The Definition of Home

Four years ago I moved to the United States - a magical place where everybody wants to
go to. It began with a simple visit to my parents friend. She had been saying nice words about
San Francisco to us for months, It is definitely the best place to live! Everything is so pretty and
people are so polite and nice, and it will give Eric a great education. They will encourage you for
whatever you want to do in your life, instead of making you memorize every single formula and
essays in this world. So we got a travel visa and decided to visit and see if the US was like how
she described it.
When we first got to the US, it was night time. Our friend picked us up and we went
straight to the hotel in Marin. Yes, we loved the place, because it was fresh, bright, and friendly.
Then my mom contacted an institute in China that might be able to find me a school in the US.
We went to meet the person, and he is one of the people I thank the most. He took me straight to
a private school in Pleasant Hill, and got me into an interview with the principal. He loved me
and he made the decision that he was willing to take me as his student and offered me a student
visa to stay in the US. The person that we met didn't charge us a cent, he just wanted to help us. I
was very lucky to meet him.
However, luck doesnt always stay with people, even though our immigration experience
wasnt as painful as some people, it was still hard on us as a family. My father did not speak any
English and my mother and I had only minimal English skills. We spent five hours trying to rent
an apartment because we did not have any credit scores. We rented a car and were able to borrow
a phone from a friend, but after that we were on our own. We now had an empty apartment, a car,
and an iPhone. There was navigation on the iPhone in 2012, so I searched on maps for Ikea and
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we went to buy bedding and pillows at eight at night. One of the difference between the US and
China is that we do not have freeways like here. The speed is way faster and there are more cars
than freeways in China. My father was not used to that at all. He was scared and sweating. I on
the other hand, had to look at the map and try to figure out which exit to get of at, at 80 miles per
hour. We missed the exit four times. Once in Ikea we continued to have difficulties. Words we
learned in China were completely different in US, the dictionary on the phone was wrong, and
we had no help. It was the most frustrating thing. No one understood that we wanted a comforter.
It was difficult and frustrating. In the end we got home around 11 and slept on mattress on the
ground because our compact-sized rental car could not fit a bed frame so we had to wait for
shipping.
This experience is what inspired me to research the topic of how immigrants adjust. I felt
like there must be other people that have struggled with their immigration because they have to
leave their family, friends, and career that they made in their home country and come to the US
to get a better life. This is extra difficult when they cant speak English well like my family. I felt
like people should know more about the immigration stories and, as an immigrant, I think I am
more capable to know this sour feeling more than anyone else; this led to my senior project
question: How do immigrants adjust into their new environment?
I began my research by going to the Walnut Creek library. As Harvards Oscar Handlin
wrote in 1951, Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. There I
discovered that the immigrants were American history (Vitello). I thought I should started to
research the history of american immigration, and see the differences between then and now.
America is an immigration country, starting with Asians crossing the ice bridge, where they
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created their own population in the land of America. This group of people are Native Americans,
or Indians. Around 1492, The Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus has
discovered the new world which is the American land. Then, the English had come and created
the 13 colonies on the East coast of the America. The history of immigration in the US can be
divided into four periods: The formative era, up to 1815; the so called long 19th century
stretching from 1815 to 1924; the era of restriction, 1924-1965; the era of renewed immigration,
since 1965 (Daniels 3). It began with 49% of English immigrants in 1790, dominating the entire
US during the formative era, and African Americans taking up 16%, 350,000 of them came in
chains for slavery. During the long 19th century, The rate of immigration grew dramatically.
From 1820-1924, the immigrants coming to the U.S. increased from 151,824 to 35,999,402. At
this time, most immigrants were still Europeans, but mainly Irish and German. During the era of
restriction, the world wars were in action. People moving to the US were mostly refugees, but
the numbers are not as many. By the time of the era of renewed immigration, the immigration
rate has changed from Europeans to mainly Hispanic and Asians (Daniels 15).
There are numerous reasons why people immigrate. However, there are mainly seven
categories why people move out of their own country. Financially secured future: People move
to the US to earn a better living and make more money, which leads to another category - High
standard of living. No matter if the person is rich or not, finding a job in the US or living in the
US might provide a better living standard and that drives a lot of people to immigrate. For people
that do not worry about jobs yet, or a family wants to provide their children a better education:
they consider moving to a country with better schools or a country that has a better teaching
style. Another category of immigrating is the Start of a Series: If sociologists are to be believed,
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it is a chain of events. The first person immigrates and sends Happily Settled information to
his loved ones living in the native country (Experts). Political reasons are when one is forced out
of their own country or as a refugee because of government, religious, or legal issues. Needs of
Different Personalities: People move just to find a different life style, wanting to change, and
other reasons that the home country is not making a person happy, or wants to settle in. Soul
Mate: Various people are finding the prospect of getting married in other countries (Experts).
