant issues. In this account,…
Various reasons motivate people to leave their native countries. For a number of individuals, it is because of economic, political, and social factors, while for others, it is the matter of choice and opportunity. The following paper discusses the life of Jane and presents a sociological interpretation of her immigration experiences. For confidentiality and anonymity purposes, I will refer to the interviewee as Jane. Jane came to the United States in 2012. Since an early age, Jane was heavily involved in tennis since her parents wanted her to become a professional tennis player. When she was 18, she received an offer from Sierra College and Sacramento State University to play on the tennis team and pursue her studies in the U.S. As Jane recalls,…
Many immigrants have overcome the obstacles of not being understood. Amy Tan, an Asian immigrant, had to interpret for her mother at times. Her mother spoke English, but not clearly. She would at times feel uncomfortable because she spoke better English than her mother did. Amy Tan’s mother knew she was difficult to understand. Amy Tan explains, “My mother has longed realized her limitations of her English”, so she would have her daughter talk to others who needed help understanding her. Any immigrant knows that moving to another place will be challenging. However, Dumas’ case she did not think that it would be so difficult just because of her name. Dumas article, is an account of how Dumas and her family moved to America and faced their challenges. At a young age Dumas decided to change her name to Julie. After doing this, she felt like she connected with the people more. During college Dumas changed her name back. She could not get a job interview for anything. But, then she added Julie to her name again and the phone calls came in. If someone has a different name they will not even look through the applicants’ application even if they are the only that is qualified for the job. Having so many linguistically challenged people has caused the Americans to adapt to their needs.…
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…
As a recent immigrant myself I see a great value in the programs like cultural orientation for the new members of our community. Ascentria provides services for people of various cultural and social backgrounds. Lack of knowledge about the peculiarities of American culture, social norms as well as the ways this society functions can not only put the newcomers in uncomfortable situations, but also compromise their safety and security. I believe it is critical to provide the people who are to make this country their new home with all the necessary information, which would help their adaptation and integration into the American society.…
The experiences of free immigrant women in colonial Australia suggest a quality of women 's citizenship similar to that of transported women. The readings place importance on the role of female immigration in the history of colonial Australia, however an examination of free-immigrant women’s citizenship indicates that their experiences are closely associated to those of convict women transported to Australia. At the heart of this relationship is that colonial elite saw single female immigration as unnatural, even immoral. The independence of these women who had journeyed unaccompanied to the colony translated into rhetoric of immorality, which over time was shaped to a perception of sexual depravity. The strength of the perception that all women in the penal colonies were whores conveyed that free immigrant women who were not convicts became its…
Coming from an Asian immigrant family and being one myself, I always knew that it couldn’t have been easy for my parents to leave everything behind and start a new life in the states. In 2002, my family of seven moved from Vietnam to California. I was only four years old, and have no recollection whatsoever on the process of immigrating. My mother was my choice of interviewee for this assignment, and after conducting the interview, I learned more about my family’s history than I had before.…
Women’s who immigrate to the U.S. had become a big issue for America, especially because they come to rebirth, which brings a lot of kids but also a lot of problems for example: Most of the U.S. citizens or legal aliens who work and make average money for the family it is hard to receive a single piece of benefits from the government, but if you are illegal, you can receive housing, TANF, food stamps, WIC, etc. Without any single problem and who pay for all that, we do. In my case I used to work in a restaurant making minimum wage, I am I full-time college student, me and my mom pay full rent that’s like around $650, and we do not receive a single benefit, also another important fact when I got laid off from my job, the next day I called the workforce and they deny to me the unemployment benefits.…
Winter is the last season in a year among the four. It is like a immaculate bride who has a beautiful white dress on her. But to me, winter just like a vicious witch who put magic on me and made me had a bad start in USA. My family immigrated during the winter and it brought changes in my life and my personality. It is a sign of starting new. In this new place, I have enjoyed a certain level of comfort like making new friends and seeing new things. But, every day, I still had to grapple with language difficulties, cultural gaps, and day-to-day life issues. Especially about associating with people, social aspect became one of the most challenging thing I have to conquer and it was a torturous memories. Being an immigrant teaches me deeply…
Carhill, Avary, Gaytan, Francisco X, Suarez-Orozco, Carola. “Understanding and Responding to the Needs of Newcomer Immigrant Youth and Families.” Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. United States: Pearson Education Inc., 2010. Print. 23 May 2011.…