Generational Changes : My Parent 's Generation

Today the United States is a home to a huge number of Hispanics. Almost all Latin American migrants who come to the United States are looking for a better life. People leave Latin America because life there is very hard. Poverty, political instability and financial crises often make Latin American life more challenging than in the U.S., a wealthy country with lots of job opportunities.

You may choose from the questions below or make up your own questions. If you make your own, here are some suggestions:

The topic that I choose is Generational Studies and Segmented assimilation, particularly first generation of children with immigrant parents. I chose this topic because it was a topic that I can relate to. Having immigrant parents, who have settled in New York City, makes my siblings and I first generation of Mexican-American. Due to this we have had to adapt to some aspects of American culture and Mexican culture, education can be affected.

One’s cultural experience of poverty can make one take full advantage of the opportunities one gets. Just like Reyna in the novel The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, Reyna and her family luckily got their green card by an act of government amnesty which gave all the illegal immigrants that were currently in the country a green card. For one instance, after she went back to Mexico to visit her grandmother with her mom and after seeing her cousin, Reyna said “Now I realized that we owed it to them, our cousins, our friends, to do something with our lives, If not for us, then for them, because they would never be able to. I understood so clearly now why papi said there were so many people would die to have the opportunities we had, who

In the late 19th century, millions of people immigrated to America to escape the hardships in their countries. They adapted to these changes by making the best of a difficult situation. Although they escaped famine and unemployment, the immigrants faced many challenges upon their arrival, including racism, poverty, and health issues.

Between the years of 1840 and 1914, about forty million people immigrated to the United States from foreign countries. Many of them came to find work and earn money to have a better life for their families. Others immigrated because they wanted to escape the corrupt political power of their homelands, such as the revolution in Mexico after 1911. Whatever the case, many found it difficult to begin again in a new country. Most immigrants lived in slums with very poor living conditions. They had a hard time finding work that paid enough to support a family. Not only was it difficult for immigrant men, but for women as well. Immigrant women faced many challenges including lack of education and social life as well as low wages and poor

There is always new waves of people that come into America every year seeking a new opportunities for themselves and for their children and their families. Many come to have children in America so that their children will never have to face the hardship that many immigrants faced in third world countries. The pure fact of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness gives people from all across the world that are facing adversity since they were a mere child gives them hope to someday pursue and accomplish the American Dream and have a better life.

Although most immigrants are Hispanic, at least 11% of the newcomers are from India, Vietnam and China. Immigrants from all over the world come for the same three things: economic, religious, and political freedom. The countries the people have escaped from are riddled with thousands of obstacles ranging from political unrest, religious persecution to poverty and oppression. Hoping for a better life for themselves and their loved ones, immigrants experience multiple trials and unthinkable horrors on their journey towards

My parents realized the problem and made a bold decision to leave Colombia by moving to the United States, where possibilities were many and success was possible. We were in search of “the American Dream” that every immigrant is trying to live and make into a reality. When we first arrived here in the United States, New Jersey to be precise, I felt, even as a child, that I was in a new world. I felt as if someone woke me up from my nightmare and put me into a better life, as if my eyes were opened because I had been living in a dark room with no light for my entire life. It was so great for me as a kid to witness these extraordinary changes that the United States offered. I felt like I was finally in a place where I

The United States has always received copious amounts of immigrants because of the amount of opportunities that are presented to the newcomers. Since the 1990s, there has been a significant increase of foreigners and jobs due to the immigrants who “made up approximately half of the ... job growth” (Freeman). Push factors like economic or religious issues and pull factors like new jobs or more money make new countries more appealing to people looking for more opportunities. This job increase mentioned by Freeman is because of the want to improve the lives of families in bad situations since the money immigrants make here is more than the amount they would make in their home country. Specifically in Mexico, Hilda Irene Loureiro runs a shelter to aid people who are trying to cross the border and she stated that immigrants try to cross because “they lack economic opportunities in Mexico and they lack the education and (job) skills to get ahead” (Morales). Since people born in America are usually well educated from opportunities like public school and community college, there is a lack of people who want to do lower class jobs. However, a

The family composition comprises of a basic family structure including the father, mother, brother, and sister within the household. An example would be my mother, Ernaline Pabatao who was 13 years old in high school, and her siblings were in elementary including Bernadito who was 11 years old, Caroline who was 9 years old, and Ernest who was 7 years old. Her parents, Bernadita was 23 years old and Ernesto was 33 years old at the time. They had eloped when Bernadita was 18 years old and was not able to finish her college studies because Ernesto prevented her to achieve her academic ambitions.

Almost everyone who lives in America today is a descendant of an immigrant to the U.S. If an immigrant arrived between the years of 1892 and 1924, they went through the long and tedious task of being accepted through the large brick building at the notorious place of Ellis Island. There were many troubles involved with being accepted to and into America, but it was all worth it to them. Some of these problems were long and cramped boat rides, unbelievable wait time to get to the desk of the people who register the immigrants, getting started in the country was somewhat difficult if you arrived without much money.

During the Salvadoran Civil War, around 2 million Salvadorans moved to the United States. Many of them ended up residing in the poorest

The person I interviewed, Christopher, is fourteen years old. He is in the eighth grade in middle school in a rural area of Tennessee. For the interview we went to a local park where we could talk in a more isolated, but comfortable setting. The goal of the interview was to get to know the person being interviewed better and see where they are in relation to Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development and Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory. The interview was conducted in a manner that would allow for me to test for hypothetical thinking abilities, internalizing/externalizing tendencies, self-awareness abilities, identity vs. confusion/ psychosocial development, biological growth, cognitive

Times have been continuously changing as we grow older which creates memories no one else can tell. The most memorable memories lie within someone’s childhood from a different period in time. For example, stories my mawmaw would say to me were mainly about her childhood in 1948. I was born in 2000, so when she would talk to me about her childhood, it was like a history lesson. Reflecting back on my childhood, and her stories, I realize there are many differences as well as similarities between the way my mawmaw and I grew up as the world started to modernize more.