Inequality In I Belong Here By Amin Ahmad

When most immigrants move into America, they are greeted with much tension and conflict. There is still some discrimination between races, as much as American’s

Over the course of history, South Asians have been mistreated and undermined within American society. This is especially evident after the terror attacks of 9/11 in which Americans shunned its South Asian Population, and reduced them to devastating stereotypes. This has created tension and hostility within the South Asian community, thus pressuring them to being more Americanized, and further creating a fixation towards becoming more white. The obsession with American culture has caused many to conform, leaving behind cultural and religious parts of their identities. It is necessary to explore the history behind the mistreatment of South Asians to understand why the change in identity such as those portrayed with Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Amir in Disgraced have occurred. These main characters of South Asian descent make it is clear that the American dream for immigrants creates a constant struggle between national and transnational identities as racism and hostility are being thrust upon them by American society.

In the essay “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee. The author talks about the problems immigrants face while they are in America. The author talks about her and her friend Mira’s struggles with Americas policies. This essay examines the audience of the text, the purpose for writing the story, and the subject of the book being read. By examining the audience, finding the purpose of the story, and researching and analyzing the author. The readers can have a deeper understanding of the book.

As we begin reading The Limits of Whiteness, Maghboulegh introduces us to the court case Pourghoraishi vs Flying J Inc where Pourghoraishi, an Iranian American, is discriminated against by the white manager of Flying J and a white police officer. These men, who live in a post 9/11 world, classify Pourghoraishi as “Persian” and relate his appearance to a terrorist.

Since the establishment of the colonies, America has been viewed as the “land of opportunity.” It is thought to be a safe haven for immigrants, and a chance at a new beginning for others. “The Clemency of the Court” by Willa Cather published in 1893, tells the story of Serge, a Russian immigrant, who overcame the struggles of a tough childhood and fled to America to receive protection from the state. “Clothes” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni published in 1995, tells the story of Sumita, a Indian immigrant, who is moving to America so that she can marry her husband that her family has arranged for her. Both “The Clemency of the Court” and “Clothes” show the evolution of the American immigrant experience.

The development of acceptance is a process laid upon several significant factors, and by belonging in community settings, one may gain confidence and feel tolerated. Likewise, being alienated and ostracised because of racial and social insecurities can have a negative influence on how one may act, and thus outcasts are made to feel inferior as a result of the harmful manner in which they are treated. These concepts of inclusion and discrimination are explored through the contemporary memoir of Anh Do, which focuses on a refugee’s journey from Vietnam to Australia. The Happiest Refugee (2010) methodically displays an array of perspectives surrounding belonging and presents factors of both family and community allegiance.

When newcomers come to the United States, they are still on a journey of pain and suffering. Even if they can get to the United States they still must go through the trail of owing nothing in a world where everything is against their odds. This is the journey that author Lac Su wrote in his memoir I Love Yous Are For White People which is about when he and his family immigrated to the United States during the aftermath of the Vietnam War and their new life in LA county. His journey is not a unique one as many refugees and immigrants experienced what he and his family experienced in their new lives. In their new lives, many different events occurred that tells the problem all immigrants encounter when adjusting to life in America. Using Lac

Before introducing any major events, or analysis, it’s important to note that this autobiographical work was only made possible with the aid of written documentation, and tales passed on from the family and the community. This is imperative because a great portion of the piece focuses on events that Edwidge didn’t experience first-hand, so she heavily stresses on the details being re-surfaced through friends and family to complete a holistic emigration story. Family history and the involvement of cherishing family moments is often an overlooked form of communication, but without this, this and many other important minority stories would have never been complied in a way where we can now discuss them in a culturally-reflective academic setting, like this course.

