Stereotypes of Immigrants
Everyone in life wants a better life for themselves and their next generations. Many people in different countries are migrating to The United States for one or two main goals. Those two goals are a better opportunity for employment and education. Which in turn, accomplishing either one of these goals will provide a higher quality of life and a sense of importance for themselves and their family. However, Americans view the immigrants differently from what they are. Some Americans view the immigrants with different stereotypes such as being lazy system abusers, dangerous criminals, and job thieves, just to name a few. However, these stereotypes are not true and does not represent the majority of immigrant. In actuality, immigrants are very disciplined, hard workers whom are also highly motivated opportunity chasers, where in these ways they should and need to be viewed by Americans.
Immigrants are hard workers; however, the Americans are viewing the immigrants as lazy and as a burden to The United States when in actuality, research shows that, some immigrants come to The United States legally although they may not have papers to work legally when they first arrive. For many immigrants the process to get legal documentation to work is a long, tedious, and expensive process. Even though this issue is very common, many immigrants are positive and productive contributors in society. On the other hand, there are immigrants who are roaming around the streets, and looking for places to sleep on the roads. As an immigrant in any country, these things can happen to anyone, due to the fact that some immigrants do not know anyone as they migrate to a foreign land. Many immigrants are struggling and are facing many problems that come along their way as they try to become stable and achieve their goals in The United States. In an article written by Octavio Blanco titled “Immigrant workers are most likely to have these jobs,” he states, “That is especially the case in America’s beauty business, where immigrants made up 63% of those that provide services as manicurists and Pedicurists, makeup artists, shampooers and skin care specialists. Slightly more than half of these workers (51%) were
Many people have come to America for a better life and to get away from all the troubles of their homeland. These immigrants, like those throughout U.S. history, are generally hard workers and make important contributions to the economy through their productive labor and purchasing power. America is considered a melting pot of many diffrent ethinic group. Immigrants should be able to enter America with little if any resistance from any border patrol. Immigrants in america take the low paying, hard labor jobs that , unfortunately, some americans don't want.
Everyone in life wants a better life for themselves and their next generations. Many people in different countries are migrating to The United States for one or two main goals. Those two goals are a better opportunity for employment and education. Which in turn, accomplishing either one of these goals will provide a higher quality of life and a sense of importance for themselves and their family. However, Americans view the immigrants differently from what they are. Some Americans view the immigrants with different stereotypes and prejudices such as being lazy system abusers, dangerous criminals, and job thieves, just to name a few. However, these stereotypes are not true and does not represent the majority of immigrants. In actuality, immigrants are very disciplined hard workers whom are also highly motivated opportunity chasers, where in these ways they should and need to be viewed by Americans.
“We all use stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it. We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us,” said Annie Murphy Paul who is a magazine journalist and book author that writes about the biological and social sciences. Stereotypes are a part of everyday life. Every person, young or old, has been labeled with a positive or negative stereotype. They are heard everyday and sometimes label certain groups of people. As Martina Navratilova said, “Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.” A lot of time stereotypes don’t fit what they are labeling. They can have a bad effect on people’s emotions, the way people interact with each other and their social lives. A common stereotype of many U.S. citizens is that all Mexican immigrants are criminals and have come to the U.S. illegally; therefore, this stereotype has a bad affect on the way Mexicans and other people think and act.
Since the start of our country, America has been known as a land of immigrants, a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities working towards the American motto of the land of the free, home of the brave. Since colonial times, immigrants have been an integral part of society, majorly contributing to U.S culture and economy, yet many Americans have always had very conflicting ideas on immigration. Many people look past the benefits immigrants bring to our economy and society and instead scapegoat them for many of the United States’ problems surrounding unemployment and budget. The positive effects of immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in our country far outweighs the negative effects because of their important impact on society and the economic help that American relies on.
When you think of an illegal immigrant you may think of a criminal with no morals coming to this country with their only purpose to cause harm to the American people. If this were to be the perception of all immigrants to ever come to the United States we could not be the country we are today. America is a land of opportunity where people come to make a better life for themselves. Without immigrants the United States would not exist. Personally, I would not be here today if my mother did not work her way from Mexico as a young girl to build a better life for herself here in America. She came here with very little, found a job, built herself a life, earned multiple college degrees, got married, had children, and is now living the American Dream…. From illegal immigrant to assistant elementary school principal. It is definitely not fair to say that all immigrants are “bad hombres”, as the American president, Donald Trump once said. The negative connotations that go along with “illegal immigrant” are never anything but bad. The media shines the spotlights on the crimes and awful things some immigrants have done in the past, but never care to included amazing achievements immigrants have made. In fact, Donald Trump's grandfather, Frederick Trump, immigrated here at 16 with the same dream as these dreamers have today; prosper and live The American Dream, and build a better life for themselves and their families.
