An Immigrant, Research Paper Example

Introduction

An immigrant can be defined as anyone who moves either illegally from their own country to another country with intentions of making the new country their permanent homes. Today the United States hosts so many immigrants whose number continues to grow from one year to another. Such individuals come to the United States for various reasons such as studies, jobs or even fleeing from their war-torn countries. Upon arrival, however, such individuals don’t always find it easy as they face so many challenges right from the moment they resolute to come into this nation throughout the planning period and even upon arriving in the US. In this paper, I will give an elaborate discussion of such challenges as we analyze an interview carried out with an immigrant from Kenya to New York early this year. Ann is the alias I give to my interviewee as she didn’t wish her real identity.

Brief history of the immigrant

Ann is a 23-year-old young lady who is jovial and has a great sense of humor; she smiles throughout our interview session despite the challenges she has gone through and still going through. She is the first born in a family of nine from a country in Africa known as Kenya. This is a third world developing country and Ann just like any other young girl she is one of the few lucky ones who has afforded to study up to university level. Despite the fact that she is from a poor background she is such an industrious lady who despite so many hindrances has managed to attain education. She narrates to me at the start of our interview how she had to walk for over 20 kilometers every morning to go to the school where she would spend the rest of the day studying various subjects under a tree; this was her classroom for at least eight years. After finishing her bachelor’s degree in one of the public universities one year ago she couldn’t find a job so she opted to look for a scholarship to come and pursue her master’s degree in business management here in the United States.  Been a bright student she had attained first class honors in her undergraduate studies and thus getting the scholarship was rather easy for her. That was, however, the start of so many other difficulties although ahead of her laid a great opportunity.

 Challenges faced by immigrant’s preparation to come to the United States

Getting a visa was the very first challenge she faced. She narrates o me the many bureaucracies that one has to go through so as to be able to get the visa especially if they are destined to the United States. She spent around three months moving from office to office just to obtain so any signatures. Some of the signatories were so corrupt that they asked for bribes so that they could sign her documents. She particularly narrates to me one government officer who dumped her documents in the dustbin after she had failed to offer the $10 dollar bribe that he had demanded from him. Upon attaining the visa and other necessary documents Ann started planning for her travel. She started looking for travel agents; flights costs were not been catered by her sponsor organization so she had to work so hard to save for the same. She had to defer her studies for one semester as she couldn’t afford her airfare. However, despite all the challenges, Ann managed to obtain her visa and on 23rd January she lands in New York. This was the most exciting day of her entire life; she narrates to me how happy and anxious she was about her new life in the United States. Anns’s joy, however, was short-lived as she was to encounter even greater challenges while trying to settle down in New York.

Challenges faced while in New York

Ann narrates to me that she got totally got the opposite of her expectation even within her first few days in the US.  Her immediate challenge was loneliness “people are not friendly here as in my home country”, she says with a frown on her face. Ann could go to school and spend the whole day without anyone having asked her a simple hello. The classmates could just look at her like she was a statue as she was the only black student in the class. Immigrants live their countries with aim of finding better lives in their new countries; however, they end up facing discrimination This can be somewhat traumatizing and it was exactly the situation that my interviewee Wentworth through. Coming to the United States also meant that she had to lose all her family and friends. Creation of friends has never been easy and it was such a great challenge for her. At times she recalls regretting her decision of ever coming here. In several occasions, she was insulted by people and called names while in malls and public transport. She faced the great isolation and stigma that was associated with being a foreigner. The language barrier was yet another challenge that Ann went through. The assent of English that is spoken in Africa and here is the US is very different; some words also are widely used different here as in her home country.

Cultural differences were also a great challenge that she went through. African culture is totally different from our culture because it’s communal by nature. Ann was, for instance, surprised that here people always mind their own business and care less about other people. The dressing is also very different and thus sometimes she couldn’t help but stand along the road watch people and get amazed at how they are dressed and feel totally in a different world. The food was yet another cultural difference that Ann faced.  She tells me the first few days she only survived on beverages as she found the foods here terrible. Processed foods which are the most common here were unheard of in her region and they majorly relied on foods from the farms and were majorly natural foods. The few food joints that she could find African foods were very expensive and thus she couldn’t afford them. However, over time she tells me she has learned to prepare her own food in her house. Culture shock thus comes in various forms and its one of the major challenges that all immigrants from various parts of the world face while in the US.  Ann also lost her identity as well as status. While in Kenya she was one of the most respected ladies especially in a local community. Having been the only educated woman in her entire community meant that everyone knew and respected her so much. She was the best and everyone knew it and that was her status back in Africa. However coming to States meant that she was to lose this status and she was now a foreigner and a stranger to everyone. It is always very traumatizing to lose this status and starts from been the least without any form of recognition.

