Immigrant Experience
Immigrants moved from their countries in search of better economic prosperity or due to religious persecution. The first immigrants came to America due to the slave trade, and after the trade got abolished, they continued to live in America and formed part of the immigrants. Today America continues to receive more immigrants who believe that America has more job opportunities that can be explored. Immigrants face a lot of challenges, and this forms part of their experience. The way they overcome and solve those challenges portrays how strong they are. This paper will show how the reading of this semester has shaped my experience as an immigrant and of other immigrants in general.
Being an immigrant student is not an easy task since one faces a lot of challenges, but we find various ways to overcome those challenges. My experience as an immigrant has shown me how patient, tolerant, courageous, creative, and determined I can be. Immigrants are always discriminated and treated unequally to the host, and therefore, of the immigrant must to create their own space in a white-dominated population. In the face of discrimination and a lot of struggle, I have realized that I can be patient and hardworking since they are the only tools that I can use to overcome the many challenges that I encounter both at school and in the society (Passiatore et al. 2017). Patience is crucial as it has helped me overcome the discrimination and unequal treatment from the superior races. Life of an immigrant is difficult and one needs to be courageous to overcome the challenges. My courage has enabled me face those who oppress me, and criticize their action, and in some cases, I can get what I had been previously denied. I have realized that failure to speak up when you have any concern can make one’s life difficult, and therefore, I have adopted the virtue of speaking my views on whether others will like it or not as long as I get what I want.
Another experience from this semester’s reading is that hard work will always pay no matter how challenging a situation may be. Being an immigrant, one has to work twice or thrice as hard as host to ensure they are on the same level. Most of the immigrants’ student jungle between class works and employment, and through hard work, they achieve better results in both. Getting a job as an immigrant is not an option; it is compulsory to ensure that we meet our daily needs and at least have a better have a presentable life (Passiatore et al 2017). Therefore, working hard has become my motto both in school and my job to ensure that none of them fail, and I get better results in both of them. My life as an immigrant has also shown me that I need to be tolerant in the hope that one-day discrimination and inequality shall end, and all people shall be treated equally regardless of their race or background. Initially, immigrants did not have any rights, but as the time goes by people continue to acknowledge diversity, and immigrants continue to get some rights that they did not have there before. Such rights include voting rights, now immigrants can choose the leaders they want, and in some instances, immigrants have even produced candidates in superior positions such as in the presidency. With time, I have confidence that all people shall be treated equally people the law.
In general, immigrants experience many challenges, and the reading of this semester has helped my understanding on them. All immigrants experience discrimination and inequality regardless of the social class and the influence they have. They will never be equal to the host, as the host will always get the priority. The immigrants experience a lot of challenges, but they still find ways to overcome them. The immigrants contribute adequately to the American economy through their talents, skills, and creativity, and they lead to growth and prosperity in the economy (Penninx 2019). The immigrants are taxpayers, entrepreneurs, consumers, and job creators. Although they are immigrants they have been able to create jobs for other immigrants and the hosts. Immigrants, through their entrepreneurial skills, have established businesses that have acted as a source of jobs for many people. Many businesses are established and managed by immigrants especially those in technology, and thus they help create employment for most people thereby by helping the government to reduce unemployment in the country.
Since there are many businesses established and managed by immigrants, they help generate a lot of revenue to the government through payment of taxes. Such revenues help the government to promote growth and development in the country especially in the provision of social amenities. Most of the immigrants are talented and they possess a lot of skills and knowledge that have contributed grossly in the innovation sector. More technologies are invented by the immigrants making America the most developed and technological continent in the world. Indeed immigrants have more skills, talents and knowledge than the host, and they are the great contributors of making America great the way it is now. I don’t think that without the inputs of immigrants America would be where it is today.
The immigrants experience a lot of challenges such as language barrier, unemployment, low wages, poor housing and sanitation, poor infrastructure, and lack of social amenities such as schools and hospitals. Through their creativity and deep thinking, the immigrants have found ways of solving those problems and are now able to survive in America. Language barrier has contributed to the high rate of employment since most of them do not know how to communicate fluently in English (Sevinç & Backus 2019). They have mitigated this problem by specializing in technical skills where there is less communication. Most immigrants have technological skills, and even if they cannot communicate verbally, they use their technical skills to seek for a job, and thus economic suffering among immigrants gets reduced. Creating jobs have increased revenues for the government and improved the living and economic conditions of the entrepreneurs. Therefore, the presence of immigrants has brought advantages to the host country.
Being an immigrant is not easy and the fact that immigrants can live comfortable in a foreign land, it shows how they have been persistent in what they do. The immigrants have ensured that they create a position for themselves despite discrimination and inequalities they face. The immigrants now have a say in politics and economy, something that they have worked for. The immigrants dominate in certain states, and this help to create a pool of votes, where they vote as a block ensuring that they are well represented in the legislature (Penninx 2019). The persistence in immigrants is also demonstrated in their children who are able to attend academic institutions that are dominated by the host. Such institutions have high rates of discrimination and inequality but the immigrant children have continued to excel academically despite the challenges in the learning institutions. The immigrants’ kids get subjected to loneliness, anxiety, and humiliation from other students, and these causes a lot of stress and discomfort among the immigrants’ kids are in most cases, they are forced to drop out of school. Discrimination on education has been evident from the inequality in the curriculum, school policies, and the perceptions and expectations that the native teachers and students have towards immigrant students. The curriculum does not incorporate the cultures of the immigrants, and therefore, the kids get forced to learn the cultures of the host (Penninx 2019). The presence of immigrants has great impacts on the American cultures, foods and beliefs. The immigrants brought their cultures with them and this has great impacts on the lives of the white people as it led to their interaction and a new culture was created. New foods were introduced some of which are still accepted widely such as soul foods. They also contributed to the initial growth of America as they helped to build the railway that facilitated the growth of industrialization in America. The works of immigrants are many and most of them are for the prosperity and growth of the nation.
Over the years the harsh attitudes towards immigrants have changed, and although they have not been fully accepted to be part of America, their presence gets recognized and appreciated. Immigrants should not be seen as threat to the host countries as they also have positive contributions to the growth and prosperity of a nation. All people are equal before the law, and therefore, racial discrimination against immigrants is a threat to the prosperity of any nation, and it should get abolished. Countries should find better ways of incorporating the immigrants into their system and discover how they can benefit from them. Since most of the immigrants are in search of work and better living conditions, the host countries should ensure that they get employment and use their talents to the maximum. The host countries should formulate policies that accommodate everybody in the country as long as they do not threaten the peace and security of the nation. All human beings are equal, and no one should discriminate against others since all have equal rights regardless of their origin.
References
Sevinç, Y., & Backus, A. (2019). Anxiety, language use and linguistic competence in an immigrant context: a vicious circle?. International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 22(6), 706-724.
Passiatore, S. P. Y., Carrus, G., Taeschner, F. M. T., & Arcidiacono, F. (2017). Teachers and parents involvement for a good school experience of native and immigrant children. ECPS No 15 (2017). Journal of Educational, Cultural and Psychological Studies, 15, 73.
Penninx, R. (2019). Problems of and solutions for the study of immigrant integration. Comparative Migration Studies, 7(1), 13.