There is a common consensus among people around the world that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world because it is the land of opportunity, and the land of immigrants. In fact, the United States of America has always been the epicenter for the world 's greatest minds, and where hard work is recognized and rewarded. A place where boys become the future leaders of the world. A place where everyone, regardless of the color of their skin and their religion collaborate to solve the world’s future/current problems. Recently though, many Americans claim that undocumented immigrants steal their jobs, don’t pay any taxes, and still reap the benefits such as free public schooling. However, the author of “My Life as an Undocumented …show more content…
Furthermore, Vargas faced many personal and career obstacles in his story. For example, at the age of 12 his mother sent him thousands of miles away to live with Vargas’s grandparents in America who were both naturalized citizens because she wanted to give him a better life. After Vargas arrived in San Francisco, he fell in love with the area and loved living with his grandparents. As years went by, Vargas, who was 16 at this time, went to the D.M.V. to get his driver’s permit, but fortunately the clerk working at the office told Vargas that his Green Card was fake and never to come back. After questioning his grandparents, Vargas finds out that he was smuggled into the United States of America and all his documents were fraudulent. In Vargas’s essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”, his story fiddles with the readers emotions and makes the reader ponder the issue of immigration in the United States of …show more content…
That feeling of leaving his parents in the Philippines to go with a stranger when he was 12 years old is truly unfortunate, but his mother was looking looking out with his best interests in mind. She just wanted her son to get a taste of the American dream, and have a better life in America rather than suffering with her in the Philippines. Vargas’s essay moves the reader emotionally as he explains when he was finally successful in getting the highest honor in journalism, but his grandmother was still worried about him getting deported. She wanted Vargas to stay under the radar, and find a way to obtain one more chance at his American dream of being
The push-and-pull factors in Enrique’s yearn for the U.S not only allows him to rediscover himself as an individual in a world of uncertainty, it also eliminates his constant fear of failing as a promising human being; in addition exhibits the undying hope of a desperate man found in hopeful migrants. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” his mother’s trip streamed “emptiness” into the heart of a once comfortable child and left him to “struggle” to hold memories they shared. Enrique’s life after Lourdes’ departure triggered the traumatizing demise of his identity. He threw this broken identity away while facing many obstacles, nevertheless each endea...
First of all, I can relate to the part in book when Joshua Davis said Luis Aranda’s mom (Maria) felt the only option to give her kid a better life was by coming to the United States (Davis, 82). A Japanese lady Maria worked for offered to adopt him, because she recognized Maria was struggling. Maria knew that Luis
The emotional letter that Juan left for his mother might be one of the most emotional scenes in the documentary. The pure emotions that the letter was written by Juan to her mother leaves the audience with the bonds and emotions felt between the kids and families. Juan Carlos’s father abandoned the family years ago and left to New York, consequently Juan believe it is his responsibility to provide for his family. He also wants to find his father in New York and confronts him about why he has forgotten about them. The story of Juan is not just about migration of children, but also the issue of family separation. The documentary does not dehumanize but rather bring the humane and sensitive lens to the story of Juan where the human drama that these young immigrants and their families live. Juan Carlos is not the first of Esmeralda’s sons to leave for the United states, his nine-year-old brother Francisco was smuggled into California one month earlier. Francisco now lives with Gloria, his grandmother, who paid a smuggler $3,500 to bring him to Los Angeles, California. Once Juan Carlos is in the shelter for child migrants his mother eagerly awaits him outside. After she sees him she signs a paper that says if Juan Carlos tries to travel again, he will be sent to a foster home.
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
Jose Vargas, an undocumented immigrant, believes hard work can greatly impact the ability to gain citizenship in the United States. In the article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” Vargas explains his life and how much he struggled lying his way through school and work. To persuade the reader to believe that he should be considered an American citizen, Vargas uses rhetorical strategies throughout his essay. Vargas’ use of pathos was very effective because it caused the reader to empathize for him and providing information about his background made his character more reliable through ethos, however his lack of logos made a big difference throughout his article.
Meanwhile back in Cuba, Elian's natural father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, began requesting the return of his son. He strongly disapproved asylum for his son an...
As a Cuban American immigrant, Virgil Suárez, author of the passionately descriptive poem Isla, undoubtedly felt the sting of immigrating to America as a child. Born in 1962, in Havana, Cuba, Suárez immigrated to the United States in 1974 during the latter portion of the second wave of Cuban immigrants to America (PBS.org, 2005 & Poets.org, n.d.). Therefore, even as a child Suárez would have felt the tension of a disgruntled Cuban American community, desirous of returning home to claim what had been stolen from them by the Communist regime and the dissatisfaction of various American citizens overtly furious about the growing number of Cubans migrating to the United States (PBS.org, 2005). Subsequently, many Cuban immigrants felt alienated and unwanted in their old and new country. Thus, setting the stage for Suárez, sixteen years later to poignantly capture the feelings of Cuban
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2) While some argue that illegal immigrants burden the United States of America and its economy, others believe that they have become essential and are an important part of the US, economy.