According to Rina Silva, a nurse, someone that has moved to the U.S., the reason she moved into
the US is because she was petitioned by her father. After she moved into the US she began to go
to a nursing school with her husband and they became nurses. In her free time she read many
handbooks for new immigrants and listened to the radio to gain more knowledge about living in
the US. She did not have as many troubles as other new comers to learn English because she
attended an English school back in the Philippines, therefore she fit in quickly in her school and
at work. She said, "I love this country. People are very friendly and I feel accepted."
After moving into the US and settling down, immigrants face many difficulties while
adjusting into their new living environment. According to data compiled by the APA Presidential
Task Force on Immigration, 460 languages are spoken in the United States, and children
attending New York City public schools alone speak a total of 150 languages. 23 percent of US
children are children of immigrants (DeAngelis). Which leads to the school and education
issues with kids and adults in both schools and adult education. Besides the challenge of
switching between cultures, children of immigrants also might face their hardest challenge:
learning a new language. Language proficiency undergirds young people's ability to succeed in
school, yet language training is often insufficient to meet their needs (DeAngelis). One person
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usually needs at least five to seven years to master a language, so kids like me, who immigrated
into US at the beginning of their high school year, tend to have a hard time catching up and
trying to understand the teachers lectures. Kids usually do not have a lot of support from the
school due to their limited funding because the native speakers does take up most of the student
portion. Only certain schools with enough funding are willing to make an ELD program for their
students to be more successful in school; but some of the schools only use the existing staff,
instead of hiring an actual ELD teacher to make sure the immigrant children have enough
educational support as well as emotional support. Having emotional support for the kids is
especially important for childrens development. Since one couldnt speak enough English to
have conversations, in their early stage they could face signifiant social challenges and be
isolated from the community. This is when the emotional support from the teaching staff come in
to help calm the students and build their confidence. Once their confidence is built, they are more
eager to learn and this will also bring them out of depression, if they develop some due to the
isolation and rejection. Kids usually adjust to the environment quicker than adults. They can
always find a social circle. Many immigrant kids in the school can easily fit in to the community
as their English skill develops. For adults, the situation is a little bit different.
Young men and women who have had limited access to education often initially work at
low-paying, entry-level jobs. They often work two or more jobs, and when they have
time, they take English classes. For these immigrants, survival English is an apt term;
they need enough English to work and survive in their new lives. If learners are young
enough (often 22 years old or younger), they can study all academic subjects in public
high school. Often, however, teenagers and young adults have to work to help support
themselves and their families. After gaining sufficient English literacy skills, they may
participate in specific training or certification programs through their work or community,
or they may pursue a GED (General Educational Development) credential and eventually
pursue postsecondary education. Some older immigrants, especially those who may be
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financially supported by other members of their family, may stay in English classes for
several years as they learn English and build a social network. (Helping Adult English
Learners)
While doing this research, I couldnt help but remember my time in China. After living in
the US for four years, I felt like I needed to go back to the place where I was raised and see the
difference between the two countries that are five thousand miles apart. I went back to China in
January and visited my favorite place from when I was a kid, which is also one of the most
famous places to visit in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven. As I got out of the car in the cold
afternoon in Beijing, a frigid breeze ran over my body, making my hairs stand up. My parents
dropped me off on the curb of the Temple of Heaven, My parents waved at me and drove off.
The smell of the car exhaust made me dizzy and gave me a light headache. The truth is, the air
already smell like that. The cold air just made it seem a little fresher. It was a rare blue sky,
clouds were all gone from the strong winter wind. I waited next to the traffic light, listening to
the cars honking in the distance. By the time I got to the ticket booth there was already a line. I
walked into the park, passed the red gates, and I see the stone lined road with trees on each side;
the road is about 50 feet wide. Through the distance I see the Temple of Heavens roof top. The
Temple of Heaven is the only temple with a round shape the royal family ever built during the
Qing Dynasty. It has served as the praying place for people to go and pray to the god of harvest
to have good weather and food for the next year. The trees had made the air a bit fresher inside
the park. There arent many people walking around the park, partly because the strong wind and
the sharp coldness. I walked along in the middle of the road, enjoying this view I havent been
able to enjoy for years. As I passed the second gate, an old man was playing a traditional
instrument called Erhu. The sound of it sounds like a violin mixed with a cello. It combines the

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violins elegance and softness, and a cellos deep and aggressive tone, it is perfect for any
listeners. As I walked pass, I could see a stairway to the Temple of Heaven. Walking up the
stairway, I saw the hand painted roof. Every beam is painted with a different picture. The
hallway is about 50 meters long, and 10 meters wide. On the side of the hallway, people were
playing poker, chess, singing, and sports. I can hear the happiness, the shouting, and the sad
sighs from every angle. People playing shuttlecock took up the whole hallway so I had to go
around them and turn my body sideways.
