Ramirez 1

Luis Ramirez

Professor Batty

English 28

8 November 2017

Immigration and The Effects On The Family

Immigrating to a new country can be seen as a very challenging thing to do.

Leaving ones hometown is difficult enough, leaving the country is even harder. Starting

over is always difficult, and thats exactly what families have to do when they immigrate

to somewhere new. Families immigrating have to deal with adjusting to foreign cultures,

and learning a new language. Families immigrating might also have to deal with some

form of racism, weather it be discrimination when looking for jobs, or getting made fun

of at school for not knowing the language and being different. Never the less, some

people may argue that immigrating to a new country can have a negative effect on the

family as a whole, there are still many advantages and ways that immigrating to a new

country can benefit a family.

Immigrating to a new country has its benefits even though it might be

challenging. For example immigrating from a country allows one to learn a new language

and become bilingual. The rate of immigration is increasing in the United States.

According to Mary Tamer from The Harvard Graduate School Of Education states

When schools opened this fall, Education Week noted a key demographic milestone

for the first time, children of color would outnumber non-Hispanic whites in the

nations public classrooms. While minorities are becoming the majority learning more

than one language is beneficial because it allows for better job opportunities in the future.
 Ramirez 2

Another benefit families can take advantage of when they immigrate is receiving a better

education. In most third world countries parents do not have enough money to send their

children to school. Instead of getting an education, the children begin working at a young

age. In the United States child labor is not an option, there for the kids of immigrant

parents get sent to school. According to The Harvard Graduate School Of Education

With the Pew Research Center projecting that, by 2050, more than one-third of the

nations schoolchildren younger than 17 will either be immigrants themselves or the

children of at least one parent who is an immigrant, Associate Professor Natasha Kumar

Warikoo says that schools will need to rethink classroom strategies, family engagement

practices, and how to best navigate cultural divides. Ultimately what is being said in the

quote helps prove that immigrating to a new country allows the kids to receive better

education opportunities.

Receiving better education can help immigrant kids or kids of immigrant parents

go to college and get a career easier than they would in their native country. Job

opportunities is another reason immigrating can help families. According to Pew

Research Center Approximately 800,000 young unauthorized immigrants have received

work permits and protection from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood

Arrivals program, or DACA, since its creation five years ago. What is being said here is

although immigrants might struggle to get jobs, there are ways of getting work permits if

they further their education.

Although there are many benefits when it comes to immigrating to a new country

for example receiving an education and having better job opportunities, there are also

some negative effects a family can face when coming to a new country. For example one
 Ramirez 3

negative effect families can go through is dealing with racism. There are a lot of people

who dis like immigrants in the United States and therefore will sometimes harass

immigrants. In the book How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez the

author says la Bruja had stopped her mother and the girls in the lobby and spat out that

ugly word the kids at school sometimes used: Spics! Go back to where you came from!

Alvarez (171). The author helps provide examples of how immigrants get harassed just

because they are trying to better their life in a new country. Being in a new country and

having people yell racial slurs can really hurt the ones feelings.

Immigrant families, most of the times do not get high paying jobs so they are

forced to live in poor areas. Living in a poor area can affect the family in a lot of ways.

Fro example The Harvard Graduate School Of Education explains Children face barriers

because of their parents undocumented status, often related to poverty, fears of

deportation, and more, while undocumented youth themselves face increasing barriers to

social mobility as they enter adolescence and hope to obtain drivers licenses, afterschool

work, and financial aid for college. Even when children themselves are unaware of their

family members legal status, being undocumented or the child of an undocumented

parent negatively impacts a childs development. Ultimately what is at stake here is

growing up in poor areas provides more obstacles for immigrant families. One example

given in the quote that can really tear families apart is fear of deportation. The immigrant

families dont even have peace of mind they always have to be cautious of what they are

doing or where they are.

Immigrating to a new country is always difficult. Weather it be learning a new

language and dealing with adjusting to a new countries customs, or dealing with racism
 Ramirez 4

and raising a family in a poor area. There is still ways in which a family can benefit from

immigrating to a new country. For example the children of immigrants can receive better

education and in the long run it can lead to the kids getting better jobs and careers. The

positives affects of immigration on a family out weigh the negative affects.

 Ramirez 5

Works cited

Lpez, Gustavo, and Jens Manuel Krogstad. Key Facts about Unauthorized

Immigrants Enrolled in DACA. Pew Research Center, 25 Sept. 2017,

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/25/key-facts-about-unauthorized-immigrants-

enrolled-in-daca/.

Tamer, Mary. The Education of Immigrant Children. Harvard Graduate School

of Education, 11 Dec. 2014, www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/14/12/education-immigrant-

children.

Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Algonquin Books, 2013.