The Immigrant Advantage: What Rest of America can learn from the fresh Immigrants. '
Cultures for Longer and Happier lives
Inspired by her culturally diverse life in Houston, award winning journalist and author Claudia Kolker investigates the attitudes and traditions towards education, hard work and health that have been imported into the United States by immigrants from different nations. She addresses the fact that natives to the United States have so much to learn from foreigners and that they should not be viewed form only an outsider point of view but should instead be embraced for the diversity they introduce to America. She argues that it is meaningless to fuss over their exploding population when they are in essence present legally
…show more content…
She also investigates and implements the South Korean practice of hagwons, which are demanding after school programs where students are tutored to help them better understand concepts in school work. This helps her daughter learn math. Some of the other topical issues she explores include the Vietnamese ‘com-thang’ tradition, also called the ‘monthly rice’ as part of a fresh, inexpensive and delicious guide to good culinary practices. Lastly, she introduces the Jamaican multigenerational living that helps in home ownership and the South Asian practice of matchmaking that is different from the American freedom of choice. Kolker’s explorations help to not only teach, but also to entertain and involve her readers in her expositions.
I found Kolker 's book a much-needed guide in trying to understand the immigrant community that is now part and parcel of the American nation. The issues addressed and raised are especially a significant insight in some of the most important stages of our lives. As she attempted to get solid answers, Kohler would approach her subjects with the question on what the smartest thing is back in their home country that they would continue doing.
The Mexican practice of guarantee is perhaps the most outstanding practice that intrigued me due to its healing ability. ‘Cuarantena’ is also practiced by some traditional Indian homes whereby mothers are
America has been a melting pot of cultures for many centuries, with the number of immigrants continually rising every year. Most of these immigrants come into the country with nothing at all except for the clothes on their backs and a few English words. But they also bring with them something special – their cultures and traditions from their homeland. In the Immigrant Advantage, readers can see that these specific traditions that they bring with them give them an advantage because they tend to have better mental and physical health than their native born American counterparts (5).
The United States has been a host to a wide diaspora of people. Immigrants have had to transition from their familiar land to a new-fashioned foreign land that they must consider home. They bring with them the essence of their initial homeland such as customs, traditions and beliefs that inadvertently change the dynamics of culture within the United States. As a result the United States is an extremely culturally diverse nation. The continual changes or accretions that Americans encounter have always been a controversial topic depending on the experiences of individuals and communities that have immigrant populations. This essay will critically explore
Simply put, America is the land of opportunity. In the past, immigrants have left most of their family, memories, and familiarities with their homeland in search of a better life in America, where jobs were easy to find and the economy was booming. These immigrants formed almost the entire American population, a demographic anomaly in which people from nationalities separated by land and sea; these people come from countries separated by expansive distances can live within the same neighborhood. Both Anna Quindlen with her essay “A Quilt of a Country” and John F. Kennedy with his essay “The Immigrant Contribution” have documented the story of these immigrants and what they have done to contribute to the great country of the United States of America. Both authors have written in their own unique style which has changed the reader’s perspective of their accomplishments, contributions, and sense of community in their new nation. In the essays “A Quilt of a Country” by Anna Quindlen and “The Immigrant Contribution by John F. Kennedy, they show similar writing styles by both using the formal diction in their writing, and contradict in the way that Quindlen takes a more poetic approach in her writing, while Kennedy, being the President of the United States, uses more sophisticated dictions.