After realizing all the cultural and visual differences between China and the US, I
remembered how tough it was to get used to and adjust to the American culture. It is not an easy
task to quickly convert and assimilate to a new culture. This requires a series of adjustments of
the lifestyle, way to do things, and also time. Although Americans are, perhaps, the most
hospitable and generous people in the world, their ethnically segregated communities make it
difficult to fully integrate new immigrants in their society. Many Hispanic, Chinese and new
immigrants arrive and work in their segregated ethnic communities; as a result, they fail to learn
English and the American culture (Diakanwa).This phenomenon exists in the Hispanic and
Asian communities, but most of the people still want to be fit in to the society. According to
Trivonovitch, researcher and Associate Director of the Culture Learning Institute at the EastWest Center in Hawaii; there are four stages of cultural adjustment, which include the
honeymoon stage, the hostility stage, the integration or acceptance stage, and the home
stage (Diakanwa). A person usually transitions from the excitement, anticipation, and
inquisitiveness; they remember everything they see, because everything is new to them and they
are ready to discover the new world they are living in. Then they will switch from this exception
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to frustration, nervousness, negative, or even depression. They are usually scared to learn a new
language or change their life style to match. When this has passed, people are generally
acceptable to the new environment, and they feel comfortable with it. Lastly, they view the US as
their home and become Americanized. People take a little bit of time but eventually they will
adjust into the new environment and be welcoming to the American life. Many people are proud
to be an American. According to Theodora Okeke from Nigeria, she said: Ive built myself up. I
believe in this country. You are rewarded by your efforts. So I know that Im set for higher
things, to go as high as I want (Alexandria 56).
Juan Pablo Cevasco, an employee of Sikich Technology Resource, was forced to leave
his home country Guatemala because the violence and the dangerous living environment. He
loves to living in the US because of the numerous opportunities, along with the diverse cultures.
When he tried to get his dream job, he was lucky because his job requires Spanish. He told me
that he also loves the US because there is an opportunity have for everyone. Although he had to
give up his car parts shop back in Guatemala, he loves his job in the US more. When he moved
to the US he had a lot of difficulties such as learning a new language. However he likes learning
new things so he was motivated to learn the language and understand the laws and rules in the
country. When he first moved into the US, he was rejected by people because he did not
understand English, so he stayed in a Hispanic community for a while until he learned enough
English to make a living out side the community. I love to make new friends, he said, but I
can see it in their eyes that they do not want me here because I don't speak English, so I told
myself I have to learn the language in order to fit in to this society. He told me the most difficult
and the most important thing is getting his immigration documents. He said: the most biggest
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stone for me, or any immigrants is to get the papers. That will ensure people can succeed in the
United States. So it is really hard for immigrants if they don't have any papers. If one does not
have one they are going to have a lot of struggles.
People from all over the world move to the United States for different reasons, some
people love it, some people dont. People go eventually through different stages of immigrating,
but they do adjust and fit into the environment. People have all kinds of methods and their own
way to become a part of the society, no matter of age, sex, race, etc. Adjusting into a new
environment is a complicated thing to do, immigrants often have to learn, take risks, and give a
little in order to achieve better results. However, almost all immigrants do earn a living in the
US, and the life they have in the US is often better than the ones they had back in their home
country.
For this project I learned a lot through the researches and the interviews. I was surprised
how many people have moved to this country and for numerous reasons, some of them I didnt
even thought about. I learned that I am the lucky one and I didnt go through many difficulties.
People fought and pained to come to US and tries to earn a better living. I think doing the project
is the relativity easy part, Photography is what I love, and I have a lot of knowledge to have good
works. My mentor is a Perfectionist, and she helped me a lot in the senior project and I received
many tips from her. The hard part for me is getting the research paper done. I have struggled for
a long time and looking for the right book for my topic was a pain. I learned to write a long and
informative paper through senior project, I have discovered that through books, all I see is the
facts and numbers, I never got any informations of the experiences of people until I interviewed
them and experienced myself. The person I interviewed surprised me with their answers, as the
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reasons and how they did to fulfill their dreams, it was great to interview them and know about
other peoples experiences. I love this project and it provided and offered me many insights and
knowledges about life.

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Works Cited
Books:
Daniels, Roger. American Immigration: A Student Companion (Oxford Student Companions To
American History). Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.
Alexandria, Immigrants Va.: Time-Life Books, 1999. Print.
Electronic:
DeAngelis, Tori. "Helping New Americans Find Their Way". Apa.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 19 Mar.
2016.
Diakanwa, Daniel. Adjusting And Integration New Immigrants in the American Culture. 1st ed.
Pittsburg: North American Association of Christians in Social Network, 2011. Web. 20 Mar.
2016.n
Experts, Immigration. "Top Seven Reasons Why People Immigrate! | Global Immigration Visa
Specialist". Immigration.net.in. N.p., 2009. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
Helping Adult English Language Learners Transition Into Other Educational Programs. 1st ed.
Center for Applied Linguistics, 2016. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
Vitello, Paul. "Oscar Handlin, Historian Who Chronicled United States Immigration, Dies At
95". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
Primary Source:
Cevasco, Juan Pablo. Employee at the Sikich Technology Resource, Naperville, IL. Personal
interview. 3 March 2016.
Silva, Rina. Nurse, Concord, CA. Personal interview. 15 March 2016.

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