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Essay Challenges Facing New Immigrants in America

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America is often known as the land of opportunity, a place where you can be free. Many Immigrants came to America so that they could have a greater possibility at succeeding in life. Immigrants took a leap of faith when coming to America, for some it worked out well but for others they had a difficult time here. Despite the struggles that the immigrants encountered such as; standing out from others, being separated from their families, and breaking their culture, the immigrants are still grateful to be in America because they were in better conditions than they were in their home land. When viewing interviews or looking at an immigrant’s perspective you get many responses to being in America, some major things that stood out …show more content…

The reason for this was because of the clothes she wore, and the way she ate. She wore “a veil, long skirt, [she was] totally covered” (Kosof 20) and Fatimah mentioned that she would eat with her hands. Fatimah soon realized that just by her following her beliefs she would be picked on because it was something different than what the Americans did. A main reason that the immigrants did not want to continue to be in America was because of the teasing that took placed. Many of the Immigrants stated that they were grateful however it was nothing like home in America. They received this feeling, because many Americans were stuck up and have the belief that they are superior to other. Not only was not fitting in a problem, but being separated was a tough thing for immigrants to do. However a family was blessed in a way, written in a book called Ellis Island Interviews, a family had to stay into a holding cell because one of the boys had ringworm. At the time no one really knew how serious things were so the workers at Ellis Island would take extra precaution, “the ringworm was considered very contagious at that time. Why they kept the rest of the family for six weeks I don’t know. But they kept me at the hospital on Ellis Island” (Coan 165). By making sure the whole family was healthy, the family was able to learn and speak English clearly. This helped the family fit in a whole lot better once they were allowed to leave Ellis Island. You’ll often hear

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