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Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrations and revolutionists. Franklin D. Roosevelt Being an immigrant has taught me a great deal about the world we live in. People look at you through different lenses, the fruit of your hard work is labelled “pure luck” and you never get the recognitions you truly deserve. People dwell upon immigration policies and those who do not even know anything about the subject are often those who make hasty and prejudice judgments through the bits and pieces of information they hear from the news. Sometimes those who are in influential positions end up being those who make these prejudice judgments and infect the mass majority with their bias point of views. However, no matter how bias one is the impact of immigrants on our world cannot simply be overlooked. The mass majority of immigrants contribute to the betterment of the societies that they live in – from local businesses to being professors at universities these are the imprints immigrants have on their communities. They enrich the economy and bring diversity to their host countries.
Immigrants achieve these successes and enjoy them despite the fact that many are faced with many challenges in their new home. As an immigrant adjusting with different culture, values, traditions and often language is a great obstacle. One has to practically leave everything that they have been accustomed to for so long aside and embrace a completely different and new culture while balancing their old identity. Immigrants face tremendous challenges at every step along the way. People give them looks for having “funny” accents or simply because they dress differently. They fight harder at educational institutes just to be able to proof themselves and their talent – something that can easily be overlooked by their peers and most importantly their teachers. Some immigrants are lucky enough to come to their adopted homes with certain level of education – those who do not have any educational background suffer the most because they are placed in classes based on their age rather than learning ability. This particular system not only sets them up for failure in their future classes but also damages their self-esteem greatly for not comprehending enough in a classroom that practically has students of their age level. Immigrant parents have greater difficulties in adapting to their new home, not only do they have to adjust to a new culture but they also have to ensure the old culture does not fade away. An often time there is a gap between the younger members of the family and the older members because the young want to run and embrace everything about this new and exciting life while forgetting their roots while nostalgic emotions keep the elder of the family caught in between. These are just the cultural and educational challenges faced by immigrants who leave their home state because of war or undesirable circumstances. Even though these are tough challenges, I find the ones that society thrusts upon immigrant families to be the worst of all. People can be cruel without even knowing at times the immigrants and view them as opportunistic individuals who steal way the jobs of the natives. However, I find this to be illogical statement – in my opinion one always gets what they work hard for and using immigrants as a scapegoat to justify ones inability to find a job or to succeed in life is utterly unfathomable. Immigrants are faced with many battles everyday – they have to prove themselves time and again that they are worth their achievements and that they are not invaders as some people might view them. Yes, at times there are some immigrants who might harm their host country – but that number is nothing compared to the many great achievements and success stories of immigrants. I believe when someone escapes violence and chaos they do not look for a new home to create the same environment but rather to seek peace and comfort. I am not a blind immigration supporter. I believe those who break the law of a particular country should be punished accordingly and no one should be forgiven for breaking into a country illegally. At the same times, I believe those who adhere to the laws of their new country should be treated fairly and equally as those who lived in the country before them. Halima AhmedEmail: halimaahmedd@gmail.com _________________________________________________________________________________ We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com |
