Immigrant Experience
Immigration to the United States was not a pleasant experience for many people, at least not initially. I can testify to this since me and my family experienced difficulties when we moved from Russia in 1994. My biggest predicament was the language barrier since I spoke Russian and did not know proper English. It was not easy to make friends in the new country and not knowing the language obviously added to this problem. My parents also found it difficult to get a job since the market wasn't very favorable to fresh immigrants. Americans did not prove to be a very hospitable nation as well. The conditions were not conducive to assimilation or acceptance and thus it took us few years before we could find some place for ourselves in the United States and become of a part of this multicultural society. In their book on immigration titled 'Natives and Strangers: A Multicultural History of Americans', authors Leonard Dinnerstein, Roger L. Nichols, David M. Reimers present a comprehensive history of immigrants in the US mainly focusing on the experiences of Asians and Latin American.People entering the United States came in two huge waves. The first wave came at the turn of the century as US became an economic heaven for many and pol
Jenny Masur (1991) writes, "Between the 1940s and the 1970s millions of Immigrants migrated both internally and internationally. For the period 1946 to 1976 an estimated 7.5 million people emigrated from Italy. Between 1951 and 1975 some 4.5 million from the south alone; over half went to northern Italy while 42 percent emigrated abroad. Migration has not necessarily been a response to the performance of the Italian economy since both internal and external migration continued from 1951 to 1962, the years of the "economic miracle."" Racism was the biggest problem followed by religious conflicts, which forced many Italian to move back to their country. Since Americans in those were not really used to the idea of foreigners entering their country and taking over their jobs, they openly resented the immigrants and Immigrants were blamed for many of the nation's problems. This was not the case with one individual family, most of the Immigrants encountered difficulties which some were able to surmount while others were so disappointed that they felt it was better to go back to their homeland where they would be able to live in peace. I and my family faced similar problems. Being a Russian Jew wasn't easy but fortunately for us, we came to the US at a time when immigrants of many regions had already made a mark. They were no longer treated as aliens and while the job market was narrow, we still feel that it took us fewer years to adjust to the life in the US compared to immigrants who came to this country in early 1900s. While assimilation is a good idea, I feel that nationalism has grown stronger in past few years resulting in many young people wanted to establish their cultural individu
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Approximate Word count = 1143
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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