Being an illegal immigrant in the United States is very hard and stressful as it is, and let alone being a teenage mother of two while you’re at it. That was my mother’s case. My mom, Sonia, had to face multiple situations all at once, one after the other, while also being a full-time mom. She often struggled to navigate in the United States due to her not speaking any English, which often caused her to ask strangers to translate for her; even the simplest sentence, thing, or person she may encounter. As my siblings and I were growing up and learning English in school as our second language, both my parents would interrupt our play time to ask us to translate everything to them, including their mail, which contained. They did not consider that we were barely learning English and could potentially mess up the translation and give them misinformation. Did they truly know any better though? After all, they were both trying their best to navigate this foreign country to them with a big language barrier. In addition, everytime we would be driving out in the streets whether it was to the school, grocery store, or gas station and a cop or border patrol agent was driving by, my mom would instantly start panicking in fear of getting caught that she was in the United States illegally. This was especially painful having to experience that while her children were watching. I remember my whole childhood seeing my mom worried to death and telling me and my siblings what to do if she was ever caught. Oftentimes my mom would have to think more than twice if going to the grocery store was worth it, because everytime she went outside, she feared the worst: deportation.
Do immigrants play an important role in the United States? To begin, many immigrants, whether they are illegal or not, contribute to the United States by filling in critical jobs throughout the nation. They serve with their hard physical labor as well as any other kind of labor. Some immigrants also come straight to the U.S to open businesses upon their arrival which boosts job opportunities in the area, and also provides them with different goods and services. Immigrants contribute to the economy of the United States first and foremost by participating in the country, being active in the labor force, as consumers, and as business owners. Although our presumptive president promises mass deportation of immigrants from his first day of office, immigrants in this country - not only do they add to the diversity of our population, but they greatly contribute to the economy as laborers, business owners, and consumers. (“The Effects of Immigration on the United States”).
According to the article “What the Data Says About Immigrants in the U.S.”, written by Mohamad Moslimanu and Jeffrey S. Passel, immigrants make up to 14% of the population in the United States”, and nearly 25% of the immigrants in the U.S legally are Mexican. With that being said, most Mexican immigrants are mainly here because of work Though some immigrants enter with a visa, they overstay. As well, some immigrants are in school thanks to DACA, (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program. Almost 600,000 immigrants are beneficiaries of DACA. This program allows individuals brought to the U.S. as children before 2007 to remain in the U.S., which has provided immense school opportunities for foreign students, which is a great thing for society as a whole because there are more educated people. They are also provided with work permits so they may be able to work and go to school “The U.S Immigration Debate”. In 2022, immigrants ages 25 and older were about three times as likely as the U.S. born to have not completed high school (25% vs. 7%). However, immigrants were as likely as the U.S. born to have a bachelor’s degree or more, as well as their masters, and PhD. Later in time when they have the requirements met to become citizens, they complete their citizenship and become a contributing citizen in the country.
“My Fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.” These words from Barack Obama are very meaningful in many ways. Many people fail to remember or even recognize that a large part of the United States used to be property of Mexico. The Mexican- American War was a conflict between the United States and Mexico that resulted in the United States gaining more than 500,000 square miles of Mexican territory. The United States gained approximately 55% of Mexico's total territory, which included the states of California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada, parts of Colorado, and Wyoming. With all this being mentioned, that means that the border crossed us. We never crossed the border. This explains in large part why there are so many Mexican descendants in the U.S., and why there continues to be so many hispanics in today’s society.
Xenophobia functions by promoting fear and/ or hatred of people who are different in the aspect of ethnicity, skin color, and culture. It does not really function for anything positive to society. It is the fear of people who are visibly different from the majority. Different people may see it as racism, but it is actually not racism. It is mainly an act of indifference towards other people who are different in one or multiple aspects. Also, xenophobia is not welcoming to different people, it is not about food style, or music, it is mostly about physical appearance. In some schools students may experience xenophobia towards their classmates because they do not look or behave alike, which makes it difficult to understand them. Xenophobia may have a negative body language, facial expressions, where people often experience anxiety. The facial expressions may show disgust, hatred, eyebrow raising, audible gasps, and even physical attack in some instances. Sadly we can experience it by ignorance or by not having any sense of empathy towards different people, and not having enough knowledge of diversity can lead to ignorance. In addition, it can often be mistaken for bigotry, when it is actually fear and mistrust most of the time, and it serves to make people feel unwelcome in any setting. Last but not least, xenophobia victims may often feel like animals at the zoo due to all the peculiar stares they receive from the rest, while also feeling dehumanized. because of people's behavior towards them, which is most of the time negative encounters.
There is a stereotype of immigrants coming into the United States just to have medical insurance, live off of the government, and live a supposedly worry free life. That was never my mom’s case. Though she never worked, she was always a full time mom while my dad worked in the fields to provide for his family. We were a family who lived paycheck to paycheck on a minimum wage, like many others regardless if they were immigrants or not. We were a happy family despite many complicated things we all went through together, because although my mom was the only undocumented one, we all feared for the worst as a whole because she was and continues being the pillar of the family. According to my mom, her secret to living a happy life regardless of everything was thinking of the future coming sooner than anyone would think. My mom would often say “There will be a day where this is only a bad memory”, and that day thankfully came! After 22 long years, her green card finally came in the mail and mom was finally able to remove all the weight off her shoulders. Immigration is very hard even if you have everything well planned and with money in your pockets. The unknown will always be strange and unusual.
Works Cited
Banner, Bennington. “Immigrants Face Hardships in Raised Fees.” ProQuest Central, February
20, 2007. www.proquest.com/newspapers/immigrants-face-hardships-raised-fees/docview/379660178/se-2?accountid=38876 Accessed 16 Oct. 2024
Moslimani, Mohamad, and Jeffrey S. Passel. “What Data Says About Immigrants in the U.S.”
Pew Research Center, September 27, 2024,
Key findings about U.S. immigrants | Pew Research Center Accessed 14 Nov. 2023
Ballis, Briana “Research Shows that DACA Benefits Both Dreamers and their U.S-Born Peers”,
Brookings, October 7, 2024, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/research-shows-that-daca-benefits-both-dreamers-and-their-us-born-peers/#:~:text=DACA%20has%20led%20to%20improved,protected%20students%20showing%20improved%20outcomes. Accessed 14 Nov, 2024
William, Piaff. “Immigration and the Racial Element: [2 Edition]” ProQuest Central, March 22,
https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/immigration-racial-element/docview/316875558/se-2?accountid=38876 Accesed Oct 16, 2024
Roy, Diana, Claire Klobucista, and Amelia Cheatham. “The U.S Immigration Debate” Council
on Foreign Relations, August 7, 2024.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0 Accessed Oct 15,2024
American Council Immigration “How the United States Immigration System Works” June 24,
2024.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/how-united-states-immigration-system-works Accesed Nov. 14, 2024.
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