Memo #3
As I was reading Keeping the Immigrant Bargain, I reflected on my perspective of the immigrant bargain. For years, I thought that earning a bachelors degree was my way to repay my parents for all they have done for me. However, this book made me realized, I had no idea what my parents really went through and all the sacrifices they made when they moved to the United States. Thus, in this paper I explore their experience and attempt to understand it using Louie’s book as a source of reference. More than anything this will be a reflection about my family. This paper will begin by discussing the type of mobility my parents experienced. This will be followed by my parents’ interaction with the American education system. Finally, I will …show more content…
Since our family did not have kids that had gone to school in the United States, my mom relied on the information she received from friends at work. This is what my mom had to say about her experience in the Board of Education of Plainfield, “Everyone had to work; I had to go by myself with you and your sister. I remember they told me they would get someone that spoke Spanish, but the person they brought in, spoke half English, half Spanish. It was hard to understand her”. This initial encounter with the American education system implicitly showed my mother the constraints she would face whenever she attempted to interact with our education. The language barrier was the biggest problem, but also the stress of their jobs, supporting the household, and their low educational attainment were also very influential in the academic involvement my parents could offer. Thus, according to my mother, all they could do was to make sure I understood the importance of getting an education and prevent me from getting into trouble. She went on to say “I think my job was mainly to cover all your basic needs so that you can be the best you can possibly be”. My mother’s words reminded me of a statement in Louie’s book, “parental involvement [was]…largely in terms of ensuring the children were healthy, went to school, and did not behave badly”(76). According to Louie, the “combination of extensive…verbal and …show more content…
Moreover, their limited capacity to interact with our education, and their experience at their jobs made my parents feel detached from the American culture. The experience of my parents resembles tremendously those of the parents describe in the book. However, unlike the parents in the book, my parents didn’t express any frustration for not being recognized as Americans. It seemed as if they had accepted that they won’t be seen as American, thus they didn’t exert any apparent effort to fully adapt to American culture. Instead, they understood their experience as a lesson and interpreted in an Ecuadorian context, which led them to feel sympathy towards indigenous populations, who, just like them, had experienced discrimination. Before interviewing them for this assignment, my parents have always told me that they wanted to come to the United States to give my sister and me a better life and more opportunities (a.k.a the American Dream). They knew that life wasn’t going to be easy because my mom’s family had told them about their challenges. As I heard their stories I realized that before we even left Ecuador, the immigrant bargain was imposed on my sister and me. Thus, they always told us to work hard and go to college because this would give us a better life. At the end of the interview, I ask them if I had kept the immigrant bargain. My dad laughed and said with a
As I was reading Keeping the Immigrant Bargain, I reflected on my perspective of the immigrant bargain. For years, I thought that earning a bachelors degree was my way to repay my parents for all they have done for me. However, this book made me realized, I had no idea what my parents really went through and all the sacrifices they made when they moved to the United States. Thus, in this paper I explore their experience and attempt to understand it using Louie’s book as a source of reference. More than anything this will be a reflection about my family. This paper will begin by discussing the type of mobility my parents experienced. This will be followed by my parents’ interaction with the American education system. Finally, I will …show more content…
Since our family did not have kids that had gone to school in the United States, my mom relied on the information she received from friends at work. This is what my mom had to say about her experience in the Board of Education of Plainfield, “Everyone had to work; I had to go by myself with you and your sister. I remember they told me they would get someone that spoke Spanish, but the person they brought in, spoke half English, half Spanish. It was hard to understand her”. This initial encounter with the American education system implicitly showed my mother the constraints she would face whenever she attempted to interact with our education. The language barrier was the biggest problem, but also the stress of their jobs, supporting the household, and their low educational attainment were also very influential in the academic involvement my parents could offer. Thus, according to my mother, all they could do was to make sure I understood the importance of getting an education and prevent me from getting into trouble. She went on to say “I think my job was mainly to cover all your basic needs so that you can be the best you can possibly be”. My mother’s words reminded me of a statement in Louie’s book, “parental involvement [was]…largely in terms of ensuring the children were healthy, went to school, and did not behave badly”(76). According to Louie, the “combination of extensive…verbal and …show more content…
Moreover, their limited capacity to interact with our education, and their experience at their jobs made my parents feel detached from the American culture. The experience of my parents resembles tremendously those of the parents describe in the book. However, unlike the parents in the book, my parents didn’t express any frustration for not being recognized as Americans. It seemed as if they had accepted that they won’t be seen as American, thus they didn’t exert any apparent effort to fully adapt to American culture. Instead, they understood their experience as a lesson and interpreted in an Ecuadorian context, which led them to feel sympathy towards indigenous populations, who, just like them, had experienced discrimination. Before interviewing them for this assignment, my parents have always told me that they wanted to come to the United States to give my sister and me a better life and more opportunities (a.k.a the American Dream). They knew that life wasn’t going to be easy because my mom’s family had told them about their challenges. As I heard their stories I realized that before we even left Ecuador, the immigrant bargain was imposed on my sister and me. Thus, they always told us to work hard and go to college because this would give us a better life. At the end of the interview, I ask them if I had kept the immigrant bargain. My dad laughed and said with a