Immigration To American Culture Essay

Transitions are never an easy thing to conquer. It is often hard and stressful to cope with changes to one’s surrounding, but in the cases in which one manages to conquer this obstacle, elevation of knowledge and experience are great results gained from this achievement. I originally came from Africa and recently moved to the United States to join my mother and my step father. This great change in the things I had become accustomed to in my daily life was not easy, furthermore taking into account the fact that I had never experienced a transition so little as shifting from one residence to another.

There are events in life, which can change yourself or your way of thinking. As for me, I think the major change in my life occurred when I moved from France to America. This change has entirely affected my personality. Why? I arrived in the United States during the summer of 2002. It was really hard for me since my parents had only told me about the move in April of that year. Therefore, I did not have the time to prepare myself psychologically. My parents had talked about coming here for a very long time, even before I was born. Everything started in 1973. Indeed, my parents came from Iran to Europe in order to finish their studies and then to return back home. However, even at that time, they had not set their mind as to where they

The United States of America has millions of illegal and legal immigrants more than people that born in the country. Our country has received many immigrants since 1600s with the pilgrims and continued in the time of industrialization. Many of those immigrants were searching religious freedom and better opportunities. But they faced racial discrimination, low pay rate, and didn’t have opportunities to find better jobs. Now in our times, people still immigrate illegal and legal in our country. They are people just like us and they need to be treated right and fair. The United States should help illegal immigrants to have the same and equal rights that citizens and shouldn’t be punished for where country they come from.

Something immigrants should never give up is their traditional cultures, arts and celebrations. As mentioned above, it is these traditions that add in to the melting pot, making America such a wonderful and diverse country to live in. We get to celebrate Chinese New Year, eat moon cake and play with lanterns in Vietnamese Lunar

America is traditionally a country of immigrants. Very few people today have relatives who were Native Americans, many of them because of religious persecution, and others because of they were just looking to start a new life on the exciting untouched frontier. For instance, in Florida, the first arrivals were European, beginning with the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon who explored the land in 1513, following French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century. From the past, America was seen as a country of opportunities. People from all over the world have moved here looking for better opportunities. There are a lot of reasons why immigrants should live in this country, but I would like to mention three of them.

The United States has been the land of opportunity for immigrants. It is a place where immigrants from all over the world come to build a better dream and future for their families and leave from poverty, they come with nothing but determination. One thing that every immigrant brings with them is their culture. A person's culture is strongly tied to the country where they grew up. It is tied to their relationship with their family. Many people come to America from so many different places all over the world. For this reason, people call America a melting pot of cultures immigrants are striving for a better future even though when they migrate to the USA they don’t know the consequences they will face and struggle to be successful living in the United States.

According to Huntington, unlike previous immigrants, Hispanics wish to retain a dual culture. This presents them with the culture clash of two varying views on culture as well as education. There are several factors that have made this culture of immigrants assimilations’ so much different than the past immigrants that America has so fondly welcomed with open arms. These include contiguity, scale illegality regional concentration, persistence and historical presence.

Many immigrants come to the United States from all over the world. Some bring their families, some their prized possessions, others come with nothing but determination and the goal of a better life. One thing that every immigrant brings with them is their culture. One of the most dominant minority cultures in the United States is the Mexican culture. The US shares a border with Mexico making it easier for immigrants to stay in contact with their families in their home country and more closely connected to their culture. In 2014, 64 percent of Hispanic people in the United States identify as Mexican("FFF: Hispanic Heritage Month 2015." US Census Bureau. N.p., 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.).

Today the Society is split into three separately minded groups. In no specific ordering, the first is determined to believe that any one person born in the United States is a citizen and which means their parents should become citizens along with them. These are the ones whom obtain “birthright citizenship” (Raul). The second are firm believers in the only ones that should be citizens are the ones who go through the proper process of becoming a citizen and according to the article in “USA today,” it states that illegal immigrants are “having babies as a way to obtain citizenship,” which too many Americans “cheapens the whole idea of being American”. The last group is the “other” the ones whom are completely neutral or believe in the

One way they must lose their cultural identity is languages. As we know that America is the country where people are blending together like a melting pot. So, children of immigrants might lose their culture language. For instance, DeJong who has taught ESL for 20 years, says, “About a fifth of the students now is nonliterate in their

Latino immigrants have always had many obstacles when coming into the United States, the difference between the American and the Latin cultures is what has caused a huge hurdle that immigrants have found hard to overpass. This obstacle has caused many generations to go through cultural assimilation. Mize et al. (2012) explain that cultural assimilation is the adaptation of immigrants to unfamiliar cultural patterns, which include language and the value systems of other cultures. In order for immigrants to be successful in another country, which is not of their origin; they need to learn how to assimilate to their new homes. Immigrants have learned that they need to adapt in order to get to experience new opportunities and also to learn from new cultures that are not theirs (Mize et al., 2012). Immigrants have learned that they are not leaving behind their own believes and norms, but mixing their norms, this gives them the opportunity to create and mix their culture with the new. Cultural assimilation can be hard to achieve because in one hand it is important to change in order to live within a different culture, but on the other hand it is important for a person to maintain their identity regardless of where they live. At times immigrants find it difficult to achieve a balance and for many families it is a struggle over generations. There are different levels of assimilation, some immigrants come to the

Most Americans place their pride in being apart of a country where a man can start at the bottom and work his way to the top. We also stress the fact that we are “all created equal” with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (Jefferson 45) During the early 1900s white Americans picked and chose who they saw fit to live in America and become an American. “Those that separate the desirable from the undesirable citizen or neighbor are individual rather than race.”

There are some, however, that do not agree with this assertion. Samuel Huntington, a political scientist, disagrees with the idea that immigrants are assimilating. He thinks that out nation is becoming “two peoples and two cultures” (Huntington pg. 1). Huntington claims in his article “The Hispanic Threat” that immigrants are not assimilating language and do not have patriotism. He focuses on the majority immigrant group in the United States, Hispanics, and explains how “in 2000, more than 28 million people in the United States spoke Spanish at home, and of those 28 million, 13.8 million spoke English worse rather than very well” (Huntington pg. 5). Huntington, and others who share his beliefs, think that as Spanish culture and language increases in the United States, the more committed Hispanics will be to their ethnic identity, not assimilating to the Anglo-Protestant culture America was built on (Huntington).

Cultural practices cause some problems for families because their way of living or morals may not be accepted. Some immigrants relocate to North America for employment; however immigrants want to share their beliefs with their families. Families want to continue to practice their religion, eat the same food, and discipline their children according to their culture.

Each person develops in some type of culture. It is the environment that we live in that determines what we learn, how we learn it, and the rules for living with others. My family and I are Peruvian. That would make me Hispanic in the United States. My origins are straight from Peru. I came to the United States when I was 12 years old, so my beliefs and traditions haven’t changed from when I was still in Peru. There are rules that are transmitted from one generation to the next and are often adapted to the times and locations, and these rules are absorbed by children as we develop and learn about home country traditions, customs and beliefs. These customs will still follow us throughout your life. Although a person can be broken down into