Another challenge that Ann faced was access to health services as well as other government provided welfare services. As an immigrant, she was discriminated even in hospitals and thus she had to spend so much time to access them as compared to the locals who would only spend few minutes. She particularly recalls one day when queuing in the hospital and the nurse decided to serve the people who had come long after I had been in the queue for several hours.  Racism continues to be a great challenge that immigrants face in the United States. This affects immigrants from Africa and Asia mostly as opposed from their counterparts from Britain, China, and Germany.  My interviewee has faced a lot of discrimination especially on the basis of her color and origin and that has greatly interfered with her studies while in the United States. She feels a lot of homesick and despite the fact she finds life in the United States more comfortable than in Kenya she misses her life back in Africa so much. She hopes to work very hard and finish her masters in time and be able to go back to Kenya in the next two years.

Ann works as a hotel attendant in mc Donald’s but even finding this part time job of not easy. The first few months she was not able to access any job. Various employers asked her for so many verification documents that she didn’t have. Many immigrants come to the United States with high hopes of securing employment within the first few weeks but that doesn’t always happen. Despite the fact that she is very smart and qualified even for better jobs she has had to start as a hotel attendant. She is hopeful that as time goes by she will be able to find a better job. She wants to have at least two jobs to do both in the evening and weekends so as to be able to pay her bills comfortably.  She feels the value of her education is not appreciated in this part of the world. Ann has high dreams of been source of inspiration for so many young people in her country who look upon her for mentorship. Here in the United States, she feels no one recognizes her and she has a lot of potentials that is under-utilized. Despite all these challenges, Ann has a lot to celebrate. She has finally attained her goal of pursuing her master’s degrees and working in America. She narrates to me that she likes the culture of handwork that people in this nation greatly embrace. Despite the fact that she is not sure what the future has she is at least hopeful that the new rules that govern immigration will be to her favor and life will get better for her and other immigrant students in the US. Ann’s experience is atypical one as so many immigrants that come to the United States; social challenges such as loneliness.

Ann has been through other challenges as she highlights to me such as the inability to raise enough money to support her family back in Africa. Been from a family of nine she is the first born and all other siblings look up to her support. She tries to save and send her family some money every month and this means she can’t really focus on her studies. She has tried several times to get some support from her university welfare department but every time her application has been denied. Back in Africa, her community is suffering starvation as there is a shortage of rainfall; for the last one month, she has received news of having lost so much of their cattle to the ongoing droughts. The situation back in her community puts her so much fear as she doesn’t want any danger to befall her family while she is here in the United States. Ann admits to me that she is not an open person and despite having some friends she is not able to open up to them and share her problems.” Am not fun of seeking sympathy; am hopeful that one day I will overcome all these”, she says with a broad smile.  She is positive and the challenges that she has gone through have only made her stronger.  Despite all the challenges Ann is the top student in her class; throughout the semesters she has been in school she has attained A grades. So many international students usually perform poorly especially the first semester due to culture shock. However, Ann has beaten all the odds and she is determined to succeed both in her studies and work. Due to her exemplary performance she has been able to win various awards and many of her classmates who had a really bad attitude towards her due to her origin are now her close friends. It is, however, evident that Ann remembers where she has come from and she is determined to learn and get the empowered through education then go back and offer the same to other girls in Africa.  “My passion for inspiring other people in future keeps me going despite been a foreigner in the United States”, says Ann towards the end our interview. She narrates to me how she deeply desires to go back home and be a source of inspiration for young girls. She commends American culture for a simple fact that both women and men are treated equally. This is not the situation back in her community as only a few girls to school. Majorities are forced to early marriages and others denied access to education by their parents who only view girls as inferiors compared to boys.

Throughout my interview, I observed the facial expressions on Ann’s face and I could read her pain as she narrated her story. As much as she would try to answer the questions asked sometimes she could wander off the topic but she was throughout our interview very open to correction and thus I obtained all the information I needed from her.