Immigrant Experience Reflection

As a senior at Red Cloud High School, I’m a member of National Honor Society, captain of the cheer squad, lifeguard, swimming instructor, and part-time employee at the local grocery store. I’ve come to learn from a young age that money doesn’t grow on trees. When growing up, it was just my mother and I. While living on her single parent income, I learned money doesn’t grow on trees. My mother worked a minimum wage job, facing financial struggles at times. Her willpower drove her to get the job she has today. My mother married, and I have a little brother now. As his big sister, I always wanted to be someone he could look up to. At the age of fifteen I became a lifeguard at the community pool. The next year I took classes to be a certified Water Safety Instructor, so I could teach swimming lessons to local children. That same year I applied at the local grocery store, to have a job during the school year.

When I was deliberating topics for my case study ethnography report I was inspired to examine some one very close to me who is "undocumented", someone whose experience I have seen first hand, some one who has affected my life and understanding of immigrants with his situation; my partner, Mario. This class has exposed us to many writings on the subjects of migration, immigration and emigration. I began to compare the concepts and information in the readings to Mario’s personal situation. I was curious if his answer would be "In search of a better life" when asked, "Why did you come here?"

Studying to be a physician requires lots of effort and time. To an immigrant like me, I tried to manage my studies, volunteer work, and adjusting to a new culture at the same time. I like to stick with my plans, and it has always been my plan to enter medical school on 2018. However, my road to entering medical school didn’t come as easy to me. After transferring to University, two of my close family passed away.

It was summer of 2010. My parents were still married and we went up to Wichita Falls, Wichita to go see my brother Chris who was in the Military on base working. We stayed there for a week. I still remember the car ride up there. We rented a van, we had tvs in the rented van, my sister Rylee, my other brother Garrett (he was in the military too), my mom Traci, and my dad Doug, and my brothers military bag it was like a person. I still remember I had to sit in the back with that bad it was so big. Garrett put the seatbelt around the bag like it was a person. The car trip was so long but it was all worth it in the end. It was in the middle of the week and we were out on the beach. My brother Chris and his pregnant wife Ashley had a boat the water

I was born here in Chicago but was raised in a small Illinois town near Iowa. I later returned to my roots as an adult and have raised my own family in the Chicagoland area in (South Suburban) Steger, Illinois. I am a wife, mother and recently became a grandmother.

From an early childhood, I was able to learn the values of hard work, discipline, humility, and determination. I learned this from my parents who would work in the hot sun slaving away in the orchards. Every night I would watch them come home from work exhausted. Their checkered shirts and ripped denim jeans drenched in pesticide chemicals. Their fingers would be chapped and their faces burnt from the long day in the sun. When I turned nine, I finally got to see the realities and the difficulty of field labor.

What I am most proud of, is the fact that I am a hardworking immigrant. In today’s divided society, immigrants are stereotyped as “non-contributing to society” or “largely uneducated”. This ignorant stereotype is a constant reminder of how hard I should work.

“Mom, will I ever be treated as a regular person? When will I be like the others without people look at me in a strange way and make fun of me, when mom? When?” Those were the questions I did to my mom almost every day after getting home from school. Fourteen years ago that my parents brought me to this country offering a better life with better opportunities than where I was born. I was seven years old when came to the United States, but I still remember the happiness I felt when I first step in this country. Throughout the years, I have realize that not everything is easy and simple as I imagined. My parents worked in the fields because of the lack of a social security and not knowing how to speak English. Many Americans do not know how hard it is the life of an immigrant, they should have a consideration for us and not just blame us for the deviance of the United States.

When I was young my grandmother taught me to always help others. Even those who may be mean or undeserving of it. There were many stereotypes and jokes made about me but she still wanted us to always help others. I learned to go with the flow and let it go. This lesson and the value in helping others helped me especially in high school. During my junior year in high school I began to take an interest in a program call Opportunities in Emergency Care. That year I was certified as a first aid provider and in CPR. As a senior I continued my education in this field. I am now a certified Emergency Medical Responder and I will be a certified Emergency Medical Technician. I have had many occasions to apply the knowledge and skills I gained, by working

As a passionate student, I have always had an enthusiastic and resilient approach to learning and a desire to broaden my knowledge across many disciplines. As a responsible individual, I have always been driven to forge my own path. I’m aware of what bolsters my spirit and what hinders it. I know that my opportunities for growth are amplified when I have access to the most challenging material and when I’m surrounded by the most productive people. I have noticed that collectivist cultures value shared points of view and discourage or reject highly individual behavior and opinions. I moved to the United States on my own at age 21. I knew there would be a long obstacle-ridden road ahead. For six years I have been working on my immigration status while raising my kid. Being a single mother is a course of domestic engineering (starting from changing the light bulb in the kitchen to making and managing time and money), especially when there is no family and old friends around who help when things get a little rocky. There are moments in my life when I’m faced with

There are many things similar, as well as differences in the stories,“A Quilt of a Country,” and “The Immigrant Contribution”. For example, One thing that is similar between the two essays is that they’re both about immigrants and their ways of life in the new America. They both explain how it can be hard for some immigrants to contribute to the economy, as well as just plain live a normal American life. However, there’s some differences. One difference is the type of diction or the author’s feeling towards the topic. The way the authors write these two essays is completely different,but as I said, there are some similarities.

As a seventeen year old who is currently in between jobs (I’m only babysitting for a family two or three times a month), I do not have to travel very often or very far. It is because of this that I typically only travel to five different locations from my home. On the nights that I am babysitting, I travel 18 miles to the family’s home. I also travel to the local farmer’s market, which is only one mile away, the gym (6.5 miles away), church (18 miles), and to the movies (6 miles). In order to get to these places I drive the family car, which is a 2007 KIA Sportage and it is an efficient means of transportation.

During college one, I have read the book "Spare Parts". It is a really thought-provoking nonfiction that describes four immigrants students' the journey to their success. From reading this book and writing RRJs, I have learnt alot of things. Especially, writing RRJs is helpful to organizing my thoughts when I read the book. Also, it influences me to think about my own story and connect to the characters of the book. In "Spare Parts", these four characters stuck with me by their braveness and intelligence. They make me to think about my own life. I am an immigrant too. When I first came to school here, I felt that I could not fit in as well. However, I feel much better after I communicated with new friends and got familiar with my classes.

I really enjoyed reading your post. Like you, I also have experience working with immigrants, and would like to continue doing so. Having said that, the second paragraph of your post made me feel a bit apprehensive. Reading the quote, I was reminded of the responsibility to keep my own beliefs and values in check, but also that it is the social workers’ responsibility to be aware and mindful of the clients’ as well – which weighs heavily on me.

“We are all immigrants. Our only difference is that some of us arrived earlier and some of us later” a great quote from Ruiz (1997). From the 1930’s to the 1970’s most people that immigrated here were from Europe, it is only recently that people from Mexico began immigrating here (Christie, 1998). The only difference is, when people were emigrating here from Europe, they already had high income and educational levels (1998). People that are emigrating here now from Mexico have trouble keeping the economy up (1998). Economists Beverly Fox Kellam and Lucinda Vargas (1998) wrote in a recent report for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, “U.S. immigrants, on average, earn less that native workers, and the