Simply put, America is the land of opportunity. In the past, immigrants have left most of their family, memories, and familiarities with their homeland in search of a better life in America, where jobs were easy to find and the economy was booming. These immigrants formed almost the entire American population, a demographic anomaly in which people from nationalities separated by land and sea; these people come from countries separated by expansive distances can live within the same neighborhood. Both Anna Quindlen with her essay “A Quilt of a Country” and John F. Kennedy with his essay “The Immigrant Contribution” have documented the story of these immigrants and
Immigrating to America is a process in which many people all across the world entrust as their one way ticket to a better life. Whether they do so legally or illegally, coming to the United States ensures better opportunities, economically, politically, and so on, to people who would have otherwise been worse off in their countries of origin. Even so, the common understanding of being “better off” can be considered a misconstrued concept when it comes to living in the states. Many families that choose to immigrate to the U.S. fail to realize the cultural hardships that newcomers tend to face once on American soil. Anything from racial discrimination or bias at work, in neighborhoods, at school, etc., can all be challenges that people encounter when making a move to the U.S. Such challenges are described by Richard Rodriquez in his autobiography Hunger of Memory. In this passage, he explains how cultural differences between Mexican and American ways of life have shaped him into the person that he is today. He also chooses to highlights the problems that he faces growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, while attending a predominantly white institution. Much of his writing consists of the cultural differences and pressures he feels to assimilate to Western culture and how this process, in turn, changes him into the person that some may find to be unethical, but nonetheless, someone he is proud of.
In their commentary, “Immigration, America’s Advantage”, Lee Habeeb and Mike Leven make several interesting statements. They spend the first part of
Through interviewing my roommate Linda Wang, I have gotten the opportunity of hearing a first-hand account of what it is like being a young immigrant living in the United States. At the age of eight, Linda, along with her father, mother, and aunt, emigrated to America. Linda’s family currently resides in Bayside, Queens and she is a student-athlete on the St. John’s women’s golf team. Linda was kind enough to share her immigration story with me so that I may use it as a manifestation of what life as an immigrant, and the immigration process itself, entails.
In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and
The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute
Being an immigrant in the United States is hard. People come here to work and bring their children, because there’s more opportunities here and the country is known for being a free land. But they are being sent back to a place where they don’t get the same things as they do here.Immigrants are also a big part of the U.S because most are in the fields,construction,landscaping, and all these jobs that are hard. Immigrants shouldn’t be deported because they are here to work hard, to help out their families and also live the American dream like any other.
According to US Census Bureau data, in 2009 12.5 percent or 38.5 million of the population were foreign-born people where foreign-born is defined as anyone who was not a United States citizen at birth. Over half of these immigrants entered the United States during the last 20 years. (Walters et al. October 2010) More recently, 7 million immigrants or 17 percent arrived in 2005 or later. (Walters et al. November 2011) Foreign-born people constituted 14.7 percent of the labor force in 2005, up from 5.3 percent in 1970. (Ottaviano et al. August 2006) This increase in immigration has rekindled the discussion about the effect of immigration on native-born workers. United States policy makers, economists and news outlets have been trying to
I have read a lot of books on the subject of culture and customs of the country. When I read the book “The Immigrant Advantage” of Claudia Kolker, I understand more about the immigrants’ culture and their lifestyle. Through the book, I found interesting things about all the ideas of immigrants like me. I read each chapter of the book, and in the book I realized there are three very good ideas of marriage, several generations living in the same household, and good neighbors.
Along with its economic classes, American is known for its freedom, its liberty, and the melting pot of ethnicity. This ethnic diversity comes form the immigrant population in the country. However this perfect country is a major falsehood. These untrue ideals of harmony, freedom, success, and equality are deceptive and do not show the struggles that immigrants face when coming to this class dominated country. The immigrants of today do not come from just Europe, but overwhelmingly from Asia and Latin America. “They are driving a demographic shift so rapid that within the lifetimes of today 's teenagers, no one ethnic group – including whites of European descent – will comprise a majority of the nation 's population’ (Colombo, Cullen, Lisle). These immigrants challenge the social myth that everyone has an equal chance in life. They
Should immigrants be able to have the same rights as United States citizens, or should they go through a legal process to gain those rights? The Department of Justice hopes to modernize and expand the department's International Hearing Program. “The Department of Justice said that such a change ‘saves time and resources and speeds hearings.’”(Jeff Sessions, abcnews.com)
No acts of terrorism have been conferred on U.S. soil by nationals of the seven influenced nations since 1975, and the travel ban overlooks the thorough procedure of verifying candidates for visas by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.