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Henry Fan
ENG 1S
Valerie Fong
02 March 2015
The Uphill Battle
Everyones dream is different coming to America. Are we all immigrants, as the
pietistic national myth would have it, therefore duty-bound to support immigration as an apple
pie, stated by, an American writer of Indian origin, Bharati Mukherjee. When it comes to
the topic of what America has to offer for their people, most of us will readily agree that there are
advantages and disadvantages. Where this argument expands is on the question of the different
experiences people have while trying to blend into America. The sacrifice is that one should
work hard in America to become successful; others may argue that hard work may not be
enough. Ultimately, what is important to consider when discussing the topic of the immigrant
experience is to find their cultural identity from their own perspective, whether its through
settling or blending in with hard work.
As for my mother, America truly changed her life while she did not
immerse herself in the American culture at all. She came to this country as a flight
attendant for Air China and ended up as an entrepreneur, but she was rarely in
America. Seeing how creative and innovative America is, she attended interior
design trade shows and expos and thats when she saw an opportunity to
capitalize on a global trade gap. With interior design products she encountered,
she was motivated to start up her own trading business to import and export
products from around the world to hotels and office buildings in Shanghai. Achieving anything

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you want is a principle my mother instills in my life. The primary reason for her determination
to come to America was so that I could have a better life and opportunity, but how difficult the
journey was to get to from a rural city in Chengdu was not one
many people could envision. In my interview with Ronit
Roodman, a UC Berkeley graduate and young professional
working sales at Twitter, she recalls, back in 1960s the
American Dream means that as long as you hustle and work
hard, as an individual, you can achieve whatever your mind can
convince. My mother is an first generation immigrant, working
harder than anyone I know, and she is a living example of what Roodman believes to be the
American.
But there are certain conditions necessary to take advantage of the opportunities America
has to offer. Becoming successful has many benefits in America. My mother constantly reminds
me of the unsafe food, crowdedness, and poor living situations in Shanghai. There are many
sacrifices made before enjoying the fruits of our labor such as being able to eat ethnic food from
around the

world, and live in amazing weather.

Anytime you

gain something, you lose something.

There are

consequences of hard work including

sacrifice. My

mom constantly reminds me of how

she wishes she

had spent more time with me during

my childhood

years, and how greatly she regrets

missing that

time period in my life. Some people

risk losing all

they have to come to America to

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pursue a better life. For Maxs (classmate) father's case, he came to America solely to look for
his step sister, and left everything behind him. Blending into America while discovering cultural
identity was Maxs next challenge when he immigrated here.
Some believe that immigrants, to fully blend into American society, must sacrifice their
own cultural identity. In Imagining Homelands, Bharati Mukherjee suggests that the immigrant
is either like her sister, someone who passionately retains her ethnicity, or like Mukherjee, at
home in Brooklyn, New York, as in Park Street, Kolkata. The reality is slightly different. She is
almost always split between the two identities, the sister who retains her roots, and Mukherjee,
who loses hers. She gets embarrassed that her kitchen smells of spices but does not change the
way she cooks. But she does change the way she dresses because her sari is being speculated in
her new environment. Mukherjees categorization is the process of leaving ones home country
and adopting a new country is telling. In the two categories listed above, it is the only immigrant
who is tolerated. Mukherjee describes it as the immigrant calls to mind crowded tenements,
Ellis Island, Sweatshops, accents, strange foods, taxicab drivers, bizarre holidays, strange
religions, unseemly ethnic passions.
While a lot what she describes is relevant to the immigrant, it is mainly applicable to the
educated immigrant from a slightly more supported background. I wonder how much of what she
writes is really applicable from the sikh immigrant who comes to Mississauga from the interior
Punjab and lives the rest of his life in a uphill battle of hard labor; trapped and without a choice.
For the educated and the supported background, it is only a matter of time before she succeeds in
economically integrating into her new neighborhood. She may choose not to integrate culturally.
However, the laborer does not have that choice. Mukherjee acknowledges that the experiences

