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To begin, President Barack Obama once said, “What makes someone American isn’t just blood or birth but allegiance to our founding principles and faith in the idea that anyone- can write the next chapter of our story.” America is built on immigration, it’s one of our founding principles. Obama has also stated “Unless you’re a Native American, you came from someplace else.” Being an American doesn’t mean that you have to be born here or it is not by blood but it’s having the belief that our country is a place of freedom and equality.
Everyone should be equal and their backgrounds shouldn’t be looked over. Many of these immigrants are fleeing violence and yes, it is not our problem to solve as America but that violence won’t stop immediately. It will take time and America needs to help provide within the mean time. There are people in this country that believe people should not be allowed into the country at all.
Those people believe that immigrants are useless and will take our jobs but in reality immigration helps the nation. Immigration brings diversity and hard workers who are dedicated to finding a way to better their lives for their families. If we as a country are hating immigrants then we are contradicting our country beliefs. Immigration is apart of our country and within this next chapter as a country we need to help provide help to those who want to seek asylum to become an American.
Although many people see immigrants as a waste of American resources, the United States needs to see that many of the immigrants are still human beings seeking help from first world countries.
Firstly, Immigrants are coming to America to gain help and better their lives. In the book “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, the author describes the crisis with immigration and how people are challenging death to get into America for a better life. Currently the United States is experiencing the largest wave of immigration within this country's history and are transforming the country. Nazario states, “ Each year, an estimated 700,000 immigrants enter the United States illegally. Since 2000. Nearly a million additional immigrants annually, on average, have arrived legally, or become legal residents” (xiii). This wave is different than the ones for the country’s past. Nazario begins to describe that typically before parents came to America and left their children, often it was the father who left the children with the mother. Now in recent times, the increase of divorce in Latin America has changed and many mothers are now being left without the means to provide food to their hungry children and raise them. Which is creating the new parallel of single mother of working outside of the home and in America there has become an insatiable need for cheap labor and domestic workers. The single mother in Latin America are starting to migrate north and filling the need that America has, leaving their children with family or friends. Single mothers from Latin America are becoming nannies or maides, often in places of the greatest needs such as Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles, California, where the need for the domestic workers has doubled recently. Nazario also states, “82 percent of live-in nannies and one in four house cleaners are mothers who still have at least one child in their home country, and 85 percent of all immigrant children who eventually end up in the United States spent at least some time separated from a parent in the course of migration to the United States” (xiv). This is creating a concern among Americans while some believe that immigrants are not need and their presence are deemed as bad or good depending on the view but in reality they are filling the jobs that many Americans will not do. Many people are dehumanizing and demonizing the immigrant but immigrants are just trying to seek the help they need. On the other hand they are also gaining jobs that will help provide for their families back home to escape the growing poverty in the violent home countries. America is now beginning to change with this new wave of immigration and providing jobs to the mothers that need help.
Secondly, even though Americans claims that the Central American countries should be helping its own people, America is a place that the immigrants are coming to to restart their lives for the better. However, many immigrants are leaving abusive countries, but many of the issues that they face will not dissolve quickly enough to save peoples lives. Many of the mothers are leaving their children behind to find a source of income. These mothers often Latina, come to America seeking jobs for a year or so to get money and send it back. Hoping it will be enough to provide for their children, who are left behind since it's too dangerous to get into the United States by smugglers. Often the mothers have a distorted view of America. One mothers in “Enrique's journey”, named Lourdes says, “On television, she saw New York City’s spectacular skyline, Las Vegas’s shimmering lights, Disneyland's magic castle” ( Nazario 4). The view that Lourdes is a misrepresentation of America and this is a common view that immigrants have. When upon arrival to America they expect the pretty lights but they end up not finding that and its cause grief and loneliness for many. Lourdes is on a mission to find work and create a better world for her two children, Belky and Enrique, but never returns back. The idealism of America draws many immigrants in and they jeopardizes their lives for the journey to America for a land that is misrepresented. With this view Lourdes stays in America and her son Enrique was left behind when he was very young and basically raised himself. As a result, being a troubled kid, he got in trouble quite often. Being kicked out of family members homes repeatedly, Enrique begins his journey to America to find his mother. As he travels, the author reveals, “Painfully, Enrique, 17, has learned a lot about 'the beast.' In Chiapas, bandits will be out to rob him, police will try to shake him down, and street gangs might kill him. But he will take those risks, because he needs to find his mother” (Nazario 61). Enrique know the risk but yet he still tries to get to America. Enrique has been deported eight times and it's a come thing for immigrants to be deported. Many claim it's just part of the journey but that should not be the case. America needs to help these people and make the journey easier so mother like Lourdes and children like Enrique, do not have to go through what they have been through to get to America. Getting across the border is a death mission but many take it every day just to gain the American dream. In Central America the government are not providing help since there is too much poverty and do not know where to start as the country is filled with gangs and drugs. Immigrants are trying to flee that violence and come to America for safety. Overall, immigrants experience a painful journey when trying to come into the country and America needs to begin to make the journey easier for those who need asylum.
Furthermore, some Americans believe that immigrants are a waste of American resources, but there is the responsibility of the country to provide help to immigrants who are fleeing violent country. As a society we have neglected that our countries need our help. Immigrants are fleeing violent countries where the violence will not end immediately but over time and are seeking help to get into a country of dreams but aren’t gaining it because we are selfish. America standards needs to be remind of our history and how the country was built on immigration. Humans today need to learn to help on another to build a prospering country. The view of American has to be changed for the better. What makes a person American is not just being born in the country but it is believing in the American standards and putting faith into a constitution that will provide us human rights. People are coming to America as immigrants to be apart of this American dream that Americans value, but the only way that they can become one with society is with a change by people and a change of values. America needs to start believing in that immigration is the backbone of this nation, it was how the place got created. Americans are not just created by birth or blood buts in the belief that this nation is a place of standards built on immigration. As humans, the country’s next chapter needs to bring a change on how immigrants are viewed as and lend a helping hand to those who need asylum.
Escaping Violence. (2022, May 23). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/escaping-violence-essay
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