The Immigrant Culture in the United States In the United States culture is so broad that it cannot be depicted with ease, it is a melting pot of hundreds of cultures considering there are so many immigrants. The struggles and hard effort people put into their daily lives all contribute to the vibrancy and uniqueness of the immigrant culture. This culture has produced a bountiful amount of self taught people with unique knowledge, an interesting past, and a thriving future. Amy Tan’s article Mother Tongue and Malcolm X’s article A Homemade Education provide ample examples of what it is like to live as an immigrant, as well as examples of the struggle of living in a place where you are provided with little resources; the immigrant culture can be filled with tough undertakings, the main one being education, but those struggles mold people to know how to get over feats in life. Getting an education for immigrants is essential to be able to progress in life and be more successful. Unfortunately education is not as simple as learning material, for immigrants it involves the toil of being able to deal with the material with few resource. For example, children that come from immigrant families don’t have parents who are educated in the U.S education system, so they can 't provide crucial aid in classes or …show more content…
Within this culture there is the constant struggle for bettering one’s life, and and ache for success which produces people who seek out knowledge in unimaginable places and are exposed to vital situations for the future. Within the immigrant culture the rainbow of language is unique to each individual’s experiences which produces a country with a common core language but many different versions of it. The U.S immigrant culture can be said to be one of the most unique and varied cultures in the
America is a land filled with immigrants coming from different corners of the worlds, all in hopes of finding a better life in the country. However, No one had an easy transition from his or her home country to this foreign land. Not every race thrived the same way—some were luckier than others, while some have faced enormous obstacles in settling down and being part of the American society. Many people have suffered
In this article, Eric Liu presents his life as a native immigrant to an Asian American individual. He shares his experience through his reflection of ideas and emotions. Along with his story, it relates to the ideas of people’s journey from adolescence to adulthood. Eric’s inspirational experience is directed towards minority groups who try to adapt to the American culture and lifestyle. His parents emigrated from China to America, before he was born which he later became exposed to the freedom and diverse society. This results in beneficial effects for his individuality, career opportunities, and lifestyle. Although his parents have lived in a different culture than him, his life in America has made him assimilated into the American society
It is true that the more people from different cultures that are in a given area, the more the cultures are diversified. However, with all realities, some claim that immigrants dilute the American culture. Indeed, they cause some changes to the culture. Nevertheless, these changes can bring a wealth of attraction and a source of beauty for the country that everyone should be proud of. It is obvious that every single immigrant in the US has his own culture and way of life. When all these are added together, they form a very rich culture. In addition, they bring various interesting aspects such as food, music, literature, etc. That makes the Americans rich in cultural knowledge. The importance of cultural diversity is that it teaches the people to understand each other’s views, interests, and ideas and helps people view the world in different ways. This would finally lead the society to work towards each other’s interest, mutual goals, and objectives. Tamar Jacoby in his article “Are Today’s Immigrants Assimilating in U.S Society, Yes,” he said that, “Those who are coming now are people who understand cultural fluidity, understand intermarriage and find that a natural, easy thing. This maintains unity and balances in the society” (411). Once this stage is reached, all the problems would be solved. Then it can be said that America has reached a true democracy, echoed by
Education is everything to many immigrants because since those immigrants didn’t have a proper education in their native countries they want their kids to have the best education and they want to be able to provide their kids with that at least. For many immigrants an education is all that they want for their kids to become successful since they weren’t given that opportunity they want to give it to their kids. Like people say “you can lose everything but one thing that you will never lose is the education that you was taught.” Others also come for the health care benefits that they are given in
They face many issues such as economic instability, depression, loneliness, fear of being alone and feeling betrayed. Children feel depressed in cases like this because even at a young age they know that things are not okay. They also suffer from fear and being betrayed, they suffer fear because they 're scared of what is going to happen to their family since they 're so used to having their family together. Many times children who face this situations feel like they’ve been betrayed because they don’t know why their mother or father have gone away and not came back. The psychologist mentions that it’s very normal for children to feel this way and conduct a different behaviour than usual because just like everyone else they don’t seem to understand
(93) Many immigrant students have to work part-time and face demanding work at school. The most important thing is they only have limited knowledge of English. My friend, as an immigrant student, she always found difficulty in her academic field in the first two years of school in the United States. She worked very hard and checked every word that she didn’t know, but she was still not getting a B or higher. Her sadness and hopelessness covered all her pleasure, and she thought that she would never get a better grade next time.
