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Immigrants Have Trouble Assimilating

Because of Some Factors

By Iria Vasquez-PaezPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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This is flat out because Americans who have been here longer cause problems for them. It is the pecking order. Immigrants have a hard time adapting sometimes; it doesn’t matter what country they move to. Their new country has different customs, as well as needs. Americans are pretty much able to give any new immigrant problems. Somebody from Mainland China, for example, has trouble adapting to driving habits in California. They drive differently in China, according to my family who has been there. You have to cross the street at a time that is good for you.

Immigrants from anywhere going to any other country besides the United States have trouble adapting sometimes. My own family struggled with the United States at first. Sometimes it is the behavior of Americans, both black and white, which affect immigrants. White people have a way of throwing around subtle racism. So do some black people. Anybody “American” who has lived in the United States a very long time throws shade around at new immigrants. Syrian refugees are our latest immigrant population in the United States after all. They come in droves since Syria is all but destroyed.

The United States was built on immigration, and we destroyed our native peoples doing so. Many Americans are mixed with English, French, or Scottish roots. Many people have mixed backgrounds, period. It is hard-pressed to find anybody truly racially pure. My own family is not just Spanish and Chilean but we have French ancestry. The only real Americans are Native Americans. Immigrants have struggles assimilating because some do not speak English. Indeed, I have spoken to people who are Russian or Italian and who cannot break away from their immigrant communities to learn English. They fall into companies full of Italians who speak Italian but in no way do they try to assimilate.

I ran into this phenomenon when I was tutoring for an online tutoring company. Many were expressing how they needed to learn more English but they do not necessarily want to step out of their insulated new immigrant environment to talk to other people different from them. New immigrants need to assimilate by learning English, not by hiding in their specific community as many people in the United States voluntarily segregate. This keeps people safe but it doesn’t lend to exploring the larger world outside of their isolated community.

New immigrants flat out have to stretch themselves. Learning English right comes from talking to many people. Young children speak to their parents in their own language but they eventually have to start preschool to learn English as their second language. In my case, English was my second language as it is claimed that I spoke Spanish first. But in which case, these days, my comprehension in Spanish is fairly good without influencing my English much. English is necessary to learn if you move to an English speaking country. As English is necessary to be learned, new immigrants have learned enough of it to function in their society. To not learn English doesn’t do the immigrant a favor. It actually sets people back. In California, we have three major languages which fliers by the State are printed in, which are Vietnamese, Spanish and English. English is a necessity because it is a common language but I find that Caucasians can be rude to somebody who doesn’t speak good English. We have many social problems to work on in the United States. We are destroying ourselves through over-population on this planet anyway. Not every immigrant is out of control having kids. Lighten up about immigration, because it isn’t going away anytime soon.

humanity
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About the Creator

Iria Vasquez-Paez

I have a B.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State. Can people please donate? I'm very low-income. I need to start an escape the Ferengi plan.

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