Throughout the course of my life, I have always encountered individuals wanting to better their economic situation especially those within my community. Those who come from impoverished communities in other countries risk their lives and lifetime savings to come to the United States hoping that one day they will regain everything that they lost. Their only motivation to come to this country is to be able to provide their family with basic necessities and in order to do this, they must work two or more jobs that pay at minimum wage and are taken for granted. However, many individuals do not see this side of the story and categorize immigrants as unambitious people. In order to be completely aware of what immigrants truly go through and how they succeed in life, one must be willing to place themselves in their shoes and hear his/her story. We must acknowledge that the hands of these people work in back breaking jobs in order to sustain their families. While some Americans may be against immigrants arriving to the United States in search of a better life and the American Dream, in The Madonnas of Echo Park, Brando Skyhorse further reveals that immigrants are exploited as cheap labor, and although they contribute greatly to the everyday function of American industry, they are quite invisible.
His effective descriptions of his struggles in life contribute to the emotional tone of compassion, “I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own” (Vargas) and excite in the reader his kind nature and convince the reader to accept and understand him well, as he says, “I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship. I felt I could earn it” (Vargas). All of his words are very strong that can win the reader’s,
Considering the ideas that both authors have brought to the table, I have concluded that in order to make progress in solving the problem of undocumented immigrants, we as a country must decide what’s best for our country. We either look at undocumented immigrants as an asset or a parasite. America is the ‘land of opportunity’ where millions of people want to live there and pursue the ‘American Dream’. We should not let people stop from achieving their dreams. But on the other hand, a quantity of immigrants leave their country because it does not have “stable democracies and free markets” that “ensure economic growth, rising standards of living and thus, lots of jobs”, because the countries of these immigrants “birth rates and native populations fall”.
It was early July of 1992, just four days right after the United States Independence Day, my arrival to the “land of opportunities” was a mixture of excitements and worries. After fifteen long years of not seeing my family, I was reunited with them and the long wait was finally over. After three days and two long nights of traveling, the plane finally arrived to the Los Angeles airport; I was feeling so nervous but at the same time, I was very happy to see them. As I approached the arrival station, I immediately saw my family and I started running towards them and gave each other warm, big, and very tight hugs. Warm tears started pouring down both my cheeks without me realizing that this was even happening. Suddenly,
We were going to visit my grandmother who was deprived of seeing us for quite some time. I remember feeling like utter garbage because of a massive test coming up. I was irritated beyond comprehension because my parents were taking up the only day I had to study before the test day. The combination of anger and stress was actually starting to make me feel a bit ill, but it seemed like my parents didn’t care. Before long, we arrived at our destination, and we were quickly invited in. We all were perched on the couch before too long. My brother was on a tirade about something and my grandmother was paying close attention to what he was spouting, even though she knew it was silly and made no sense. My parents had left to grab something for us to devour in the nearby town around an hour later. I was sitting in the farthest corner of the room from everyone. At this point, I had given up on studying for the test. I figured, “It's my parent’s fault if I fail the test. How am I going to pass this if I can’t even study for
The challenges of immigrants often extend beyond getting acclimated to having much to do with the trials encountered from immediate family members upon arrival in the United States of America. It was the summer of 2006 when I met my husband at a sporting event while he was vacationing in Jamaica. I was suddenly smitten by him masculinity and enticed by his charisma. Our relationship grew at a rapid pace and soon thereafter we repeated our pledge for better or worse. Having lived as a single mother for a number of years, being married was my fairytale, the tropical Jamaica climate had never made me felt better and it suddenly seems like the golden sunlight was even brighter. I was now humming to tunes of love songs and at times even singing
My reasons for wanting to attend law school arise from my own immigrant experience and from working at a law firm. In 1996, my parents migrated to America and applied for asylum; they wanted to make sure that we grew up in a safe and nurturing environment. Growing up in the Bay Area was blessing since a huge immigrant population surrounded us, but that soon changed. After September 11, 2001, the community started to turn against my family and I since in their eyes we resembled the people who were responsible for the attack. The media instigated this hatred toward Muslims and Sikhs further by making it seem that anyone who wore a turban was a terrorist. My brother and father received the harshest treatment of them all; their religious symbols