When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they were in their own countries not able to make ends meet, just to live in the United States. Virtually all immigrants during the 1900’s had the same dream, to become successful and provide for their families as citizens of the United States, but they soon found out that the life in their new country was not going to be easy.
Immigrants were first welcomed in the late 1700s. European explorers like Walter Raleigh, Lord Baltimore, Roger William, William Penn, Francis Drake, John Smith, and others explored to the New World for religious purposes and industrial growth. The first European settlers that settled in the late 1700s were the Pilgrims. After the Pilgrims first settled in Virginia, the expansion of immigrants started. Then in 1860 to 1915, America was growing with its industries, technology, and education. America’s growing empire attracted many people from Europe. The factors that attracted many people to the American cities where job opportunities with higher income, better education, and factory production growth. As the population grew in the American
Immigrants leave their countries in search for a better life and improvement of their situation. There is no singular reason for immigration; motivations range from better economic prospects to political safety. As of late, the number of immigrants living in the United States is an estimated 11 million. Those who immigrate are expected to contribute to the United States culturally, politically, and economically. Yet, full assimilation becomes difficult to achieve when the immigrant is made into “the other” by the country of reception.
Something that has always fascinated me is the confrontation with a completely different culture. We do not have to travel far to realize that people really lead different lives in other countries and that the saying "Home sweet home" often applies to most of us. What if we suddenly had to leave our homes and settle somewhere else, somewhere where other values and beliefs where common and where people spoke a different language? Would we still try to hang on to the 'old home' by speaking our mother tongue, practising our own religion and culture or would we give in to the new and exciting country and forget our past? And what would it be like for our children, and their children? In Identity Lessons - Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American I found many different stories telling us what it is like to be "trapped" between two cultures. In this short essay I aim to show that belonging to two cultures can be very confusing.
According to the 2011 census, over 20.8 percent of the United States population spoke another language other than English (www.us-english.org). Language barriers, cultural differences, and immigration have been a part of life in the United States for decades. Language is considered a vital tool in the construction of someone’s identity and an expression of culture. In the last 200 years immigrants have chosen to make the United States their home, but some proceeded with caution by slowly adapting to the English language and culture.
Since the creation of the United States of America, immigrants from all backgrounds have sought refuge, a home and a life in this country of prosperity and opportunity. The opportunity of freedom to exercise natural rights is a large pull factor that causes many people to come to America. Others come because it is a country where one can prosper. Prosperity of people in a country, however, is a more challenging phenomenon to explain than opportunity. Immigrants seek economic, social and educational as well as cultural prosperity. The question of how to gain such prosperity is a difficult one to answer. Some immigrants come to America, cast off their past identity and attempt to find a new, less foreign one. By assimilating to American culture with this new identity, they start a long and treacherous journey to seek prosperity in a land vastly different from the one they once called home. Many will gain educational, economic and social prosperity, but never gain cultural prosperity. Assimilating to American culture so hastily, some immigrants are never able to explore and keep up with their cultural backgrounds. Their families grow up and became Americans, never cognizant of their given up ethnic identities. Those immigrants, however, who are able to gain cultural prosperity through the help of other immigrants of their respective background, become integrated into American society while keeping their ethnic identity. This is the sort of opportunity that the United States of America has provided new arrivals since its founding. Although many immigrants become overwhelmed with American culture and assimilate into it, those who contribute to a working ethnic society are able to dela...
Immigration has been a topic that has caused multiple discussions on why people migrate from one country to another, also how it affects both the migraters and the lands they go. Immigration is the movement from one location to another to live there permanently. This topic has been usually been associated with sociology to better explain how it affects people, cultures and societies. Sociology has three forms of thinking that are used to describe and analyze this topic. There are three forms of thinking that are used to tell and describe immigration to society; structural functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict theory. Each of these theories uses different forms of thinking and rationality to describe and explain socio topics.
"Immigrants and the American Dream." Society 33.n1 (Nov-Dec 1995):3(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale University. 26 Sep. 2006.
Her message on the different reasons why immigrants come to new countries and cultures is highly perceived in her story. Her use of rhetorical devices helps success her in her story. The usage of ethos, storytelling, word choice and structure played a major role in aiding her beliefs and illustrating them to her audience. Ethos helped her compare her and her sister’s beliefs on their culture and lifestyle in India and America. Storytelling made it possible for readers to connect with her thoughts and stay entertained throughout the paper. Her word choice and structure also helped the outline of the story and made her beliefs sound more