Children Of Immigration Analysis

The changing environment throughout time has caused many families to move out of their homelands. These families are either forced to make the decision to move out, or they move by their own desire. Migration and parenthood in a new country are significant transitions that pose stressful challenges for immigrant and refugee parents. Although living in Canada can be rewarding, however, there are challenges that immigrants and refugee face through trying to adapt to the culture of Canada. These challenges may include, battling cultural shock, Language Barriers, Misconceptions of Homeland and culture, employment, and depression.

As referenced above, according to Fass 2006 there are a significant number of children of immigrants being affected by poverty (26% of immigrant children and 16% of children of native born parents). These students are more likely to have a first language other than English and have a higher chance of not being proficient in English. This will result in these children with less than sufficient literacy skills, which in turn affects them in all academic areas.

A important dilemma in my personal life is about my experience as a first generation immigrant in the United States. My parents take extra precaution to make sure I do not loose sight of where I came form and so, my parents drive to Mexico every year with my sister and I to see relatives who are living in conditions worse than ours so that we are grateful of our life in America. As I see my cousins and nieces/nephews grow up, I see realize that they have no real role model to look up to as no one has completed college when their parents exited high school and some not even that. So I want to help my family members to aspire to be something better in life and not a mailman or manual laborer like my father and uncles. I would like to instill

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

My parents both came to this country at a very young age. My father was 16 when he first moved to the U.S. and my mother years later moved when she was 19. I am a child of immigrants and it was hard growing up. I consider myself a Mexican American or Chicana. I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and later moved to Las Vegas. As I asked my father what he had to deal when he first moved he said “people would discriminate me just because I couldn’t speak well English and because of my brown skin”. “I was only 16 and wanted to live the American dream, but it was more like hell in America”. A lot of people are discriminated every day just because they aren’t Caucasian/white Americans, but they’re still American they live here and have a living here.

In “Immigrants” by Pat Mora, they are struggling to achieve acceptance and help their family have a better future. The parents are trying so hard to associate their children with “American traditions” and still are left wondering if they will be accepted in America. In my opinion nothing is worth loosing your actual culture or values. They are literally willing to do whatever it takes to transform heir children into American traditions. “Feed them mashed hot dogs and apple pie” (Line 2 Mora). Both Hot dogs and Apple pie are both American food and American culture. Wait there is more they are even considering changing the names of their children. Buying them blonde dolls and football cleats both have typical American

Children in immigrant families are often considered at increased risk of maltreatment due to the stress and pressure experienced by the family resulting from immigration and acculturation. Within the child welfare system, the number of Latino children has steadily risen over the past several years, with national data indicating that the percentage of Latino children confirmed as victims of maltreatment has risen from 10.0% in 1995 to 14.2% in 2000 to 17.4% in 2005 (Dettlaff et al. 2009). This data represents only one part of the various research studies conducted in order to better understand immigrant families entry and presence in the child welfare system. In Earner’s (2007) research study, a focus group was facilitated with immigrant families who were already part of the child welfare system. From this focus group a few key themes arose, there was a deep concern for the public service workers lack of awareness on issues that immigrant families face and the needs that they encounter (Earner, 2007). There was also concern about the service and referrals they were receiving since many of them were dependent upon eligibility which they did not meet due to their immigration status (Earner, 2007)

Research by Sarah L. Holloway and Gill Valentines (2000) places an immense focus on characterizing children as competent beings, observing childhood as socially constructed by adult society. This is quite fruitful when uncovering the level of maturity children must develop upon entering a foreign country. Carmela describes adequately throughout the first interview that regardless of her age, it was necessary to begin working, providing for her family, and establishing herself. Studies about immigrants and migrants done by Deborah Boehm (2011) act as a crucial foundation for the intent of this research. Boehm (2011) focuses primarily on the transnational experience of her participants, emphasizing a notion of

As an immigrant, we all come to America to have a better life. Some people came to America because they want to run away from the violence back in their home country such as voila, others came to America just to have better education and life. Even though they both came to America to have a better future. Voila from “The good braider” was a child who came from Sudan to America to escape the harassment and violence the solders did to her and her family, and Young Ju from “A step from heaven” was a little girl who come from Korea to America following her family for better life in America.

These generation of immigrants struggle with identifying with their natal language, food, maintaining a close knit relationship with their parents and culture on a general level. Most of the people I interviewed agreed that their parents had played an extremely significant role in their lives. There was even evidence that that for the benefit of their children, parents tried to transmit cultural and familial points of reference to their children and embed them in a cultural social network of meaning (Sabatier & Berry, 2008). They stated that though while growing up there was an inherent desire to be like their parents, their parents took it into their own hands and upon themselves to micro manage their children’s lives. They basically dictated what their child did, who they got to hang around with and even made sure to deal with any form of

We hear some personal stories of Sheikhs daughter, which showcases a generational gap. The interview brings into light some issues that these immigrants face in their household. It supports the research, because it gives the audience a preview of second-generation immigrants, who face problems in settling into the American culture. These issues create problems in families, because the kids would want something else than what the parents would expect. Sheikh is an Indian, but she states that, “Immigrants who come from different countries, value ethics and culture moral more, in comparison to the liberal minded Americans, who value the present more than ancient morals left behind by ancestors.” Her statement is supporting the American way of life, but fears to make a change. Her interview showcases the way she keeps a balance between her roots and her new way of

Even though some people do not want child immigrants to stay in the US, children should not be sent back because of their race. Child immigrants should be able to stay in the US because there could be an important reason that they are here, such as getting away from their family. And what is not fair at all is that child immigrants have to go to court before going back home. Some of these child immigrants have to go to youth jail,

The massive amount of immigrants that came to America worked in awful conditions and were paid very poorly. Immigrants came here to seek refuge and to have a better life and never went back to their homelands, which leads me to believe that the conditions here were better than their homeland. In the course book on page 606, it mentions how some immigrants came here to avoid conscription into the Russian army.

What if you got something taken away from you that was really important to you. How would it make you feel? To children of illegal immigrants that is their birthright. These children are here for their parents. They want to make their parents proud by studying, learning, and going to school. Also if they get their birthright taken away, they will throw away all the learning they had to do.If these children get their birthright taken away they may have to leave someone they really care about, the population of the United States would drop, and it could cost taxpayers a lot of money to get all the children deported.

Being born and raised in Canada is considered a privilege. However, being born with a Persian background can also have its faults. My brother and I were both born and raised in Calgary and we share the same parents. Unfortunately, we had different experiences growing up. He is light skinned, tall and slim, and I am the complete opposite with olive skin, average height and on more of a heavier side. We both went to the same elementary school where he was popular and I was the girl who was usually picked last. Being so young I could hardly understand why this was the case. I was polite, well-spoken and shared the same interests of those in my grade. Somehow I just couldn’t fit in.