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Immigration As A Theme Of Immigrants In Enrique's Journey

Decent Essays

Immigration has been a topic for heated discussions for many years. However, no one has really ever looked into what immigration actually is or how hard it is for the people trying to immigrate. In the common reader we are given an insight to what immigration is, and the risks that follow. So what is immigration? The definition stands as the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. However, outside of a narrow definition we can see that it is actually so much more. It is the action of someone uprooting everything they have ever known in hopes of finding something better. Many times as we have seen through Enrique’s Journey means that children and entire families are left behind in hopes that one day they will once again be reunited (Nazario). Though many hope to see their families once again, their hopes slowly turn into dreams. Between 2010 and 2012 nearly 205,00 parents of U.S. citizen born children were deported in a staggering 26 months (Lincroft). Given that this is a statistic based upon families that are already in the US it leaves us to wonder how many families are torn …show more content…

Before that can be answered I think we have to look at why this book in specifics was chosen to be the common reader. This book in itself is a perfect example of this year’s public affairs mission theme. That is “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Perspectives on Self-Government.” Enrique’s Journey is nothing but a story of someone’s life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Enrique pursues his own goal of finding his mother after she had to leave to create a better life for him and his sister (Nazario). It also shows how he framed the rest of his life based solely on that one decision. After reading the common reader I have a new found respect for those who journey to discover their own American dream. I also have a higher hope knowing that the American dream can be reached, even if it is not specifically my own version of

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