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

Two hundred forty-one years. In that small amount of time America forged its self into a vast landscape of different cultures. A combination of numerous cultures mongrelized together to form “We the people” in America today. Due to all the mixing in the pot, an uncertainty about the countries identity arose. For all the beauty that the melting pot brought, it also created a darker side, as aspects of each cultures fought for superiority in the nation. This fight emerges throughout American history and as a new era of deporis rises, the issues are becoming more relevant. In American Dreamer by Bharati Mukherjee, she shares her own experiences as an immigrant and the fight she partook in to have her own American identity seen. Mukherjee’s fight mirrors hundreds of naturalized American citizens who are trying to realize their identity, however it also shines light on native-born Americas struggling as well. The need for a unified American identity produces a nationwide identity crisis.

Khan used an example of colonizing ship to describe her conversation in the article by showing a direct line. Furthermore, she linked the direct line with an example of branches that grew from one another. (Khan) Khan showed a logical appeal through her facts about the racial practices in Dutch during the mid-70s when the Dutch economy brought Turkish and Moroccan immigrant workers and their families to Netherland to overcome the labour crisis. “The Turkish and Moroccan families who stayed in the Netherlands continued to be treated as a threat by many Dutch residents.” (Khan) Consequently, the facts by the author about the immigrant communities made her argument persuasive. Her argument was convincing to believe that the treatment people like her were getting on the basis of nationality, race and white privilege was not fair.

Dinaw Mengestu talks about his life long trouble with his society and fitting in with the people of his community. Born in Ethiopia and raised in the States confused him and made him feel like he doesn’t belong anywhere. He doesn’t feel like he was ever part of the Ethiopian society and is not accepted in the United States, as an American. I understand his situation, not because I went through what he has but I’ve lived around people that have. During high school I had a Persian friend who’s parents have immigrated to Bahrain, and he felt like he didn’t belong in the country he also didn’t feel like he was a Persian at all, because he has never been there. It was difficult on him to make friends, and people made him feel like an outsider. But like Mengestu my friend slowly adapted to his surrounding and didn’t identify

This article, "I Belong Here" was written by Amin Ahmad who was born in Calcutta, India, but now lives with his American fiancé in Boston. Amin wrote this article to show how he was treated differently at the British airport than his American fiancé, and because he was treated so differently that is when he came to the conclusion that he belonged here with the other Bangladeshi people that were at the airport. Amin and the other Bangladeshi people were escorted from the line at the airport by the British immigration officials so that they could thoroughly check their passport to clarify the information that was in shown in their passport.

It will depict how a quest for her identity gifts her chain of tragedies. The author’s portrayal of true picture will be analysed minutely how her quest becomes the only aim in life to know about her real parents and why she has been thrown like a garbage sack. Like the narrator of Jasmine, Bharati Mukherjee has changed citizenships and lived in various cultural milieus with disorienting rapidly. During her odyssey as a writer for almost three decades her creative sensibility has undergone many changes. There has been an ‘on going quest’ from ‘expatriation to immigration’ in her writings. Her major concern as a writer has been the life of South –Asian expatriate immigrants in U.S.A and Canada and the problem of ‘Acculturation and Assimilation’. An examination of the works of Mukherjee reveals a movement from expatriation to immigration. This movement coincides with her immigration from Canada to U.S.A. Mukherjee’s interpretation of and reaction to her experience in Canada led her to see herself as an expatriate and this theme of expatriation is reflected in her writings in Canada. In the U.S.A, there is a growing recognition of herself as an immigrant with an increasingly strong attachment to America and this experience of immigration is reflected in all her works in the U.S.A. Viewing herself as a writer, Bharati Mukherjee identified V. S. Naipaul as her role model. In

In “No Room at the Inn”, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (2002) argues that current attitude towards refugees and shelter seekers is supported by racism and makes European people lose their heritage. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, born in Uganda, is a British journalist of Asian descent who has written for several newspapers and magazines (Alibhai-Brown, 2002). She obtained a Master of Philosophy degree from Oxford in 1975 and is an author of several books including No Place Like Home; True Colours; Who Do We Think We Are? and Mixed Feelings (Wikipedia, n.d). Her writing interests focus on issues of immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown can be depended on to be disloyal to blind interest groups and patriotism. She is an anti-racist