ART 3170 Civic Engagement: Social Issues "Action" Project: Children of Immigrants

Research:

The word ‘immigrant’ is often a term thrown in a political debate or in a daily conservation between the people of the United States. It is a term that has created fear, hatred, confusion, racism, unfairness, and separation. But it is also a term that is usually used to label people who have entered the United States illegally. The numbers of immigrants in the United States has grown huge in terms of population, they are a population who have contributed and continue to contribute to the United States’ economy in many ways we, the American people can truly ever imagine. Immigrants are people who come to the United States to seek a better life for their families and the only reason they head towards the United States is because it is the county that will allow them to access an opportunity. The opportunity they get is an opportunity for a better life despite of the oppression the immigrant population suffers in the United States. Immigration is a major social issue in the United States and in my community because the problems with the immigration system in our country is not only affecting the population of immigrants, but it is truly affecting the children of immigrants whether we want to believe in it or not. We, as an American society, often forget or refuse to see that these children of immigrants or children immigrants are the ones who constantly live in fear that they would be separated from their parents and/or would be sent back to a country that they know little about. So, why is it hard to pass an immigration reform act to immigrants who have been in the United States for many years and who have contributed to the United States’ economy or to those who have U.S. born children. Immigrant parents do not wish to be separated from their U.S. born children nor do they wish to take their children back to a country they chose to abandon for a better future.
The American society often forgets that when they label and discriminate immigrants, they are also discriminating and targeting their children as well. And a large percent of these children of immigrants are U.S. citizens. According to a journal article called “The Living Arrangements of Children of Immigrants” by Nancy S. Landale, Kevin J. A. Thomas, and Jennifer Van Hook stated that in 2007, “87 percent of the children of immigrants were citizens… [and by 2011] more than one in five U.S. children has one or more foreign-born parents” (Landale, Thomas, and Van Hook, 44). Now to give a more recent update, according to the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, in 2013 of all the American children about 22.5 percent of them were born in the United States to at least one or two immigrant parents and while 3.3 percent of them are children immigrant (“Children of Immigrant Parents”). With this point said why is it that the American society is always in favor of protecting the United States’ children, but when some refuse to support the immigration reform and discriminate against immigrants, the American society is not exactly protecting the best interest for these American children. 22.5 percent of U.S. born children were born to immigrant parents and why are we, the American people, not in favor of protecting these American children. Do the American people really assume that the best interest for these 22.5 percent of American children (and perhaps even more American children) is to be separated from their parents or even worse to be sent back to a country that is completely foreign to them. Now back to the journal article called “The Living Arrangements of Children of Immigrants” the authors also argued and explained a valuable example which states as “the major challenge facing Mexican immigrants and their children is their limited opportunity for economic integration, owing in large part to their low education, skills, and financial resources. [In which]… many scholars and policy analysts are concerned that the Mexican-origin population may remain socially marginalized and economically disadvantaged well into the future” (Landale, Thomas, and Van Hook, 50-51). This example not only applies to Mexican immigrants and their children, but it may also apply to other immigrants from different ethnicities and their children. But the most important part of this example is not how the immigrant parents are put in a disadvantage it’s the very fact that their children, who many are American born children, are in fact discriminated and are put in a economic disadvantage all because they were born to immigrant parents. Overall, children of immigrants in the United States are oppressed. This oppression they are facing makes them doubt their values and potential, which at the end many of them hideaway or shy away from the American Dream, without realizing that they could have the ability to change and improve our great American nation.

Reference:

1. Landale, Nancy, Kevin J Thomas, and Jennifer Van Hook. “The Living Arrangements of

Children of Immigrants.” The Future of Children, 21.1 (2011): 43-70.

2. Maucci, Quetzal. “Children of Immigrants”. New York Times. September 21, 2014. Web.10 November 2016. <www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/21/opinion/sunday/exposures-children-immigrant.html?_r=3>

3. “Children of Immigrant Parents”. Child Health USA 2014.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Rockville, Maryland: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014. Web. 12 November 2016. <mchb.hrsa.gov/chusa14/population-characteristics/children-immigrant-parents.html>

Personal:

The social issues regards to being children of immigrants is not only a nationwide or my local community’s social issue, but it is very personal social issue to me. This social issue is personal to me because I am also part of this social issue and I am neither afraid nor embarrassed to say that I am also part of the American children who were born to one or more immigrant parents. And it is also a very personal social issue to me because I am surrounded by friends and a whole community who is also affected by this labeling of children of immigrants. Children of immigrants not only suffer the disadvantages as listed above, but we, the children of immigrants are constantly struggling with this idea where we are Americans, but that label does not seem to fit with us perfectly because we struggle with our different cultures and traditions we learn from our parents (Maucci, Quetzal “Children of Immigrants”). This is what makes us different from others in the society of the United States and this put many of us in a difficult or uncomfortable position. In a New York Times, Sunday’s review titled “Children of Immigrants” by Quetzal Maucci, one of her interviewee stated something powerful that almost all the children of immigrants can relate too and that is “A lot of the time, being a child of immigrants means constantly having to defend your place as an ‘American’ ” (Maucci). We, children of immigrants or children immigrants should not feel this way because we are Americans. It is hard, I know, and it is unfair that we have to feel that way because regardless of our family background, we are raised in an American community with American values and we grew up in the United States. We should be proud to call ourselves Americans. Throughout this civic engagement project, I noticed that as I asked members of my community if they too were affected by this social issue and many answered yes, but what I noticed was that many live in fear. The fear of losing their parents to deportation or the fear of not being able to succeed within the economic and education fields just because of their difference they have with their parents’ status in the United States. My aim for this social issue is to create awareness about how and when immigrants struggle with their social status in the United States; they are not the only ones who are being affected by it. The other group that is and will also be affected by the immigration issues in the United States is their children. Remember there is always more than one side to a story. The United States should be more aware, more understanding and have consideration that we, the children of immigrants, are here too. And that the children of immigrants are also affected by the decisions made about the immigration system in the United States.

Here are images of those affected in my community: