Life of a child of an immigrant My parents both came to this country at a very young age. My father was 16 when he first moved to the U.S. and my mother years later moved when she was 19. I am a child of immigrants and it was hard growing up. I consider myself a Mexican American or Chicana. I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and later moved to Las Vegas. As I asked my father what he had to deal when he first moved he said “people would discriminate me just because I couldn’t speak well English and because of my brown skin”. “I was only 16 and wanted to live the American dream, but it was more like hell in America”. A lot of people are discriminated every day just because they aren’t Caucasian/white Americans, but they’re still American they live here and have a living here. I lived a happy childhood in California I never had an experience with racism and discrimination, until I moved to Reno, NV for school. I went to a Donald Trump conference to rally the event. A middle age man approached me and started shouting to me and some friends to “go back to Mexico!” I later yelled back I’m an American just like you I was born in the U.S. He kept saying vulgar words to me and started to tell me if my parents are immigrants so am I, I am an anchor baby. The term anchor baby started to get popular because of the candidate Donald Trump. The American heritage dictionary of English language definition is considered an offensive word “Used as a disparaging term for a child born to
The term ‘anchor baby’ has been used throughout political writings and dared republican rantings to be used as a pejorative meaning for a child born in the United States to an immigrant. When I had first heard this term I could not help but blatantly laugh. Although it essentially is used as a derogatory word towards me, as well as the rest of ‘my people’, I found it humorously accurate (and even somewhat affectionate). This expression was brought up during a conversation between my boyfriend and me about first generation Americans. I half-jokingly mentioned the only time I reserve that title for myself is for scholarships that I apply for. With regards to that exchange it got me thinking about the effects of being a Hispanic first born
As a first-generation American I’ve had to face certain challenges that people from non-immigrant families wouldn’t have to face. The most obvious challenge is subtle racism. I’ve had people, speaking directly to me, imitate the way other Indian people speak, make racist jokes (some people think racist jokes are validated if they’re speaking to someone from the race in question), justifying themselves by telling me things like “but you’re not like that.” I come from people who are “like that.” I may be an American but that doesn’t mean anyone can make comments about my family and where they come from. Another such challenge is that my parents often can’t help me navigate American life. But their experiences, the difficulties I’ve seen them face in their lives, and the values they’ve picked up and passed down to me have shaped how I approach life’s problems. Seeing their struggles to create a good life for our family in the US has taught me the importance of education, hard work, risk-taking, and optimism.
A important dilemma in my personal life is about my experience as a first generation immigrant in the United States. My parents take extra precaution to make sure I do not loose sight of where I came form and so, my parents drive to Mexico every year with my sister and I to see relatives who are living in conditions worse than ours so that we are grateful of our life in America. As I see my cousins and nieces/nephews grow up, I see realize that they have no real role model to look up to as no one has completed college when their parents exited high school and some not even that. So I want to help my family members to aspire to be something better in life and not a mailman or manual laborer like my father and uncles. I would like to instill
Helicopter parents hyper-involved in their children's life negatively affect them. A concerned mother’s letter explains why she disagreed with the new parent involvement policy of her son’s middle school. However, I oppose her position because, constant supervision results in hindered independence of children . Most importantly, preventing children from learning to manage their conflicts or learn from mistakes means they lack the skill to deal with them. Hovering parents disrupts the classroom, despite the appreciation of parent volunteers on the campus.
The United States has experience a large wave of immigration of hopeful people to try and start a better life and live the American Dream. Coming from countries around the world, the United States is being shaped by the immigrants. Families that come to the United States come here to give their children a better education and for them to have a successful life than they ever had. Immigrant children have to live with the fear everyday of being deported and being separated from their parents. All these children want to do is have a better education and try to support their families. Little by little Obama is helping the immigrant children who actually want an education and deserve an opportunity to be successful in this country, by passing the dream act and making speeches about how important immigration is and how education for
Growing up as an immigrant I view the world in a much more different light than most people do. Whenever an opportunity presents itself to me I am willing to put in the effort if I know it will better my life. This trait of resourcefulness originates from my family who, over the years have created a life for themselves out of virtually nothing. I moved to America at the young age of two years old with my father. Though he didn’t have much to begin with, my father decided to move to this country in hopes to lead a better life and follow on the path of the American dream. I vividly recall being in the backseat of our car while my father trained me on the importance of remaining perceptive and hardworking in school and abroad, I remember he would
As the daughter of an immigrant, I have witnessed the various barriers faced by immigrants, and this experience has motivated me toward my career objective. According to the Pew Research Center Hispanic Trends Project, there were about 11.3 million immigrants living illegally in the United States in 2013 (Passel et al., 2014). These immigrants come from all parts of the world for several different reasons. Whether to provide better resources for their family back home or to live a better life, these immigrants usually work in environments that can be harmful and dangerous to their health.
