How old were you when you first entered America?
What were you told about America in your land?
What did you find out when coming to America?
What was it like for you to go to school?
What was working like for you?
Do you prefer your life in your homeland or do you prefer life in the U.S overall.
If you were brought here by your family, are you happy with their decision?
What is life like for you as an illegal immigrant or an immigrant of the U.S
Do you have friends of all races or did you seek comfort within your own race?
If you became a citizen (which if you are from Mexico will likely happen) will you feel better and more at ease?
2007-05-18 06:36:05 · 2 answers · asked by Lisaa 3 in Politics & Government ➔ Immigration
I am not an immigrant but my father was and I think I can answer these for the most part.
How old were you when you first entered America? My father was 18.
What were you told about America in your land? America is to Mexicans as heaven is to christians. It's surreal and hard for them to imagine that place like this actually exists.
What did you find out when coming to America? I'm not sure what you mean. What you find out is that it's a totally different world.
What was it like for you to go to school? I'm not an immigrant and my mother is white. I look like a white person but my last name is Lopez. A lot of people made stupid comments about race but I never cared. In my second year of high school my mother found out about a hate website that a fellow student made about me. It was a journal site where he basically wrote every day about how much he hates me, including lots of racial slurs. It was actually a huge deal and my mother reported it to the school. We could have pressed charges against him but we elected not to.
What was working like for you? This doesn't pertain to me but my father has been working at the same place for 18+ years and he made very little money when he first came here. I think he made about $7,000 a year. He has worked here for about thirty years and has finally worked his way up to about $70,000 a year. He has been injured several times at his current job, including a really heavy metal slab falling on top of him which could have broken his back. He has also quit several times because they refused to give him an increase but he returned after they caved in because he was really needed there. It's hell basically. He wakes up at 4am every morning including saturdays and gets home at around 6pm. It's a menial job, they produce wood pallets for construction.
Do you prefer your life in your homeland or do you prefer life in the U.S overall. - Personally I like them equally. I don't speak spanish so it's hard for me in Mexico but I love it there. I could never live there for an extended period because of the conditions. We are considered rich to the people there and our house has higher quality appliances etc. Still, we have no air conditioning, no washer or dryer (we have to hand wash), cockroaches are everywhere, there are about 10 people living in the American equivalent of a 4 person home. I can't describe why I love it because you would have to experience it to know. But like I said, I prefer living in America long term because it is much more advanced and a totally different world.
If you were brought here by your family, are you happy with their decision? I was born here but I am happy with my fathers decision to raise me outside of Mexico. The educational system there is terrible and it is really a struggle to live there. The only things they have are the things they absolutely need - very little of what they want. My cousins have a couple of toys but most of what they have is what we bring them as gifts.
What is life like for you as an illegal immigrant or an immigrant of the U.S? ... it sucks? unless you have worked for years and years to make even a decent living.
Do you have friends of all races or did you seek comfort within your own race? I never knew any other Mexicans and I had white and black friends. I was raised in a tolerant household.
If you became a citizen (which if you are from Mexico will likely happen) will you feel better and more at ease? My dad is a citizen and has been for about 10 years. I was too young to remember what it was like for him as an illegal, but I think he had a visa for a while or something because we were able to travel back and forth to Mexico. I know it would make life easier for people who are here illegally because my dad still works with illegals and it's just a difficult life. One time he brought home a $1000 lottery ticket to cash in for a guy because he couldn't do it for himself.
And just fyi, my mother, who worked with illegals a long time ago and helped them get their papers etc. told me that most of them DO pay taxes. I don't have a lot of information on that but they do pay a lot of fees and they don't get everything for free and "drain your money".
2007-05-18 07:29:11 · answer #1 · answered by rachel 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Great questions. I hope to see some answers to it soon.
2007-05-18 13:49:07 · answer #2 · answered by sb 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