What are your thoughts on poverty? Poverty affects the well-being of the people who face it, especially immigrants who start from the bottom and have to work their way up or they still may be experiencing it to this day. While many immigrants who come to the United States experience poverty and some overcome it, financial stability can have a positive or negative impact on an immigrant's child's future.
What is poverty and who experiences it the most? In What is poverty? New Noveau Brunswick Canada states, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, it is fear for the future, living one day at a time.” When it comes to poverty it affects a person's well-being by not having the resources they need to survive on an everyday basis. This is important because many people experience poverty and because of that they can’t live a stable life without worrying about what they are going to do to have food or basic necessities they need. In Immigration and Poverty in America’s Suburbs Roberto Suro and colleagues inform that “The poverty rate was 14.1 percent among immigrants compared to 9.8 percent for the U.S.-born residents.” Immigrants are the ones who face poverty the most when coming to America because they're coming to a new country without anything and don't know the culture of America or the language. It affects them in that they may struggle to find a job because they don't know the language and without that they won't be able to get a job which makes it harder for them to be financially stable.
My parents immigrated from Mexico to the United States hoping they would have a better life there than their home country. In The Other Wes Moore, author Wes Moore states, “America allowed them to create a life they couldn’t have dreamed of in their home countries of Jamaica and Cuba” (39). The parents of Wes’s mom came to America seeking for new opportunities that can help them and their family just like how my parents wanted to. That’s mainly the reason why immigrants come to America because they think that it's a place to better themselves and start a new life. What they don’t know is the challenges that they are going to face when coming to the U.S. like discrimination and poverty since they are starting fresh they may not have the financial needs to support themselves and their family. When my parents first came to the U.S. they had no money or anywhere to live. They moved in with one of my uncles but even then my uncle had his own family and wasn't as welcoming to my parents. He wouldn’t let my parents grab any of their food or necessities they needed. The only thing he provided for them was a closet that they would sleep in but it wasn’t very big. My parents had to figure out how to be able to provide for themselves and their children. They started working in sewing factories which wouldn’t pay much. In Industrial Sewing Machine Operator Salary in Texas ZipRecruiter points out that “As of Nov 5, 2023, the average hourly pay for an Industrial Sewing Machine Operator in Texas is $13.52 an hour.” This demonstrates that people who worked in sewing factories would get paid low wages even to this day. This is important because if you're getting paid low wages you're not going to have enough funds to pay bills, get food, or get necessities that you need.
Growing up I never experienced poverty because my parents worked hard to get themselves out of poverty. My dad started his own business for landscaping and because of that, we are financially stable. My mom used to clean houses but later on, stopped working and became a full-time housewife. I am really grateful for everything that I have because I know some people have less than me. My parents have given me everything and because of that, I have good opportunities like an education. Education is super important for my parents because they want me to have a good career and not struggle like how they did. In the future, I want to repay back everything that my parents have given me and their hard work to be able to give me good opportunities.
Immigrants can give their children better opportunities when coming to the U.S. In Why the Children of Immigrants Are the Ones Getting Ahead in America author Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan demonstrate that “Using millions of records of immigrant families from 1880 to 1940 and then again from 1980 to today, we find that the in past and still today children of immigrants surpass their parents and move up the economic ladder.” This establishes that many children who have immigrant parents push themselves to become better than what their parents had to go through financially. Children of immigrants want to be able to pay back their parents for all the sacrifices they made which gives them motivation to work hard by getting a good career and making their parents proud.
In "How Do the Children of Immigrant Parents Perform in School?" author Nicholas Zill reveals that “Another factor that contributes to the success of students with immigrant parents is that their mothers and fathers have extremely high expectations about how far their offspring will go in school.” Immigrant parents want what's best for their kids and don't want them to go through what they had to when coming to the U.S. They want them to have a stable life with no worries if they're going to be able to pay their bills or necessities.
Immigrants coming to the U.S. may still be experiencing poverty which can affect their child's future. In Children From Immigrant Families Are Increasingly the Face of Higher Education author Miriam Jordan implies that “Once immigrant-origin students are in school, their dropout rates tend to be higher because many come from poor households.” When coming from a poor immigrant household many children tend to drop out of school to help their parents financially. They put that responsibility on themselves of helping their parents out with the bills and for them, school gets in the way of the amount of hours they work which is why they drop out to go full time on their job. Jordan discusses that “They juggle multiple responsibilities, which makes it more challenging for them to stay in school and complete their degrees on time.” Immigrant-origin children may finish high school but when they enter college and they're the oldest they have more responsibilities with younger siblings or helping out their parents. This affects them in that they drop out of college and can’t become a better version of themselves by not finishing their major and risking the fact of not being able to get a good job.
In conclusion, many immigrants who come to the U.S. face poverty and some get out of it but depending on your stability financially it can affect their child's future in a positive or negative way. It affects their children in that some may drop out of school to support their family and others are motivated to give back to their parents. We should encourage immigrant-origin kids who are wanting to drop out of school to stay in school because that will give them a chance to get out of poverty and have a stable life.
I was inspired to write this essay because as a child of immigrant parents, what they had to face when coming to the U.S. and how it affects their children interested me. My writing process started by researching information about my topic and the book we were reading in class for my essay and relating it to my experiences with poverty. The literary technique I used was imagery because I described my family's experiences. I structured my essay by first starting by explaining what poverty is and who experiences it the most. Then I related that to my own experiences and explained how poverty can affect children whose parents are immigrants. The theme I am exploring is poverty and its effects on immigrants and their children.