Family Immigration History
I come from the Fernandez family, a family that migrated from India to San Francisco. Our family is made up of grandparents, parents, and three children. The family migrated from India mainly due to religious persecution, high poverty level, poor medical services, lack of business opportunities, and environmental factors. Religiously, India is dominated by Islam and a few Christians. Our family subscribes to Christianity, and more often, Christians are persecuted by Islam. As a result, our family opted to migrate to a safer region. Additionally, the poverty level in high is India compared to the United States, a factor that forced Fernandez to leave.
Before deciding where to migrate to, our family had two options, namely San Francisco, in the US, and Germany. However, our family preferred San Francisco due to various reasons. Unlike in India, there is no religious prosecution in San Francisco. This State has both Christians and Islam, and both live together harmoniously. Further, the State has advanced and well-equipped medical facilities compared to India in addition to a wide range of business opportunities. There also exist favorable conditions for both small scale and large scales businesses ranging from lenient tax laws and low-interest business loans. Further, San Francisco is blessed with pleasant climatic conditions, a factor that contributed to Fernandez’s family’s immigration.
Our family left India in 1994 and settled in various States before arriving in San Francisco. After leaving India, our family settled in New York in 1992 and tried opening several businesses in vain. We further moved to Chicago in 1995 and stayed for two years before migrating to Washington, DC. These movements were necessitated by various factors, such as lack of a proper residential place to accommodate the whole family and insecurity issues. The Fernandez family finally migrated from Washington Dc to San Francesco in 2000, where we stay up to date.
The intention of immigrating to San Francisco was to establish a permanent resident for the family. The family had no purpose of migrating further. Although the family started leasing as a residential area for five years, plans for buying a piece of land at the outskirt of San Francisco and building a permanent residence were underway. My siblings and I were admitted to different learning institutions, where we completed our studies. Later in 2005, the family built a residential house and also invited more family members and close friends from India to come and live with us. Currently, the family businesses are flourishing an indication that we are not in San Francisco temporarily.
The family had several dreams to accomplish on immigrating to San Francisco. Fernandez wanted a place they could worship without limitation and raise their children in a strong Christianity foundation. This dream could not be meet in India due to Islam’s persecution. The family dreamt of creating massive wealth by utilizing their business skills, a goal that could only be achieved in San Francisco, where business conditions are favorable. Further, the family wanted to live a healthier life hence needed a place with advanced medical facilities. Coincidentally, all these dreams were attainable in San Francisco.
Despite the family’s settlement in San Francisco, some unfavorable economic conditions have affected the family. Most people in this State are discriminative in determining where to shop. People prefer to buy from American’s owner businesses to immigrants’ activities. This discriminative shopping has affected our business profitability and family financial status. Further, most organizations prefer employing Americans to immigrants despite having equal qualifications. As a family member, I have been discriminated severally in job opportunities on this ground. Discrimination of immigrants in employments opportunities has affected our family income level adversely.
Fernandez’s social conditions have also been affected in the United States. Immigrants face hardships in accessing medical services compared to Americans. Healthcare facilities tend to delay and offer poorer services to immigrants, a factor that affects their health negatively. My father was once admitted to a San Francisco health facility in a serious illness and stayed in the facility for two days before being treated. This worsened his disease. There is also some observable discrimination by the authority when offering essential services such as water and electricity. In areas dominated by immigrants, these services are delayed compared to regions inhabited by Americans.
Political activities have also affected the welfare of the Fernandez family. During election campaigns, violence is inevitable in San Francisco. Political violence affects businesses since one is forced to shut down throughout the electioneering period. During the last political campaigns, violence broke in the city, and people took advantage to break into the Fernandez family business where they stole properties. The family had to close down the shop till the end of the election period. Notably, during the violence, the looters target businesses owned by immigrants only.
I want to compare the immigrant experience of our family and that of the Asian Immigrants who migrated into the United States between 1882 and 1934(Takaki,1989). Most of these immigrants were Chinese and faced racial discrimination while in the United States. The country adopted various Acts that oppressed Asians immigrants. For instance, the National Origin Act of 1924 denied Asian men from bringing their wives into the country(Takaki,1989). However, the same Act allowed European immigrants to bring their wives into the United States. These immigrants, therefore, faced both social, economic, and political challenges while in the United States.
Despite the Asians Immigrants and the Fernandez family migrated at different times, the two groups have some similarities. Like Asian immigrants, our family was discriminated against based on our race. The Americans prefer to shop in American businesses to those owned by immigrants. The Asian immigrants were also discriminated against on employment opportunities based on their race. Similarly, when we migrated to San Francisco, the government denied us the country’s citizenship and the right to vote. The Asian immigrants were also not allowed to participate in elections. Notably, other immigrants from Ireland and Italy were allowed to acquire citizenship and vote(Takaki,1989). These discriminative laws have affected our family the same way they did to the Asian immigrants.
The Asian Immigrants and our family have some differences. The government allowed our family to purchase land and settle permanently in the outskirt of San Francisco. However, the Asian group was restricted by law from buying land in any part of the United States. Immigrants from other countries were allowed to purchase land anywhere. Further, the 1922 Cable Act stated that any American lady married to an Asian immigrant would lose American citizenship (Takaki,1989). Some of the Fernandez men are married to American women and still hold their citizenship. No restriction has been imposed on us regarding marrying Americans.
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