Joy Ozurumba

Professor Adrienne Oliver

English-1A- Comp and Reading

10th December, 2018

The Immigrant Stories

I choose the story of my brother Chinedu because I wished to enter the mind and situation of people like him in answering a question “why did they go? What were they looking for? How did they get the courage to leave all they ever know for a place they had never seen” ( Wilkerson 12) It is true that some of the answers can be found in human quest for a better life which is popularly known as the American dream.

In the story of Chinedu my brother life eventually became better. He was able to buy his first car for eight hundred dollars, paid six thousand dollars to a woman who married him to help him get a green card. They divorced later. He also paid back the seven thousand dollars that our father’s friend loaned to him. He sends money through Western Union or MoneyGram to our siblings at home. He went on to school studied nursing. Today, he has a good job in New Jersey, married with four kids: two boys and two girls. He is living his American dream. God bless America. Hearing his story from him brought up lots of emotions.

Therefore, it’s my opinion that the stories of migration must be told and must not be silenced. Immigrants contributed to this great American civilization. These include: craftsmen, artisans, stone masons, nursery men, bricklayers, farmers and dairy men, ministers and teachers, and not to forget also as maids, mothers, nurses, and caretakers.

Migration began with our origin as the human species and continues today. Each chapter of world history features distinct types of migration. Initially migrants into America were from Europe, today the face of migration has changed. However, the story of migrants must be told by the migrants themselves. This gives immigrants voice, it helps others to know how they feel.

If these stories are not told from the migrant’s perspective, it will be more difficult to appreciate the courage of these migrants. The courage to leave their families, their people and their environment to migrate to a foreign land, not knowing what awaits them there. The stories from the migrant’s perspective helps policy makers to identify person-level factors, rather than economic situations, that influence migration decision-making and actual migration.

Picture or video included complements story and/or essay excerpt

The picture above depicts some of the problems people encounter in their journey to United States for the sake of American dream. It is similar to the story of Reyna Grande’s The Distance between Us: A Memoir tells the story of illegal immigration. IT also shows the resistance to immigration 

America need comprehensive immigration reform. The entire country, not just the immigrants, benefits from investment in and support of both documented and undocumented immigrant students and their families to achieve a diverse, high-functioning, and competitive economy and a positive culture.The resistance to immigration in America is more cultural than political. According to Fox News (11/26/2018) Trump said that “tear gas was necessary to repel migrants who rushed toward port of entry”.  Although cloaked in language about jobs and secure borders. The cultural resistance to immigration expresses a fear that immigrants are changing the dominant white, Protestant, “real American” culture.

                  CLEAR CALL FOR AN ACTION

Imagine this report from Forbs 400: Skoll is a Canadian engineer, internet entrepreneur and film producer, he is an immigrant from Canada. Elon Musk, who according to Forbs 400 is worth $11.6 billion, emigrated from South Africa. Thomas Peterffy was born in Hungary and suffered under communist rule, until escaping to the U.S. in 1965 founded Interactive Brokers Group, is now worth an estimated $12.6 billion. Google founder Sergey Brin ($37.5 billion) eBay founder Pierre Omidyar ($8.1 billion). These billionaires: Rupert Murdoch, George Soros, Jerry Yang, Micky Arison, Patrick Soon-Shiong, Jan Jorge Perez, Peter Thiel are all immigrants to the united states.  The story goes on to report that the combined net worth of some forty-two immigrant fortunes is $248 billion.