Most immigrants find the idea of coming to America to work and live exciting and challenging. They hear many things about America through many resources such as reading the news, watching TV, online surfing, reading books about America and written in America, communicating with relatives and friends either from their native country, new American acquaintances and friends, and immigrants from other countries to name a few.
Getting to America is usually a lengthy and expensive process. Even though becoming a legal immigrant by following all the US rules and laws is somewhat time consuming and difficult, it is better than the alternative of entering into the USA illegally. Illegals in the USA usually have to take low opportunity/pay or even potentially dangerous jobs and can be caught by the US INS and deported back to their country. If this happens, it is more difficult to return to the USA through the legal immigration process.
Once in America most immigrants experience culture shock, especially if they have never visited or spent much time in a country very different from their own. Culture shock in this sense, means they would experience a culture that is probably very different than the culture of their native country. Most Americans born in the USA have a heritage that leads back to other countries with different cultures, so these various cultures have melted down over the generations. As time passes the newer generations have lost most of their heritage or original cultural ways. This is usually not true with most immigrants because many of their countries are older than the USA and their people have one universal cultural history and background. Most other countries do not have as much immigration as the USA.
Many immigrants come from 2nd and 3rd world countries where opportunities are few and local competition is fierce, making it difficult to become successful without having favor from successful people or people in power. According to Hasia Diner, who wrote the Immigration and U.S. History, stated; “Tens of millions of immigrants over four centuries have made the United States what it is today. They came to make new lives and livelihoods in the New World; their hard work benefited themselves and their new home country”.
Therefore, the USA is the land of hope and opportunity for many. Most immigrants are highly motivated and when planted in the fertile US soil, they grow very fast. Immigrants find it very important to speak, read, and write the English language proficiently in order to be successful in professional careers and fit into their local society. American colleges and universities are a good place for immigrants to start if they have the financial resources, even if they have a college education from their own country. American’s industries, colleges, and universities don’t fully recognize or accept degrees from most colleges and universities of other countries. Sometimes an immigrant must start their college education over from the beginning or near the beginning.
Almost all immigrants will need to make adjustments to live happily in America and fit into its diversified culture and society. Even though America has a lot of opportunities for motivated immigrants, adjustments and compromise are still necessary. America needs immigrants and should also seek to make the transition that immigrants face easier by making compromises. Americans would do well to education themselves somewhat with other cultures in order to be more open in acceptance of immigrants. Many times immigrants bring new ideas and better ways of doing things; therefore, Americans would be wise to listen and watch. Members of society should always seek to communicate effectively, respect each other, and be sensitive to each other’s needs and wants. Hopefully immigrants will continue to fit well in American societies and Americans will continue to help make this transition and time of adjustment, easier.
