Immigrant Parents Sacrifice for their Families to be Met with Racism
The United States has one of the largest immigrant populations in the world. According to the American Immigration Council, there were 44.9 million immigrants in the United States. With immigration being 14% of the nation’s population, there has been a rise in the number of children with immigrant parents as a result. According to Urban.org, over 18 million children in the United States are children of immigrant parents. Many questions for these first-generation Americans arise as to the result of these statistics. Why do immigrant parents choose to come to America?
Ellen Verbitsky, a 20-year-old college student, is a child of a Russian immigrant mother and Kyrgyzstani immigrant father, making her a first-generation American.
“Both of my parents immigrated to the United States because of the anti-Semitic discrimination they faced in addition to the fall of the USSR.(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)” Verbitsky stated, “Being here has allowed them to freely practice their religion, explore educational opportunities, and adequately provide for our family.”
Verbitsky then went on to explain how her family’s immigration played a role in her upbringing, stating that she has been able to express her passion for her religion freely and pursue the career path that she desires. Verbitsky says while she is extremely proud of her culture, she is very happy to be an American.
Guramrit Singh, a 21-year-old college student, feels similarly to Verbitskys, pride in her ethnicity. He is the son of two Punjabi immigrants, making him a first-generation Punjabi-American. While he has a lot of pride in being a Punjabi-American, he does state that there are some difficulties in this indication.
“My parents placed heavy pressure on me to succeed in life. It’s a double-edged sword in the sense that it definitely pushed me to do better in school, but the stress has been crippling at times.”, Singh states.
Singh noticed some differences between himself and the people who he surrounded himself with due to being in a wealthy neighborhood.
“Some of my friends who weren’t first generation have generation wealth and knowledge that really put them ahead of the first-generation peers. Especially when it came to school, picking colleges, and what clubs/sports to participate in. I was left in charge of figuring out good school districts, applying to college, applying for financial aid, and stuff that my non-first-generation peers had their parents do.” Singh stated.
This pressure is the reality that Ali Aslam faces in being a first-generation Pakistani-American. He states that his parents always drilled into the realities of being a child of immigrants in America. He emphasizes that the people around him made it feel as though they were “guests in this country and needed to act like it.” He stated that his parents made it clear that due to these pressures, he would need to work twice as hard to achieve half as much as his fully American counterparts.
“It was clear that a lot of people in this country didn’t accept us as Americans. Growing up post-9/11 did not help the situation in the slightest for my family and for me.” Aslam stated.
Immigrants move from their home countries to America, seeking better opportunities for their families. They work, and from what we have seen they work hard, in order to provide for their families just to be faced with racism and prejudice. That doesn’t imply that the children of these immigrants are not grateful for the hardships their parents face.
Kareem Abdelhalem, an 18-year-old college student, is grateful for his parents sacrifices. His parents both immigrated to the United States from Egypt in order to provide their family with a better life. They faced hardships in their immigration process, racism due to their religion and ethnicity, and unequal opportunities early on in their settlement in the states.
Abdelhalem stated, “The opportunities that I have now wouldn’t be presented to me if my parents never immigrated. I have been blessed with hard-working parents who ensured that I would have all the opportunities that I could. My parent’s immigration story was very difficult; however, it ended up being successful, and I am very grateful for that.”
