two ways to belong in america
BHARATI MUKHERJEE
Two Ways to Belong in America
Born in 1940 and raised in Calcutta, India, Bharati Mukherjee immigrated to the United States in 1961 and earned an M.F.A. and a Ph.D. in literature. Mukherjee is the author of several novels, including Tiger's Daughter (1972) and Jasmine (1989), and short story collections, such as The Middleman and Other Stories (1988). She teaches literature and fiction writing at the University of California, Berkeley.
"Two Ways to Belong in America" first appeared in the New York Times. It was written to address a movement in Congress to take away government benefits from resident aliens. Like her fiction, though, it is also about the issues that confront all immigrants in America.
This is a tale of two sisters from Calcutta, Mira and Bharati, who have lived in the United States 1 for some 35 years, but who find themselves on different sides in the current debate over the status of immigrants. I am an American citizen and she is not.
I am moved that thousands of long-term residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship. She 2 is not. Mira arrived in Detroit in 1960 to study child psychology and pre-school education. I followed her a year later to study creative writing at the University of Iowa. When we left India, we were almost identical in appearance and attitude. We dressed alike, in saris; we expressed identical views on politics, social issues, love, and marriage in the same Calcutta convent-school accent. We would endure our two years in America, secure our degrees, then return to India to marry the grooms of our father's choosing. Instead, Mira married an Indian student in 1962 who was getting his business administration 3 degree at Wayne State University. They soon acquired the labor certifications necessary for the green card of hassle-free residence and employment.
Mira still lives in Detroit, works in the Southfield, Mich., school system, and has become 4 nationally recognized for her
Two Ways to Belong in America
Born in 1940 and raised in Calcutta, India, Bharati Mukherjee immigrated to the United States in 1961 and earned an M.F.A. and a Ph.D. in literature. Mukherjee is the author of several novels, including Tiger's Daughter (1972) and Jasmine (1989), and short story collections, such as The Middleman and Other Stories (1988). She teaches literature and fiction writing at the University of California, Berkeley.
"Two Ways to Belong in America" first appeared in the New York Times. It was written to address a movement in Congress to take away government benefits from resident aliens. Like her fiction, though, it is also about the issues that confront all immigrants in America.
This is a tale of two sisters from Calcutta, Mira and Bharati, who have lived in the United States 1 for some 35 years, but who find themselves on different sides in the current debate over the status of immigrants. I am an American citizen and she is not.
I am moved that thousands of long-term residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship. She 2 is not. Mira arrived in Detroit in 1960 to study child psychology and pre-school education. I followed her a year later to study creative writing at the University of Iowa. When we left India, we were almost identical in appearance and attitude. We dressed alike, in saris; we expressed identical views on politics, social issues, love, and marriage in the same Calcutta convent-school accent. We would endure our two years in America, secure our degrees, then return to India to marry the grooms of our father's choosing. Instead, Mira married an Indian student in 1962 who was getting his business administration 3 degree at Wayne State University. They soon acquired the labor certifications necessary for the green card of hassle-free residence and employment.
Mira still lives in Detroit, works in the Southfield, Mich., school system, and has become 4 nationally recognized for her