“Anchor baby” is the term given to U.S. born children of undocumented parents, the idea behind this term is that it gives the children automatic citizenship while also enhancing their parents own legal status. Many presidential candidates have spoken against birthright citizenship by using the term ‘Anchor baby’, which too many, is offensive. Republican, Donald Trump, defends the term. When confronted about the hurtful usage of the word by ABC reporter, Tom Llamas, Trump responded with, “You mean it’s not politically correct and yet everybody uses it.” When Llamas told Trump to look the word up in the dictionary Trump shot back saying, “I’ll use the word anchor baby. Excuse me! I’ll use the word anchor baby!” In New Hampshire, Jeb Bush was also confronted by reporters. After being
“The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.” (-Mark Twain) Being a child of immigrant parents who move to American can be hard. There is a lingering feeling of not feeling like a child belongs. They are stuck in the invisible world between where their parents came from, in this specific case, Asia and where the child lives now. It can be difficult to be raised as an Asian American and learning both culture and traditions. Many Asian American kids end up deviating from the Asian culture and embracing the American culture. However, children of immigrants should embrace their own culture in order to keep traditions alive and be proud of who they are.
“Mom, will I ever be treated as a regular person? When will I be like the others without people look at me in a strange way and make fun of me, when mom? When?” Those were the questions I did to my mom almost every day after getting home from school. Fourteen years ago that my parents brought me to this country offering a better life with better opportunities than where I was born. I was seven years old when came to the United States, but I still remember the happiness I felt when I first step in this country. Throughout the years, I have realize that not everything is easy and simple as I imagined. My parents worked in the fields because of the lack of a social security and not knowing how to speak English. Many Americans do not know how hard it is the life of an immigrant, they should have a consideration for us and not just blame us for the deviance of the United States.
We say America is the land of opportunity, yet immigrants and different races are not always well-treated when they come to the U.S. if you are born black, Latino, Asian, and Indian, as a citizen of an America, still limits your status in where you stand in this society. Throughout history, the most recent immigrants to this country have always confronted some sort of discrimination. They have to take the hardest, worst paid jobs, and have difficulty
I am a first-generation immigrant, a DACA recipient, a DREAMer. I was brought into the United States as a child and since then have struggled to become a part of our society. Growing up, there was just enough for my family. The extra we had came at the cost of not being around the parents much and with the thought that they might not come back after work in the back of our minds. No matter how busy my parents were to provide for my brothers and I, they always made sure the little time they had was focus on us, our studies, and to raise us to be good citizens of the world.
There are lots of different types of families in America because of its diversified culture. Children grew up in different families may be influenced by different elements including family, education, community and so on. U.S.-born children with immigrant parents are facing much more challenges from the very beginning of their life than children with American parents. The society which as a whole system includes several layers impactng each other and influenceing children living in it. However, when these children who have immigrant parents grow up, they will become the subject of this society. Their subject value
It is challenging being the oldest child in every family. What is even harder, is being the first child of immigrant parents. From the obstacles I faced, I was able to become independent. My parents left El Salvador to go to America for a better life. When they left their country my mother was pregnant with her first child which was me. After I was born and I began to grow, the only language I spoke and heard was Spanish. Since both my parent spoke little English and spoke mostly Spanish I thought it was only natural for me to follow them.
Growing up the child of an immigrant has given me a unique perspective on life that a majority of kids my age will never have. In my home, I am surrounded by the Ethiopian culture and language, but when I step across the threshold, I am greeted by a culture foreign to my own. I was challenged with learning two more languages than most kids, Amharic and Tigrinya, which classified me as a student who needed ESL (English Second Language) classes. My mom always said, “Ewedeshalo yenekonjo”, meaning I love you, my beautiful. I was immersed in two different communities, and had the impression of living in two different countries. I was faced with the difficulty of not knowing where I fit in since I am one of a few kids who have this reality. Balancing