Immigration is often good for the migrants themselves, but is not good for the government. The number of illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and other parts of Latin America grows immensely. Some immigrants don’t even have a better life in the states. America is not as glamourous as it might seem to Latin Americans. However, I find immigration to be good and bad for the citizens and government of the United States. We need the immigrants to do many of our low income “blue collar” work. However, most of the immigrants end up living in poverty and absorb tons of money from the government in order to stay afloat.
1. Nazario decided to create the story of Enrique’s Journey because of her housekeeper. Her house keeper told her that she had
From an economic aspect, immigration is somewhat beneficial since it increases the US work force and it’s economy. According to Camarota Steven on his testimony’’ Immigration and the US economy’’, immigration overall increases the economy of the US due to the fact that more workers and more people mean bigger GDP. He also pointed out that the impact of immigration of the seize of the economy is not a measure of the benefits of natives. That means that regardless of the benefits of natives, Immigration is a tool to increase the economy of the US. On the other hand, it can be detrimental to the US economy. In fact most of the immigrants work “under the table” which make the fiscal
The novel, ‘Enrique’s Journey’ follows the difficult quest of a Honduras boy in search for his mother after she is forced to leave her starving family in order to find work in the United States. Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, knows she will not be able to afford to send them to school, and they would be forced to grow up in poverty as she did when she was a child. Finding work in the United States was Lourdes only way of being able to send money in order to support her family. As a boy, Enrique and his sister Belky are were also split apart from one another, leaving Enrique completely alone. Over the years, Enrique often shuffled from one home to another, eventually spending most of his young life with is grandmother, while his sister sets out to get her education and is well cared for by their aunt. After the depression sinks in for Enrique, he turns to drugs for comfort and begins to rebel against his grandmother. She eventually kicks him out and he is faced with the sobering reality of being completely alone. Frustrated with his mother, and the circumstances he faces in life, Enrique embarks on a
Is immigration good for the economy? According to John Engler, "Why immigration is good for U.S. growth," Passing immigration reform would provide the opportunity for Washington to show Americans that policymakers can work together to solve big problems and boost the economy at the same time." If we were to let immigrants to come to America it would help out a lot of businesses. According to John Engler, " Immigration reform would improve economic growth. Reform would also increase U.S. employment and wages." According to John Engler," Today, there is a global competition for talent, and we cannot afford to lose out to other nations."America needs immigrants to make their businesses to flourish.
In the book “Enrique's Journey” Enrique is left behind by his mother, so that she can go to the States to earn money to support her family, this lead to the bases of the story being that Enrique being without his parents is left alone, and being in his fallen state he is drowning himself in his own depression in his fallen state, consequently leading him to vow to travel north to the states in order to reunite with his mother, and at a young age he set out across Mexico on the trains
I can only imagine what immigrating to america is like for these families, everyday children my age and younger are risking their lives to come to America and It really makes me appreciate how much I have. For Lourdes, Enrique, and Maria Isabel in Enrique’s Journey they must make the hard decision of leaving everything they grew up with in Honduras to come to america for a better life. Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, could no longer afford to feed and send her children to school and was struggling to make money with her job. “Lordes can think of only one place that offers hope… Lourdes has decided: She will leave. She will go to the United States, and make money and send it home.” (p.20) Lourdes decides to make the trip because it
Lourdes leaves Enrique when he is just a baby so she can find better opportunities in the United States and provide a better life for him. Nazario says, “Lourdes has decided: She will go to the United States and make money and send it home. She will be gone for one year” (4). This shows Lourdes’ ignorance and her positive outlook about her choice. Lourdes thinks that leaving Enrique behind is a necessary sacrifice in order to create a better life for her son, but soon finds out that leaving Enrique as a young boy proves to be a fatal mistake.
