Immigrants Case

"Some people are surprised or mystified or threatened by the idea that the country is becoming so diverse, when in fact, it always has been" (Houston 2). America, apart from the natives of this country, has always been a country formed nearly entirely by immigrants. While some people define immigrant as "people of color, individuals of the Third World" (Houston 2), the only true natives living in the United States are colored and are in fact doing the worst economically out of any single ethnic group. The only argument that anyone else in this country has about calling someone else an "immigrant" is that they arrived first.

There have been many major groups of immigrants to the United States, starting from the Western European colonials, the imported African slaves, and more recent times our distant uncles, the Chinese railroad workers brought here to work. The colonials have founded the backbones of America with White Protestants, the Africans-Americans became the first minority group to actively seek out equality, and the Chinese culture has established many cultural identities throughout America, notably in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and even New York. There are also illegals, but they produce much more money than they take out. We can't blame them.

The current flood of immigrants is partly due to the high-tech industry of Silicon Valley pulling people in, and that's why we're here.

(Powell) My father left his family behind at age 26 to become an immigrant to Japan at to pursue his dream of working as an aerospace engineer, before I was even born. After several years of successful work and living alone, he invited my mother along and we lived in Japan at various places for a five more years. My father found a job offer in America, and possibly not wanting me to grow up in Japan, immigrated to America by himself again. Soon after, I was moved to another country again, and probably due to the sheer amount of moving around I cannot recall anything but small fragments of memory before middle school in the States. As a result, when I am asked about which culture I wanted to identify with, I was always clueless since I had little memories of my childhood and I did not see myself as American back then. After a few more years, I finally realized that I am American, and in fact the American ideal is very close to who I am. I became an immigrant soon after I was born, and I stayed as one fresh off the boat for many years afterward, but America is a country that welcomes people like that. When I received my citizenship a few years back, I could honestly say that I am proud that I am an American and I am willing to work my part for my country.

(Yue Shen) I moved to the U.S. at the beginning of 10th grade. I decided to come to Bay Area because my mother received a job offer at San Francisco and that I was attracted by the prestigious Universities