Do you know what is it like to be an immigrant child in present day America who will experience many challenges and changes? Immigrants are people who move from one country to another country and intend to stay permanently. Children immigrate because their family may want a better life, want to avoid gangs, wars, and other violence, or even a natural disaster destroyed their home. When children immigrate, they experience many challenges and changes such as becoming legalized to stay in the new country, learning a new language, doing well in school, and feeling like they can fit in.
Immigrant children experience many challenges when they try to become legalized. They may be forcefully separated from their parents and family when they cross borders into a new country. Children can even get detained in detention centers or deported back to their home country. Being reconnected with their family may take a long time or never happen, and the children feel unsafe and afraid. It can take months, years, until they turn 18 years old, or never, until they get reunited with their families again. If children are put in detention camps or have to wait to find out if they will get deported, they are very afraid about getting prosecuted for entering a country illegally. The immigrant children may experience going through the immigration court to become a legal citizen. An immigration judge makes a decision on if the child stays or will have to leave the country after a few or multiple court hearings. Some children may or may not have a lawyer or adult family members to help them understand and get through the court processes to remain in the new country.
Children who immigrate can face challenges learning a new language and going to a new school. Immigrant children can experience having a hard time learning a new language. This can make the child fall behind in school if they don’t have a bilingual teacher that knows their first language or a teacher that understands how to help a student learning a second language. Not being able to speak or read the new country’s language makes it challenging for the immigrant child to communicate and make new friends and understand their new community. When immigrant children go to school they can quickly fall behind on lessons that are being taught. This can occur because they do not understand the language or the concepts that may be completely different from concepts learned and taught in their culture and background. Their parents may not be able to help them with their homework. Some schools in America have special classes for students who are learning English and are new to the country. These classes are sometimes called English for Speakers of Other Languages or ESOL. Schools understand this challenge, and they may have interpreters and special services to help the families. Immigrant children may experience their parents having a hard time communicating with their new school because the parent feels intimidated interacting with teachers and school officials. The parents do not understand information sent home in a language they cannot read or speak, and they may have a very low level of education from their country. In some cultures females do not go to school at all and only certain groups are chosen to get an education.
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Many changes take place when immigrant children try to fit in to a new culture in a new country or keep their culture from their home country with clothing, food, and celebrations. Immigrant children often make changes to the clothes they wear to fit it. Their traditional clothing can look different and may be decorated with special thread and beads, use different fabric, have different patterns, or have different accessories. For example, Muslim people from different countries may wear headwraps, a headdress, and turbans to cover their heads or faces to show respect for their religious beliefs. Finding and choosing foods similar to their traditional ethnic food can be challenging and make it hard to fit in. When immigrant children go to school they may feel ashamed or get criticized for bringing food they normally eat with their family that may look and smell different. They may dislike the food choices at school in their new country, because it is not familiar to them and taste completely different. Going shopping for food and finding a restaurant to eat at with food from their culture may be hard for their family. Some foods not found in American school lunches, stores, and restaurants are dosa from India and mantu from Afghanistan. Families immigrant children come from could have had a farm, raised animals to eat, or went to different types of markets for spices, fruits, vegetables, and meats that are hard to find in the new country. Immigrant children can experience many different traditions, celebrations, and holidays in a new country that they did not have in their home country. Celebrations in the new country can be different, because of the new country’s traditions, history, and religious holidays may not be the same. For example, celebrations for Holi, Basanth, Noruz, Shichi-Go-San, and many more traditions may not take place in the new country.
Today’s immigrant children experience different challenges and changes after leaving their home country and arriving in a new country. Many immigrant children try to become a legal citizen in the new country, learn a new language, go to a new school and adjust to the new environment, to blend into the new country. Many people may try to help immigrant children stay in the new country and heal from challenges and changes. As a result of these experiences, some immigrant children may struggle socially, academically, and mentally and feel like they don’t belong and others may succeed in life.