Immigration is the bedrock on which the United States was founded, yet in most political conversations today it is regarded as a negative topic and for that reason discussing this topic is important. In the US the struggle to be an immigrant is harder than ever. Immigrants are expected to work hard for jobs that they are over qualified for because of a stereotype cast on the
They knew all of those hopes dreams were not real only after they had started working under Americans who deported them based on any small complaint. This is not going to work anymore. The children could not go to school because they had to work with their parents on the field because they did not have any choice, even if they did go to school they did not have enough to satisfy their basic needs.
Other countries have unrealistic expectations for the opportunities given to immigrants in America, and are often let down by the reality. Although some individuals are successful in their new life, a majority do not have that positive experience. Immigrants must make sacrifices for the sake of their future, but many are confronted with prejudice upon their arrival in a new country.
The United States has created an injustice perception of immigrants. There are issues that are needed to be addressed for immigration as a whole. In a scholarly article titled “U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We Do?” speaks about how Americans view immigrants and what needs to be fixed (“Automatically”). Within the article, it contains solutions such as adjusting immigration laws in order to allow more immigrants in, making sure families stay together in the immigration process, making sure immigrants are granted basic health care and education, etc. (U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We Do?). These solutions will help settle many of the issues that immigrants face. Another solution that the article lists is to find ways of detecting
Immigration in the United States continues to increase rapidly year by year. According to an analysis of monthly Census Bureau data by the Center for Immigration Studies, the immigration population in the United States, both legal and illegal, hit a record of 42.1 million in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 1.7 million since the same quarter of 2014 (CIS.org). Clearly, Immigrants make up a large part of the population in the United States, and for most immigrants, migrating to the United States contains one main purpose: to pursue a better life with more opportunities, a purpose also known as “the American Dream”. The concept of immigration is embodied with different viewpoints that can be based on facts or subjective reasoning, but overall, the viewpoints on immigration are narrowed down to two general perspectives. For some Americans, Immigration, especially illegal immigration, impacts the United States in a negative way. People with this perspective argue that immigration has a negative impact on the country’s security, economy, education, and public health. On the other hand, supporters of the presence of immigrants in the country suggest that immigrants contribute to the well-being and development of the country. Supporters of immigration argue that immigrants help boost the economy of the United States rather than hurting it, and believe that the moral thing to do is to give people the opportunity to better themselves in a country filled with the
Many stereotypes have been placed on immigrants that paints them in a negative image which causes society to develop a mindset that us them against them. People complain that immigrants are here to take “our jobs” as they believe companies are more willing to hire them because they are a cheap source of labor. Others think that immigrants will increase crowding and abuse state funds such as welfare which will
The novel that I chose to read for this project is “The Illegal” by Lawrence Hill. Many of you may know him from an earlier book, called “The Book of Negroes”. In “The Illegal”, Hill takes on the complex, pressing issues of our moment in time, including race and discrimination, the movement of refugees across borders and the political fight to define who belongs and who is “an illegal.”
I find it interesting that a lot of Americans claim immigrants are harming the economy and come to our country to commit crimes. I feel the reason why Americans think like this is because how the media represents immigrants. When the media talks about immigrants, they always mentioning how immigrants are taking Americans jobs, not paying taxes, are working for cheap labor and come to America to do illegal activities. Most often, Americans hear these negative stereotypes associated with Mexicans but not another ethnic or racial groups. Becerra’s articles shown immigrants who come to American decreased the amount of crime compare to native born Americans. In addition, there is less crime in when there are more immigrants in urban areas. This
The attitudes of immigrants who arrived here recently than that came earlier were starting to get worse. Over the time more and more people started to come into the united states. There are still more people coming into the united states. I don't blame them if it's for reasons back at where they live. But I do if they come here illegally.
Most immigrants are in pursuit of a dream, but it has been harder to reach. According to the article “Immigrants face harsh challenges in search of American Dream,” “They are blamed for taking all of the jonas and leaving white middle class Americans out to dry”(Rassuli 2). Immigrants have a much harder time reaching success when compared to middle class or wealthy Americans. Many of them are very brave for coming and risking to come to America. Majority of immigrants come here with nothing and work there way up and push themselves. Not only are immigrants not treated equally in U.S., but people are trying to stop them from arriving in