Ten Myths About Immigration

Since the beginning of America, immigrants have played a key role in building American industry, economy, and society. Bringing cultures from across the globe, immigrants were and are essential to building the America of today. However, each immigrant is faced with the challenge of assimilating into American culture and specific communities within that culture. A community is a group of people who share common interests, ideas, traits, or circumstances, and ultimately accept all members of the community, whether it be on a national level, neighborhood level, or any other level on a large or small scale. This difficult transition from one community to another has a heavy impact on each immigrant’s sense of self by taking away a sense of personal …show more content…
However, immigrants overcome a multitude of hardships to assimilate to American life, even if out of necessity, and develop a community identity in the process. “Ten Myths About Immigration” supports this by quoting, “‘The first generation struggled with English and didn’t learn it. The second was bilingual. The third can’t talk to their grandparents.’” Access to public education and media, in particular, have allowed immigrants to assimilate quickly and develop new “American” interests, encouraging immigrants to self-identify with American culture. Since an important characteristic of a community is sharing similar interests and ideas, the development of “American” interests and identity allows immigrants to become a part of a nationwide …show more content…
When immigrants finally feel as if they are accepted into an unfamiliar community, they are able to develop a new dimension to their sense of self as a member of something larger than themselves. As Rodriguez states in Aria, “So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality.” Public individuality is derived from contributing to American and community prosperity to the point of community acceptance and comfort. Immigrants from all over have contributed to society for generations, bringing their culture and devotion to industry in particular. “The Pull To America” provides that as early as the 1800’s, immigrants have “made up the bulk of U.S. industrial labor pool, making possible the emergence of such industries as steel, coal, automobile, textile, and garment production, enabling the United States to leap into the front ranks of the world’s economic giants.” This contribution to society has allowed immigrants to properly assimilate and develop a new sense of self as feel apart of a broader community and lifestyle, as they share similar circumstances with fellow community members by embodying the working class