Argument Essay

Immigrate is a tough decision and experience. In some cases, immigration means discover a new place, meet new people, look for a better quality of life and happiness. For others is the difference between life and death; meaning that in some cases people leave their country because they’re not safe there anymore. It doesn’t matter if you chose or not to immigrate in both cases it can be a very difficult time in your life. Each person has a unique story and experience immigrating. It’s important to try and understand that the immigrants are not the enemies and they’re not trying to steal jobs from Native Americans.

First, The United States is one of the countries most chosen when people think about starting their life in a new place. As the article Key Findings about U.S immigrants by Abby Budiman states the United States is the country who receives the most immigrants in the whole world. Nowadays more than 40 million residents of the U.S were born in another country. These immigrants include people coming from almost every part of the world. The Pew Research Center frequently post statistical sketches about the immigrants. Approximately 50 million or 13.7% people in the US are immigrants, and the numbers are increasing from time to time. Most of these immigrants are here legally (70%). Not every lawful permanent resident chooses to pursue U.S. citizenship because those who wish to do that would like to apply after meeting certain requirements. A big portion of immigrants in the U.S are American citizens while the minority is undocumented or permanent residents. There has been a drop in the number of undocumented people from Mexico and an increase in the number of outsiders from central America and Asia. Over 1 million immigrants come to the US every year. Most of them are from China. It is predicted that Asian people will be the biggest immigrant group in the US by 2055. More than a million of outsiders had been coming to the U.S from different parts of the globe, but Asian had been at the top of the list. There has been a drop in the number of people from Mexico and an increase of people who are going back to Mexico. It is predicted that for 2055 those who name themself as Asian will be the biggest group. The US has resettled the most refugees of any country since the creation of the federal Refugee Resettlement Program in 1980, with about 3 million refugees resettled. However, this number has dropped to 30.000 in 2019 with the largest origin group being from Democratic Republic of the Congo. Texas, Washington, New York, and California relocated more than a 25% of all the refugees accepted in 2018. 45% of the nation’s immigrants live in three states:  California (24%), Texas (11%) and Florida (10%).  In 2018, the largest immigrant populations were in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami metro areas. Also, most of the illegal immigrant population lived in these biggest American cities. Immigrants in the U.S. have lower levels of education compared to the U.S.- born population. For example, in 2018, immigrants from Mexico and Central America were more likely to have not completed high school and have a bachelor’s or higher degree. On the other hand, immigrants from every region except Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America were just as likely or even more likely to have a bachelor’s degree. Between all those immigrants, those from South Asia have the biggest percentage of bachelor’s degrees. About 30 million immigrants are working or looking for a job 2007 to 2017 in the U.S. 50 percent of the US population are English speakers and the rest of them speak other languages. The second most popular language is Spanish. This paragraph says how many immigrants were deported 2001 to 2018. Most of the deported people were not deported because of a convicted atrocity. Most immigrants from Central America have been caught trying to illegally enter the US.  In general, Americans think well of immigrants, with some exceptions. Americans have different opinions about the future of immigrants: some think there should be more of them, and others think there should be less. 

Secondly, an important article that shows a very interesting point about immigrating. Studying was very hard for Makka Djibrine Khatir. Now it’s like gold. Khatir was born in a difficult environment: in a refugee camp in Chad, after her family escaped from Darfur. The family lived there for another 12 years and farming. Khatir went to school in the camp. The teachers were very cruel. They didn’t care about her personal life, even when someone was very sick. Khatir made her own decision by escaping from class to bring her sick brother to the hospital. The principal disciplined her for “disobeying” by hitting her until her back was injured. After this incident Khatir tried to quit school but her father forced her to go back to school. Khatir came to the US with her family as refugees. She started school and she started feeling comfortable there because her teachers were kind. She felt more motivated about school and became an exceptional student. Her past experience of growing up in a refugee camp became a motivation to self-discipline herself throughout high school. She always tries to do her best. These days Khatir is a university student. “Life is a competition, but it is a competition between you yesterday versus you today,” she says. She believes life can be hard but if you work hard you can have a nice life. 

I talked to 5 people in my classroom; Irem, EZ, Waleed, Kultush, and Tunde. All of them have been to another state in the U.S. All of them like to live in the United States. When Tunde came to the U.S she wasn’t expecting to live here she actually came to visit family. All of them came alone, even though 2 of them have family that lives here. The majority of the people I interviewed weren’t mistreated by natives.

In the article “Searching for Her Birth Family” by Emily Ker, Olivia Wolf, a adoptee, was found when she was a baby with a tiny piece of paper saying her date and place of birth- Shaoyang, China Feb.24,1995. The police found her and brought her to an orphanage where she stayed for several months until she was adopted by a Jewish American family that lived in New York. Wolf grew up in a mainly white area but as she states “Culturally I’m more similar to white Americans, but being called ‘white’ feels off, somehow odd.” When she was a high school junior she went to Japan as “ an exchange student”. Different from the United States where she felt blended in terms of mindset but off because of her physical appearance. In Japan she felt that she could fit physically but not in viewpoint. Also, she went to Israel on Birthright, but even though she could feel connected in terms of mindset and background she couldn’t feel that she belongs completely because of her race. When she was a kid, she didn’t had much interest in look for her birth family. However, when she watched a movie about a Chinese adopted child that came back to China to meet her birth family made her want to look into it. Later, Wolf studied in Macalester College and while she was there she took a summer break to learn Chinese in Shanghai. She didn’t want her first time in China being to look for her birth family, she wanted to feel comfortable there first. After she graduated from college, she spent two weeks in Shaoyang with her father looking for her birth family, she handled out flyers, let a local newspaper publish a story about her and even tried to talk with possible birth families in person, but nothing. In addition, she spent a year in Hunan province in China where she participated in a reality show to find people and hired a birth searcher but neither of the strategies worked. Even though she liked China’s culture and the people who helped her she felt as “her heart is American”. In her point of view since she didn’t grow up in China she didn’t feel as deeply connected to the culture. Another important factor that she started thinking about is the socioeconomic differences that happens in most cases with adoptees and birth families. Her search for her birth family hasn’t come to an end yet but she did learn a lot. She believes that she grew up very privileged in most ways in the United States. She says that while many adoptees become successful, go to college, and have high paying jobs, the birth family of a girl she knows could barely afford meat and had never stepped in a college before. She feels that she’s not better or smarter just because she had the opportunity to travel and go after her passions, she feels that is lucky. “Wolf started her grad school this Fall in California to pursue a MFA in creative writing.”

In conclusion, being a immigrant it’s not easy, but with help we can make it a better experience. It’s important to have patient with immigrants and help them the best we can because in some cases for that immigrant this could be the chance of their life to live a better life and build a better life for their family. It’s difficult already to be the different one in a big population so let’s make that a little easier.