The struggles of immigrants has been a prevalent issue for much of American history, and is alive and well in this country today. Although not all immigrants suffer from hardships, a good deal of Immigrants have had to battle several hardships. This is evident in the struggles of, Arya Patole, Thanu Yakupitiyage, Aaron Cotteral, and Ali Mohammed. Which were detailed in a CNN article covering the modern struggle of immigrants and the revelation to our current president, Donald Trump. And the person I interviewed: Afia Serwaa, and her struggle growing up as an African American immigrant in modern America.
In a CNN News article written by Darren Simon and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, the challenges of the Patole family, being an Indian American family, along with the modern challenge of fear were demonstrated in the section of the article covered on her. Araya Patole age 27, is living in Brooklyn New York, with her family (Moorhouse, L. 2017). She moved from India when she around 5 to the United States. Since growing up her entire life in America, she told the CNN reporters. ‘Even though I do have immigrant attached to my identity, I feel like I have assimilated so much into America that I felt like an American,” she then stated ‘But ever since this election and (Trump’s) rhetoric, it made me feel othered so quickly Said (Moorhouse, L. 2017).’
This shows the challenges a modern immigrant family faces. Patole and her family have become experts at going through their lives with suspicion and hospitality. Especially after the 911 attacks. They also have to try their best to “look American,” (Moorhouse, L. 2017) when traveling. It demonstrates the racism the family has had to endure. In the same CNN article, the life of Ali Mohammed age 45 (Moorhouse, L. 2017) was detailed. In 2013, Ali and his family left their town in Syria to escape the worsing war. They applied for asylum in the United States, and then after 2 years, the family moved to Clarkston, Georgia.
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Ali Mohammed who was a former CNN camera man, is not working odd jobs to provide food (Moorhouse, L. 2017). The biggest fear for the family is now deportation. Ali’s story is another great example of the struggles immigrants faced. He left his home forcefully, and has had to go through a multitude of hurdles to even get his children in school. The language barrier also holds him back, as on top of working, he has to take english classes.
All of this complies up in a lot of stress and hardships for immigrant families. Thanu Yakupitiyage account demonstrates the instability of being an immigrant in modern America. The 32 year old from New York city has lived here since 2003, coming from Sri Lanka, on a full ride scholarship, since then using visa to remain in the country, until acquiring permanent residency last year (Moorhouse, L. 2017). She’s been working with the New York Immigration Coalition. Thau told cnn, ‘That’s the thing that’s so scary about this anti-immigrant climate, is that it’s making it really hard for people to go about their daily lives (Moorhouse, L. 2017).’ Ms Yakupitiyage story demonstrated the struggles of an immigrant. She has had to struggle with gaining permanent residency the entire time she’s been here.
Along with the added stresses of schooling and work, life was made much more difficult. Her situation wasn’t helped that America’s immigration system is broken. An article written in the Cato At Library by David Lee describes this point. “They can enter as children of temporary workers (H-4), then transition to student status (F-1), then become temporary workers themselves (H-1B), and then receive an indefinitely renewable status as an entrepreneur (E-1); they could live in this country for decades without ever being able to apply for permanent residence (Bier, D. 2018).” Aaron Cottrell, (now 33), moved here when he was 12 from the United Kingdom. Aaron has a family, and has since built a life as a real estate agent (Moorhouse, L. 201).
The only problem is that he isn’t a U.S. citizen, and he fears it will negatively affect his child (Moorhouse, L. 2017). The fears of Mr Cottrell demonstrates another challenge of immigrants, daily concerns. For people like him who are hardworking individuals who aren’t citizens, life can be hard. It’s difficult to know the future of your family, and where you might end up, one mishap, and you’re out of the country. All of these people have had some kind of challenge, as a direct cause of their immigrant status.
They have all struggled in some way, and continue to do so. One person who has been marginalized due to her immigrant status is Afia Serwaa. In an interview I conducted, she gives her story. She talked about how she has a vivid memory of people from the same ethnicity bullying here due to her skin color and her ability to speak english. She said and I quote “ It was like my bullies had seen a monster every time they saw me, They would call me dark, burnt over cooked; and would even go on to say that I should go back to my own country.” The way she spoke showcased a lot of pain that these few words had caused.
In addition, she added how her failed ability at speaking english hurt her alot at her starting ages of school. For instance she says “ I was put in lower classes because I couldn’t read and write that well.” From her facial expression I could tell that she didn’t let that stop her, that she end up becoming a really good student. As we got deep into the interview I started hitting her with the big questions because I wanted to really dig deep into something bigger. Her early days here was a good start but I needed to know how it was for her when it came to the workforce especially. I hit her with the hard hitting question of how her work place was.
She immediately, with no hesitation said “I hated my job but my family needed the money. She talked about how there were racist people in and a lot of discrimination situations in her environment. She especially described a scenario where a customer discriminated against her because of her skin color. She said she heard the customer say “ keep moving I don’t want her, just look at her, I don’t need here touching my stuff, what if she has ebola”. When she said that i was shocked because as an African myself I’ve never experienced something like that before.
I knew that obviously racism and discrimination exists I had no idea that people could be so crawl with their words. She spoke of many things, that any regular person would be disgusted by however, when it came to reality I wasn’t that surprised. Her struggles to find a job was due to her many things including her social immigration status. She saw America as the home of the free and the land of the brave, so it was too bad that she didn’t have that same experience. All in all, she this interview was an eye opener. It showcased how marginalized certain groups really are.
In conclusion, Arya Patole, Thanu Yakupitiyage, Aaron Cotteral, Ali Mohammed and Afia Serwaa all faced several challenges that were brought upon by their status as immigrants. They still to this day deal with those issues, but they mostly all hope for the best in the future.
