Every day I read news stories related to immigration - most of them concerning illegal immigration. The topic of immigration, past, present, and future, seems to have become so touchy that many people are now on the defense (or offense) about any kind of immigration.
Take, for example, today's story in the Times Herald (Mogtgomery County Pennsylvania), in which Congressman Joe Sestake, a son of a Czechoslovakian father, is quoted. He talks about the United States being a nation of immigrants and relates how his father worked in Pennsylvania steel mills, fought in World War II as a Navy captain, and how he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, among other American heroes. "America has always attracted the best, brightest and most enterprising people from around the world," Congressman Sestake said. "I think that has always been a source of strength, character, and independence, and it continues today."
It's clear that especially in tough economic times, that immigration become a target. That's why immigrants and their children need to speak up about the value and importance of their contributions to this wonderful country.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
California Controller Chiang is a Child of Immigrants
John Chiang is making headlines these days (and giving Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a major headache) because of a fight over whether to pay state workers minimum federal wage while a budget impasse continues. (The Governor has ordered it; Chiang is refusing to comply.)
Chiang is a child of Taiwanese immigrants and was born in New York and raised in the Midwest.
According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, Chiang's family lived in a white, working class suburb of Chicago - Palo Heights - and they were targets of racial hatred.
Bee writter Marcos Breton writes, "There were the racial epithets spray-painted on their house, rocks hurled through windows and the numberous times Chiang had to defend himself and younger siblings."
In the interview, Chaing says his parents are now his heroes but that wasn't always the case when he was growing up.
He echoes some of the stories I'm hearing from other children of immigrants who have learned so much wisdom from the past as they've made a better future for themselves and others.
Chiang is a child of Taiwanese immigrants and was born in New York and raised in the Midwest.
According to an article in the Sacramento Bee, Chiang's family lived in a white, working class suburb of Chicago - Palo Heights - and they were targets of racial hatred.
Bee writter Marcos Breton writes, "There were the racial epithets spray-painted on their house, rocks hurled through windows and the numberous times Chiang had to defend himself and younger siblings."
In the interview, Chaing says his parents are now his heroes but that wasn't always the case when he was growing up.
He echoes some of the stories I'm hearing from other children of immigrants who have learned so much wisdom from the past as they've made a better future for themselves and others.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Mike Mendoza - Roots to the Phillipines
Mike Mendoza is a personal trainer at a prestigious athletic club in Sacramento. A friendly, beautiful-smiling young man in his late twenties, Mendoza is quick to tell me that he was embarassed to be a child of immigrants when he grew up in Concord, California. Why? Because he was the only one among his childhood friends with parents who were not born in the United States.
Mendoza and his siblings would race to the phone whenever it rang so that his parents would not get there first. He knew that if his parents had answered the phone, they would be the butt of joking from his friends. They would mock the accents and say they couldn't understand what his parents were saying.
Like several of the people I have interviewed, Mendoza says that as an adult, he is very proud of his parents and his heritage. But, he winces when he recalls how he did everything he could to fit in with his white classmates, including trying to spend as much time away from home playing with his friends at their houses instead of bringing them to his home.
Adulthood brings its wisdom and understanding and, I believe, helps us connect better to our families and to others who come into our lives during the years that we grow older.
Mendoza and his siblings would race to the phone whenever it rang so that his parents would not get there first. He knew that if his parents had answered the phone, they would be the butt of joking from his friends. They would mock the accents and say they couldn't understand what his parents were saying.
Like several of the people I have interviewed, Mendoza says that as an adult, he is very proud of his parents and his heritage. But, he winces when he recalls how he did everything he could to fit in with his white classmates, including trying to spend as much time away from home playing with his friends at their houses instead of bringing them to his home.
Adulthood brings its wisdom and understanding and, I believe, helps us connect better to our families and to others who come into our lives during the years that we grow older.
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