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differ based on the conditions for coming. Even though both of these are giving up their
residency in their native country to come to America, they differ immensely.
But it takes many years before an immigrant can really get to settle in her new
environment and thrive. The counselors at immigration services tell you with unjustifiable
conviction: You have to fit in, neutralize your accent, offer a firm handshake, and adopt the
Canadian way. I could imagine to must immigrants this statement can signal a mix of irritation,
anger, dreaminess, withdrawal, and confusion. In most cases the immigrant almost never does,
they continue to remain uncertain, timid, and weak for the rest of their life. It is a combination of
expatriation and exile; one is being Americanized while the other keeps her roots as an
immigrant.
While immigrants experiences vary from an individual to another, the American
experience is unique as well. Even for American citizens, there are constant quandaries regarding
health care and education system. Health care being too expensive and our school systems being
under funded because, property tax plays a big role for funding of segmented school districts,
are only two of the many problems America faces, immigrant or nonimmigrant (Ms. Fong).
Compared to Europes educational system and health care, US is strongly lacking. In the year
2006, each Americans healthcare cost $6,714, as compared to the $2,880 median among
industrialized nations participating in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD). Early education in the United States is not as well developed as in many
of the other countries. That is a fact; another fact is what occurs in history.
In U.S. history, segregation and the civil rights movement took many years to take place,
but there is still exploitation and inequality in such a modern idealistic country as America.
Connect slavery and undocumented workers of today. Did slaves or undocumented workers have

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an identity in American society? The journey of some of these undocumented workers of today is
also finding their cultural identity. Sharon (classmate) describes, people who are giving these
immigrants under the table jobs are taking advantage of them. The people who are here legal and
can do the same job will probably not get the job because immigrants work for less money.
Similarly with Jasmin (classmate) sharing those immigrants, dont have the benefits citizens
have, they get paid badly since their payers abuse the fact that they dont have papers. These are
the immigrants that put their lives and life savings at risk just to come to this country.
The reality is that hard work may not be enough to find ones cultural identity or success.
My mom is the hardest worker I know without question, but if she had a do-over she would have
not choose to operate an international business; instead she would have prioritized to spend more
time in United States with me and to understand what American culture. But that is what
sacrifice is at the origin, giving up what we want for the betterment of someone elses life. Even
when one optimizes their time and move towards a goal or dream, sometimes life is not what
they perceive or predict it to be, in America or else where. There are limited opportunities for one
to work hard, given the date, time, and location. Seizing the moment in which you are living in,
and sacrificing is essential to blending in your own culture, to the environment you are in.

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Works Cited
"China vs United States Economy Stats Compared." NationMaster.com. NationMaster. Web. 2
Mar. 2015.
"U.S. versus European Healthcare Costs: The Data." EpiAnalysis. 18 July 2012. Web. 2 Mar.
2015.
Bird, Mike. "China Just Overtook The US As The World's Largest Economy." Business Insider.
Business Insider, Inc, 8 Oct. 2014. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
Fan, Henry. Mamamia.
Fan, Henry. Poolside 75 degrees.
Fan, Henry. Salsamania.
Fong, Valerie. Personal Interview. 25 Feb 2015
Lun, Jesse. Personal Interview. 18 Feb 2015
McQuade, Donald and Christine McQuade, eds. Seeing & Writing 4. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins 2010. Print.
Mukherjee, Bharati. Imagining Homelands. McQuade 204-213.
Roodman, Ronit. Personal Interview. 14 Feb 2015
Taylor, Max. Personal Interview. 22 Feb 2015

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Memo
My families identity, as well as my own, is really important to me, and is something that I am
understanding more and more by the day. Therefore I choose this essay as a good introduction to
my presentation portfolio because it describes a bit of my background and where I came from.
I also choose this essay to use as an artifact because this was the first essay I felt confident in
demonstrating good use of topic sentences.
Revision: I revised my thesis to include hard work, success, and blending in. I made sure my
sentence fluency, sentence mechanics, format, essay focus, scope, organization, and paragraph
focus was at least proficient to my standards.