My Life As An Undocumented Immigrant Summary

Vargas is really good at drawing the audience in with his emotional description, and his story telling ability. He is able to make the reader understand the struggle of being an undocumented immigrant trying to live in the United States and be happy with who he is. The audience is able to understand each decision that he makes in order to try to keep himself out of trouble, but they could always see the constant fear that he could come crashing down at any given moment if he was found out. It is hard to imagine living in that kind of situation, and Vargas portrays his experience extremely

Hello reader, I’m about to tell you a story of some of my life. I am not normally one to volunteer details about myself, which I’ll remain somewhat reserved or completely leave some events out of this autobiography. Nonetheless, I believe I can still make my story interesting for the reader. I was born 1979, in Tampa, Florida; which, is also the same day my biological father decided to leave my mother and I. My mother isn’t a native Floridian, but had moved there with her family when she was still an infant, and had spent most of her life growing up in Florida. Needless to say, my father leaving was not an exciting time for my mother and I. Although she was employed Jimmy Cater was president and had taken the nation into

Correspondingly, Vargas has not only immersed himself into his new culture, but learned to love it as well. He “built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country” (Vargas). Even though he is living the American dream, he is also “living a different kind of reality… in fear of being found out (Vargas).” Because of his status, it is hard to live a “normal” life. Even with all he has done to “earn” citizenship, he is still unrecognized as

Discussion post “My life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas. Focus on page 225 second and third paragraph.

Similarly, these two upcoming quotes also show how Murad and Jose gain confidence throughout every challenges instead of losing. From “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” it says “But when I handed the clerk my green card as proof of U.S. residency, she flipped it around, examining it. “This is fake,” she whispered. “Don't come back here again” (Vargas 1). In this quote it shows how Jose handed the clerk his green card and thought it was real but Jose himself didn't ever realize that his green card was fake.

Jose Vargas tells the story of his life; from coming to America, finding out that he is residing here illegally, learning how to live with that, and finally to sharing with everyone that he is an undocumented immigrant. Jose has a difficult task in front of him, though. He must win his audience over to his side so that he can further his agenda of developing an easier path for undocumented immigrants to receive citizenship. There are many ways he could go about this, trying to skirt the topic of his illegal activities, but Jose is an intelligent man and knows how to influence his audience. He uses the story of his life to connect with others, and in connecting with them wins them over, even if only indeterminably so. In My Life as an

Studying to be a physician requires lots of effort and time. To an immigrant like me, I tried to manage my studies, volunteer work, and adjusting to a new culture at the same time. I like to stick with my plans, and it has always been my plan to enter medical school on 2018. However, my road to entering medical school didn’t come as easy to me. After transferring to University, two of my close family passed away.

Abascal, Maria C. "Reform's mixed impact on immigrants: the new law's implications seem clear, but the indirect effects could be critical." The American Prospect, vol. 21, no. 7, 2010, p. A17+. Student Edition, Accessed 17 Oct. 2017.

The article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” was written by Jose Antonio Vargas. In it, Vargas tells of the time when his mother brought him to the Phillippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he was twelve. His mother told him that she wanted to give him a better life so he boarded onto a plane with a man he had never met before and was told that he was his uncle. He arrived in Mountain View, California and moved in with his grandparents Lolo and Lola. Vargas says that he grew to love his new home and when he entered sixth grade that’s when he found his passion for language. He tells of his struggle of making a distinction between “formal English and

When I was young my grandmother taught me to always help others. Even those who may be mean or undeserving of it. There were many stereotypes and jokes made about me but she still wanted us to always help others. I learned to go with the flow and let it go. This lesson and the value in helping others helped me especially in high school. During my junior year in high school I began to take an interest in a program call Opportunities in Emergency Care. That year I was certified as a first aid provider and in CPR. As a senior I continued my education in this field. I am now a certified Emergency Medical Responder and I will be a certified Emergency Medical Technician. I have had many occasions to apply the knowledge and skills I gained, by working

Although he did have to take part in unlawful acts to build a life, career and thrive in America, he still was able to contribute to the economy. Jose Vargas states, “I was paying state and federal taxes, but I was using an invalid Social Security card and writing false information on my employment forms. I convinced myself all would be O.K. if I lived up to the qualities of a “citizen”: hard work, self-reliance, love of country” (Vargas 760). According to Robert Rector and Jason Richwine, the government spends nine-hundred billion dollars a year on welfare benefits for over one-hundred million low income Americans (Rector, Richwine). Of this amount, many believe undocumented immigrants are the majority of people abusing the system. Typically, their reasoning for believing undocumented immigrants misuse the system is because of America’s current economic status. The last decade has not been exceptionally prosperous for the United States and many need someone to blame. The blame, in this situation, is government, not the illegal immigrants because the government has created policies to keep illegal immigrants at low waged jobs and do not allow them ample opportunity to move up in social status. This creates a challenge for many families and in some cases, they have no other option but welfare. Many people also do not realize

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

“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.

I do not consider myself nor my family to be any form of the word immigrant. An immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. I would modify the definition and interpolate the word “voluntarily” into the definition. Furthermore, in accordance with the directives of this assignment, I will explain what family history I am aware of to the best of my ability.

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, shares his life-long journey as an undocumented immigrant in his text, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” As the title suggests, Vargas attempts to convey to his audience, who likely never has and never will experience anything similar to what he has, what it is like to live as an immigrant in the United States of America. Skillfully, Vargas details the perfect number of personal stories to reach the emotional side of his audience, which is anyone who is not an immigrant. Through the use of his personal accounts Vargas is able to effectively communicate that immigrants are humans too while simultaneously proving his credibility, as he has experience and a vast amount of knowledge