Personal Narrative: Growing Up As The Product Of Poverty And Migration

As immigrants, parents put much more emphasis on children’s study issues and thus children with immigrant parents are typically imbued with a strong sense of family obligation and ethnic pride, and with the importance of education which may help these children getting better grades. (Shields & Behrman, 2004)

Growing up with parents who are immigrants can present many obstacles for the children of those immigrants. There are many problems people face that we do not even realize. Things happen behind closed doors that we might not even be aware of. Writers Sandra Cisneros and Amy Tan help us become aware of these problems. Both of these authors express those hardships in their stories about growing up with foreign parents. Although their most apparent hardships are about different struggles, both of their stories have a similar underlying theme.

Out of those million immigrants there are about one out of five children under the age of eighteen are either an immigrant or a child of immigrants parents. (Orozco, 2001). The majority of immigrants are from Latino or Asian origin. The United States has been experiencing a large wave of people coming into this country to start a new life from what they had before. Every region in the country is experiencing the growth of immigration every year. With this new immigration the U.S is witnessing immigrant children take over public schools. Today immigrant students are becoming the fastest population to grow in the child population in the United States (Hamilton, 2010). Many parents send their children to the United States and separate themselves from them because they want them to have a better life and live the American dream. Many kids go to school at a young age and get through high school and college and even start their careers. But many of them have to live in fear of being found out. They can’t trust many people, even the closest one to them (Vargas,

I am a first-generation immigrant, a DACA recipient, a DREAMer. I was brought into the United States as a child and since then have struggled to become a part of our society. Growing up, there was just enough for my family. The extra we had came at the cost of not being around the parents much and with the thought that they might not come back after work in the back of our minds. No matter how busy my parents were to provide for my brothers and I, they always made sure the little time they had was focus on us, our studies, and to raise us to be good citizens of the world.

It is not uncommon to hear one recount their latest family reunion or trip with their cousins, but being a first generation immigrant, I sacrificed the luxury of taking my relatives for granted for the security of building a life in America. My parents, my brother, and I are the only ones in my family who live in the United States, thus a trip to India to visit my extended family after 4 years was an exciting yet overwhelming experience. Throughout the trip, I felt like a stranger in the country where I was born as so many things were unfamiliar, but there were a few places that reminded me of my childhood.

The economic stress is also experienced by the children, where they began to pick up more responsibility in the household which can interfere with their school activities. Family relationships also become strained with the deportation of a parent. Derby (2012) also found that “the threat of deportability affected them profoundly”, causing the children stress and worry. This was applicable to U.S citizens as well as undocumented children. This caused children to worry about what to share about their private lives with the fear of people finding out about their parents undocumented status. This also caused conflicts with the child’s self of identity given that some stated to be “proud that either they or their parents were from Mexico, [but] few felt proud that they or their parents were immigrants”(Derby, 2012). It was interesting that parents believed their children didn’t understand legality, which the interviews with children “suggested that young children are aware that there are social differences based on legal status at very young ages even if this was difficult for them to articulate” (Derby,

I think that if you are an immigrant child the pressures that are put on you are different than the pressures if you are a child from a middle-class family in America.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

For my capstone project, I had the honor to interview my father in which I actually learn a lot from. As an immigrant he diced to move to the United States to live the American dream what everyone back home talked about. It was during his migration in 1984 that he discovers what America actually looked like. During this time the 1984 Olympics were happening in Los Angeles where he migrated too. During this time many local restaurants were hiring and luckily enough he was hired as a dishwasher which he knew nothing about. He learns his new job the hard way with white bosses screaming at him to be faster, better and clean, which was difficult to the English barrier. This is where white supremacy takes place, bosses screaming at their workers just because they

My story is one of migration from a small island in the Caribbean to America and the role and impact society had on shaping my life. The social forces that challenged me and at the same time influence my decisions. My story will provide a glimpse into my community, education and values that are dear to me.

As time passes, our youthful explorations become more and more sophisticated. Bicycles will take us many miles farther from home than any of our parents, busy with houses full of babies, ever realize.

Immigration is a significant challenge for all members of the family. However, children also receive considerable trauma in the process of immigration, but these impacts remain unrecognized for many reasons. The first main reason is that usually parents are too busy to look for their beloved's changes. The second major reason accounts for the fact that young children often do not know how to express their negative

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

My parents grew up in Mexico, where they weren’t able to have the most pleasant childhood or receive an adequate education due to the difficult circumstances, but they wanted me to have a better life. They didn’t want me to struggle the same way they did; therefore, like many any other Hispanic families, they came to the United States to seek a better life for themselves, but especially for me. I’ve always looked up to my parents for being well-rounded, hard workers and optimistic despite all the obstacles they have faced. Even though, life can seem very tough at times, my parents’ hardships have taught me that anything can be overcome with determination and effort.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.