People in Central America especially, long to have their basic necessities met. Visiting Guatemala and Mexico at the age of ten was a hard site to see. Kids walking on the street barefoot not because they wanted to, but they had no money to buy shoes. Making their dirty feet ache at night. Wearing the same clothes full of filth because they could not afford to buy clothes and soap. Parents struggling to provide for their family. They would often sent their child to school without lunch, making it hard for the student to concentrate at school. Any little money counts and they would make it last. Yet they were so welcoming and loving to guest. They had nothing to offer but the little they had they would offer. Family’s full of frustration and no hope turn to the journey of going to “el Norte”. Hoping to have a better life and help their family improve their social status.
Many people believe that immigrants do not provide us with any beneficial effects to our country. This is not the case at all. At one point all of the current Americans that reside in the United States today had ancestors that traveled from another country or countries to the United States of America, thus making us all decedents of immigrants. Immigration helps boost up the economy, not hurt it, for the most part. Illegal immigrants take jobs that have lower pay and horrible hours. They also tend not to file for tax returns or claim their Social Security money (Aquino 2016). Illegal immigrants do not claim social security or file for taxes in order to prevent themselves from being found out and deported back
According to President Obama (2014), “If we are serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, and law enforcement- and fix our broken immigration system. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted. I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same” (President Obama, 2014). The United States of American has long been the safe haven for those who seek to escape poverty, hunger, torture, and oppression in their home countries. According to the film, The Other Side of Immigration (2009), in 1970, the United States housed 750,000 immigrants and as of 2009, there are
In order to recreate scenes, Nazario spent six months retracing Enrique’s steps from Honduras to North Carolina. She experienced almost everything he did, from riding on tops of freight trains to hitchhiking with truckers. By making the same journey as Enrique,
Once again, in Chapter 5 of Enrique’s Journey, the practices behind religion help the Padre Leo and the members of the church understand why it is their calling to help immigrants and why devoting to God can help through an immigrant’s journey. As humble and noble as Padre Leo, some but not all of the church members follow in his footsteps. He takes pride in helping immigrants just as he believes the church members were once migrants as well and that immigrants wrote the Bible. Therefore, they should they should take action rather than just lead a spiritual life. Immigrants also make sure to pay their respect and gather around the Virgin of Guadalupe after a meal and migrant mothers pray to live to be able to see their children once more and to not give up and show empty handed.
community such as Fort Morgan is greatly expanding, the population grows everyday and according to surburbanstats.com this town now holds 11,329as of 2014. The great organization of One City, One Book has the power to create interaction between citizens you haven’t even known were right around the corner from you. With One City, One Book we can now come together as a community and prosper. The book “Enrique’s Journey” written by Sonia Nazario, should be adopted into the Fort Morgan community through One City, One Book. This book broadens perspective of the citizens who read it and creates a spark in their head of the real conflicts immigrants go through. Finally this book inspires people to help these children like Enrique in the book. This
Immigration could be potentially beneficial to the U.S. Economy. There are many reasons as to why it could be beneficial. There is information that leads to immigration being beneficial because it increases labor force productivity, non-natives take jobs that native born people do not want, and that immigration has a positive effect on GDP and long-run fiscal impact. To start, foreign-born workers account for a large part of the labor force. The current US labor force is composed of about 160 million people (Cite BLS here). Immigrants account for 15% of that, (Cite White House Article Here), which is about 24 million people. Not only do the immigrants account for a decent section of the labor force, but they account for a large part of the
In summary, I would concede that immigration exist negative effects. Despite that, I think that the positive influence of the immigration is more than its disadvantage. For instance, the economy of American mainly is based on high technology, because the most outstanding people who come from different countries make a great contribution on high technology. Moreover low skill immigration also makes contributions on cleaning, cooking, and waiter services. They buy food, clothes, house, which also promote the development of the economy.
Do you find that Immigration can be a threat to the American culture or way of life? If so, have you considered the fact that immigrants have brought a plethora amount of aspects to America. In my opinion, I believe that immigrants have their benefits to the United States. Our lives today would not be the same if immigrants never came to the United States because everyone's family tree consists of an immigrant. Immigration has made good tolls on America like: Cultural differences, improving the economy, and food.