West Indian Immigration

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

This book depicts the national and cultural status of the immigrant mother, who is able to preserve the traditions of her Indian heritage that connect her to her homeland. Ensuring a successful future for her American-born children is coordinated with the privilege of being an American citizen. Ashima yearns for her homeland and her family that she left behind when

Our society is a melange of different cultures. Each culture contributes to cultural diversity without losing its separate identity. Living in this society, we identify ourselves as a member of one group with the same culture or more than one group, and we have the desire to be accepted by other members and enjoy whatever benefits membership brings with it. Manuel Munoz, the author of “Leave Your Name at the Border”, recounted an experience about hearing his last name mispronounced and explored the Anglicization of Latina names in American culture. In “My Summer at an Indian Call Center”, Andrew Marantz narrated his experiences about working at a call center in Delhi and the insight he received from others about his own culture. Does Mexican Americans’ identity have to be lost in the process of assimilation? Do the customer service representatives in Delhi have to erase any trace of their Indian identity? When we join, or are assimilated into a group, we are changed regardless of retaining an original cultural identity or being part of the dominant culture. The level of change we are able to achieve is based on our willingness to compromise between blending in and standing out.

Every individual, no matter who they are, will all face challenges that result from their backgrounds and cultures. Born in Calcutta, India and later moving to the United States, Amin Ahmad was an individual who discovered this harsh truth first-hand. In his essay, “I Belong Here,” Ahmad reflects on his experience of being treated differently from those around him based off his cultural background. He analyzes the emotional barrier that forms between the journey of immigration and the continuous feeling of inferiority based solely on the desire to belong. The article is written to provide a different point of view; one focused on introducing to the world the challenges and emotions immigrants face after starting the journey towards a new life.

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

A person has always been able to choose to what extent their cultural experiences affect their perspective. Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds,” Bharati Mukherjee’s, “Two Ways to Belong in America,” and Robert Lake’s, “An Indian Father’s Plea,” all show how the main characters have chosen to let their experiences have an effect on their cultural identity. A person’s cultural experiences shape perception based on their own identifications and they may chose to assimilate to different cultures.

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

United States is a country with a big cultural diversity. Persons from all the countries, especially from the least developed ones, start a new life in this country with the only purpose of reach the American Dream. A better economic position, life style and educational opportunities for their family, are some of the facts that immigrates are looking for in America. All these privileges are not enough for them to forget their background. The reading Two Kinds by Amy Tan, and the movie The Namesake by Dir. Mira Nair, show two different stories about how the new family in America struggle with the parent’s culture and what American culture is. Immigrants, such as me, have to face many life changes when arriving for first time to America, such as different beliefs and ideologies, different language and new economic opportunities

Thomas Jefferson believed that expanding westward was the key to a healthy nation. Forty percent of the population lived in trans -Appalachian west. Most people had left their homes from the East for a economic opportunity.

Lawrence W. Levine approaches the issue of ethnic relations in a slightly different light in his book, “The Opening of the American Mind”. He focuses on the two central components of the entire matter: One-way Assimilation (the melting pot ideology) and Cultural Pluralism, given that the two other models (Ethnic

The United States is a multicultural country that has experienced a rough journey towards building a cohesive country. Sherman Alexie’s story Reservation Blues explores the lives of some Native Americans who wrestled with cultural, racial, and religious barriers to embrace the rest of the country. The story reflects the process of racial and cultural integration the country has been going through since its inception, revealing an underlying struggle by the minority groups in the country to become part of the Americans culture that is often dominated by the majority white population. The process of assimilation occurs across all the different groups in the history of the country, and eventually, contributes to multiculturalism. Therefore,

“Today, there are at least around 41 million immigrants residing in the United States. This number comprises 13 percent of the United States' population.” The majority of immigrants come from Mexico, Philippines, China, Dominican Republic and India. Take Andrew Pham and Kavita Sreeedhar for example; two different authors from two different parts of the world, who are both immigrants to the United States. Andrew Pham is a Vietnamese native who moved to the U.S at an early age of 10 while Kavita Sreedhar is a native of India who moved to the U.S at the age of 19. Which results in two different cultural backgrounds and experiences for each. Thus, while both authors experienced alienation from their native country, they differ in how each came at a different age to the United States, which ultimately impacted their identities differently.

Sudipta Das is a professor at the Southern University at New Orleans and in their academic journal “Loss and Gain? A Saga of Asian Indian Immigration” Das goes in depth on the South Asian immigration trends. While immigration has always occurred in the United States, different groups of people immigrated in mass amounts at different times. The majority of the first phase of Southern Asian immigration occurred during 1904 to 1917, and thousands of Southern Asians entered the United States from Canada. This was due to there being anti-Indian sentiments in Canada at the time, and soon after most immigrants arrived through San Francisco. This phase ended when the United States passed an immigration act in 1917, that only allowed

Through her tasteful selection of contemporary Indian influenced prose pieces, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the unique journey of Indian families established in America. Focusing on the intergenerational aspect of traditional households, Lahiri conveys the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a person who is branded as a foreigner. In America, there exists a common misconception that immigrants who arrive in this country fully assimilate or seek to assimilate as time progresses. The category I chose was "The Dot of true Happiness." The dot which signifies the bindi, a traditional red mark worn by Indian people, is the source of true happiness among these immigrants.

In a world with so many current problems, immigration remains one of the most talked about ones. Day in and day out, immigrants work hard to achieve permanent residency or citizenship in the U.S. and live in constant fear. While some Americans understand the importance of immigration and believe immigration strengthens the American society, others are taking it to social media to express their humour or anti-immigration feelings. A few are even going to the extent of approaching certain people of immigrant groups and attacking them with foul language and/or violence. One such incident occurred just a few months ago in February. Adam W. Purinton, a white Kansas resident, went back to a bar he was kicked out of for throwing racial slurs at two Indians while asking them about their immigration status and shot them both killing one and wounding the other. Purinton shot them “because of their actual and perceived race, color, religion and national origin.” Not even two weeks later, an Indian-born man was outside his house in Seattle when an attacker shouted “Go back to your own country” before shooting him in the arm. Incidents like these are leaving many Indian immigrants worried for themselves and their families. As an Indian-born immigrant myself, I feel the need to address how important Indian immigration is as well as the process it took for the immigrants to get to the U.S. and how a lot of people are still waiting to be naturalized.