Hello and welcome back! This blog post we will investigate some of the issues immigrants have faced that arose during the pandemic. While we have slowly been fighting against the prejudices immigrants face over the years, much of our work as a nation was set back due to Covid.  

As I am sure most of us know, since the beginning of the pandemic people have looked for someone to place the blame on. As evidence of the virus originating from China came out, many Americans began to ridicule China, and some even turned to violence against immigrants. Click here to read an article highlighting some of these violent acts. This article also gives statistics demonstrating this increase. Another article specifies that anti-Asian crime increased by 150% in 16 different cities in the year 2020. Click here to read that article. Because of these very clear statistics, many have begun to follow the Stop Asian Hate movement.  

Stop Asian Hate 

This movement was widely popularized in 2021 after people began to witness the intense amounts of discrimination and violence that Asian people experienced during 2020. Individual states began hosting their own rallies to unite with the Asian Americans and immigrants in their communities. Click here to learn more about the movement and rallies.  

Prejudiced Politics 

One of the other factors that lead to the amplification of hate crimes targeted at Asians was the political atmosphere in 2020. Whether intentional or not, former president Donald Trump was one of the biggest instigators of this fight. Along with spreading false information about Covid-19, he also coined the name “The China Virus” for it. Not only is this name very clearly disrespectful, but it also perpetuated the idea in people’s heads that Asians were the ones to blame. Here is a tweet of Donald Trumps which gives an example of his use of the inappropriate name the “China Virus”. 

Other Effects 

The pandemic has not only affected Asian Americans and immigrants. Many immigrants had interruptions of instability in their lives during 2020. Over the early months of the pandemic, many people lost their jobs; however, the unemployment rate for immigrant workers went up to nearly 34% higher than American born workers. Along with losing more jobs, many more immigrants do not have access to health insurance compared to native Americans.  

Overall, my final thoughts are that many more steps need to be taken to prevent this level of discrimination from happening. Violence should never be the answer, but especially when it is racially motivated.

Welcome back to my civic issues blog where I talk about a different challenge the immigrants face when moving to a new country, especially in America. Last post I talked about the anglicization of non-English names. While language and names are a very important part of cultures around the world, there are many pieces that make up certain cultures, one of which being religion. Not all cultures have a high emphasis placed on religion and spirituality, but many do. One thing that a lot of immigrants will find difficult adjusting to when moving to America is the lack of religion in everyday life. 

Since one of America’s core values is that of religious freedom, you will find a great diversity of religions in each corner of the nation. Immigrants coming from homogeneous religious nations will sometimes have a difficult time adjusting to this aspect of American life. While in their original country, immigrants will share similar beliefs and practices to others in their culture. Because of this, their religions were more easily accommodated in their home-country. For example, in primarily Muslim nations, people are given spaces and time to pray throughout the day at work and school. Whereas, in America, not all workplaces are as accepting as we would like them to be. Not only are employees not provided spaces to pray, but they are also punished for taking the time out of their day to do so. Click here to read about a Muslim man who was fired for requesting prayer breaks. 

Another issue that immigrants and many religious minorities face is the lack of religious monuments or buildings for certain religions. I cannot speak for all religions, but as someone who grew up going to Temple with my dad, who is Hindu, I can say that there are not many Hindu Temples around here. Especially if you don’t live in a location with a high concentration of Hindus, you may have to travel for more than an hour to get to the nearest one.

I am lucky to have one a 20-minute drive away from my hometown called the Bharatiya Temple. Access to religious buildings is not something most people have to think of often. There is no shortage of churches in the area.  

While America does have religious freedom, it does not mean people are free from all judgment and discrimination based off their religious beliefs. Click here to learn about more of the religious challenges that immigrants face in America.