Effects Of Being A First Gen American

First generation college students are those who are seeking to be the first in their family to earn a degree, according to UCLA. First- generation students can come from low, middle, or high income families without a history of going to college. Families of first generation students can either be supportive of the students plan for a high education or make them feel family pressure to enter the workforce right after high school like they did. First generation students often do not know their options regarding higher education and have fears about going to college and it’s cost. Currently, 42% of UC undergraduates are first generation.

Being given the label "first-generation" by definition means that a student is the first in his or her family to attend and finish with a college degree.

Self improvement is defined as the improvement of one’s knowledge, status or character by one’s own efforts. Society has shown us the many different ways people improve their lives today. Any change, no matter how small can become a major factor in someones current or future life. Lets take Immigrants as an example of self improvement. People immigrate to the U.S in search for a better life and the pursuit of happiness. Once they have established themselves in this country of opportunity, immigrants are able to lay a strong foundation for their children and any other decedents in their generation. Being a first generation American child puts a lot responsibilities and expectations to deliver in a person. Relationships in first generation families often deteriorate because they are faced with a conflict between living up to standards, or living a double standard.

My parents immigrated here to the United States from Vietnam in the hopes of seeking a better future for themselves and for future generations. As a young child, my parents put in many grueling hours of work to support our family. My mother worked as a waitress and a cashier at a Chinese restaurant while my father would work at a steel factory where he assembled parts for furniture. They both worked for minimum wages which made it more difficult to have extra money laying around to enjoy and relax. As our family lived here in the United States, my parents received some harsh judgements and critiques from American citizens. My mother got some feedback for her limited English conversation skills, and she got taunted for that. My father openly practiced his cultural beliefs which differed from American traditional values and customs. He prayed and meditated to his God with his special incense. This behavior has received some backlash from others in his workplace. As we continued to live here in the United States, immigrants widespread such like my parents have received negative judgements and misconceptions from Americans. The topic of immigration has been more controversial due to border patrol issues and illegal immigration in the recent election. Were any of these actions done by naturalized American citizens justified, and what were the motives and reasonings behind the strong dissenting opinions regarding the negative perception of immigrants?

Immigrants and local culture can live together in the society. The adaptation of the local culture for immigrants consists of the integration of events such as customs, religion, and tradition. Events that are transmitted from generation to generation. They work to preserve those traits and customs in order to claim uniqueness and to distinguish themselves from others. “Conversely, the values and behaviors adopted by descendants of immigrants can shift towards those of the majority population by means of school socialization, the media, and friends from the host culture” (Pailhé, 2015).

When a first generation immigrant begins school at the elementary level, all the other kids and students are more accepting towards them. The reason they are accepting is because they do not understand or are unaware of the social differences that exist between them. First generation immigrants entering into this situation have very little issues with their status, and they will have more time to adapt to their new environment. Although these issues could arise later on in their lives.

A first-generation college student is the first person in a family to attend college or any type of secondary education. This title “first-generation college student” has created a stigma for so many students making their time in college more difficult than someone who has come from a family of college graduates. First-generation college students often find themselves lost and without the edge of students who come from parents and/or siblings who went to college.

Mexican American, Chinese American and Vietnamese American make up the 1.5 and second generation today in US. The majority of these immigrants come from the humblest sectors of their society on average they have only a few years of schooling or no schooling, limited urban job skills and little or no knowledge of English. Immigrants to the United States are usually called first-generation Americans, regardless of their citizenship status, and their children second-generation Americans.

First generation immigrants can be people born in the U.S. or not, and their parents are immigrants. For the first generation, although they may be legal or not, they feel attacked and are always worried because of what could happen to their parents. This is one group of immigrants in the United States who have thrived, going on with their lives by completing a higher education than that of their parents and have careers. This is the general structure that has come because of immigration, the first generation started at the bottom of the occupational ladder, but their sons and daughters and their grandchildren invested in education, capitalized upon opportunities in the nation 's expanding economy, and moved rapidly into the middle

Second generation immigrants are becoming more and more common in different countries, as first generation immigrants start having kids. These children are becoming much more integrated into the countries that they are born in and due to that, many of them are becoming assimilated into that country’s culture. This causes several problems with the parents of these children, as the parents feel that their children are losing their cultural and their identity, while the children believe that the best way to integrate into that country is to become like everyone else there. Several things are thought to correlate with second generation immigrants and their integration into society. Some examples include, education, family relationships, and cultural

A situation where I was a minority and that have made an impact in my influence interactions with minority and majority populations is being a Second Generation American woman. As a woman born to Filipino Frist generation immigrants, I lack privilege to relative to men. I would always be corrected by my mother on how to be a woman. Even though I was allowed to go to school, I always felt I was being brought up by my mother to be a “happy homemaker.” When I was finally able to date, I was 18 in college. I never keep secrets from my parents, so when it was time for the “sex talk” it was interesting. My health insurance is under my father’s name so I felt obligated to tell them that I was planning on going on birth control. I didn’t want them finding out that I was sexually active through the Kaiser bill. My mother was not happy. She had never used birth control in her life. Frankly, I believe she was confused about the purpose of it. Because of her religious culture she didn’t believe in birth control. She even told me to keep the baby if I were to ever accidently get pregnant. When I told her about the birth control, she thought I was on it because I was pregnant. She didn’t want me slowing anything that could prevent Gods will for a pregnancy.

As an immigrant, growing up was always difficult for me. I was raised as an Indian child, yet at the same time I was trying to blend in as an American. I was bullied and viewed weirdly for having Indian food that looked and smelt differently, and unfortunately the prejudice never changed as I grew older. Even though the name calling, ridiculous questions, and living a double life was irritating, it was bearable. Because my parents chose to relocate, they also unknowingly chose to give up traditions that may be lost in future generations.

cultural values of their parents and refused to assimilate into the established social and moral

3- Fear of loss of love- Lastly, another challenge immigrants may face, is that the family that they leave behind in their homeland may start to lose the feeling of affection towards them. And possibly even gain more appreciation and love towards whoever their guardians may be back at home. The family unit might in addition, start to develop negative thoughts such as fury and/or hatred. “Love and Gold” expresses, “Through all of their anger and tears, I [Maria] tell my daughter 'I love you'. At first it sounded fake.” This shows how Maria has actually gone through the experience of her children feeling these kinds of emotions towards her. (Hochschild: pg40) The immigrant, usually a woman in this case, uses the first world children/child (the

From war hero conservatives to righteous college protesters to tech-savvy teenagers, there are defining characteristics of people born in different eras. Many do not realize how much their environment and its history impacts them as a whole. The progression of history changes the conditions entire groups of people grow up in, which leads those groups to differ from each other in life. This type of group is called a generation. Each generation has its own events that happened in its lifetime (Ovadia). As a result, they all have widely differing characteristics and views that come from things like the state of the economy, current technology, parenting style, war, politics, or even the media; and all of this changes after a period of time (Neal). There are different generations in every country or part of the world because of how many cultural and historical contrasts there are between nations. Modern America’s living generations are called the G.I. Generation (or the Greatest Generation), the Baby Boomer Generation, Generation X, and the Millennials. The reason why none of them are exactly the same is the fact that none of them have truly experienced, or will ever experience, what the other ones have grown up with or, in most cases, without (Ovadia). People born into different generations are influenced by various factors within their era and generally develop based on those influences.