Jacqueline's Civic Issues Blog

In my last post I focused on the housing and employment situations that immigrants encounter when they come to the United States. These situations are typically what adult would encounter, so this week I will be focusing on the education and medical experiences, which I feel affect the children more.

https://www.danburyisd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1606102&type=d&pREC_ID=1802903

I am sure that many immigrant children and child of immigrants have experienced ESL, or English as a Second Language. I myself have gone through the program and depending on who you had as an instructor it could have been a good or bad experience. For many foreign-born students, school can be a really scary place where they could face bullying and discrimination, with their accents being the main target.

A school should be a place where a student comes to learn, not be harassed. According to UNESCO, “data from Europe and North America show that immigrant students are more likely to be bullied than their native-born peers”, and this can affect their academic accomplishments greatly. When considering the effects of bullying overall, “children who are frequently bullied are more likely to want to leave school after finishing secondary education than those who are not frequently bullied”.

https://brycs.org/schools/filing-a-bullying-or-discrimination-complaint/

Enough about bullying for now, I would like to focus on college and the struggles that many immigrants or children of immigrants experience when they experience college for the first time for themselves and their family members. As you can see in the graph above, the first and second generation with international make up a small percentage of immigrant-origin students. The reason why I left out third/higher generation is because at that point the family will most likely be “Americanized”. According to The New York Times, “Once immigrant-origin students are in school, their dropout rates tend to be higher because many come from poor households”. This is related with my last post, but I went over how these families are more likely to succumb to poverty or stay at low/ lower-middle class because of the obstacles in their way (housing, employment, etc.).

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/is-it-better-to-finish-college-faster-or-debt-free-2385737

This being my first year in college, I have felt an immense amount of pressure to do well academically, personally, and financially. I focus on my studies, apply to scholarships, and have been working in order to support myself and my family at home; I know that the majority of students in my position are doing the same. There is just so much to do and a lot to think about, which leads to immigrant-origin students dropping out of their post-secondary education. Ms. Batalova, a senior policy analyst at Migration Policy Institute, shared, that “if there is a health or family emergency, they lack a safety net to fall back on. That interferes with attending classes and completing assignments” (Jordan).

https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/resources/lessons/story-immigrant-health-care-policy-changing-fast-it-pays-stay-flexible

This brings me to my next point: the issues that immigrants face medically. Personally, I have seen my parents and grandparents deny medical attention due to their mistrust of the American HealthCare system. I feel like this is a huge problem in immigrant families, especially since “In 2018, almost one-quarter (23%) of authorized immigrants and almost half (45%) of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. did not have insurance”, which is insane because these people are dying silently, leaving children, siblings, parents behind. Whereas my sister and I are in the Medicaid program, my parents and grandparents do not have health insurance; the main cause of this is because they are not able to afford it, so they just go around hoping that they do not get terribly sick.

As discussed in my previous blog, immigrants are a great contributor to the U.S. economy, this also includes the health care system. Despite not having health insurance, they help support it financially and even reduce the cost of care by paying taxes (Health). Not to mention that another reason why immigrant families are hesitant to go to seek medical help is because of the racial discrimination and stigma that they themselves encounter. Depending on the area that the families reside in, “U.S.-born immigrant children may not have full access to the benefits afforded to them by citizenship because of their parents’ status or challenges such as language barriers” (Misra). This leads to inequities for these children health-wise, all because there was nobody that spoke their language at that facility.

https://www.texaschildrens.org/departments/program-immigrant-and-refugee-child-health

 

 

Overall, the United States should make the effort to provide for the immigrant population, especially considering that they and their children are the future of America.

Citations:

“Behind the Numbers: Ending School Violence and Bullying.” Unesdoc.unesco.org, UNESCO, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366483.

“Health Coverage and Care of Immigrants.” Published: Dec 20, 2022. KFF, 3 Mar. 2023, https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/fact-sheet/health-coverage-and-care-of-immigrants/.

Jessica Hill a, et al. “Immigration Status as a Health Care Barrier in the USA during COVID-19.” Journal of Migration and Health, Elsevier, 20 Mar. 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666623521000039.

Jordan, Miriam. “Children from Immigrant Families Are Increasingly the Face of Higher Education.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/us/immigrant-families-students-college.html.

Misra S, Kwon SC, Abraído-Lanza AF, Chebli P, Trinh-Shevrin C, Yi SS. Structural Racism and Immigrant Health in the United States. Health Education & Behavior. 2021;48(3):332-341. doi:10.1177/10901981211010676

“National Data on Immigrant Students: Higher Ed Immigration Portal.” Presidents’ Alliance, 2 Feb. 2023, https://www.higheredimmigrationportal.org/national/national-data/.

Like many other children in this country, both of my parents are immigrants. My father is Salvadoran and my mother is Romanian and both of them have immigrated due to the political, social, and economic issues. My mother has been a resident basically ever since she arrived in the United States in the early 2000s and received her citizenship in 2015. My father on the other hand, has been undocumented for most of my life and I have always feared that he would be deported. That was until he was ordered to go back to El Salvador to complete the process for his Green Card in 2016, after years of waiting to be approved.

https://www.sjpl.org/citizenship

The point of me sharing this is that I have seen my parents suffer discrimination to different extents and I myself have encountered prejudice for being mistaken as an immigrant. Many immigrants and child of immigrants succumb to poverty in all aspects: housing, employment, education, medical, and much more.

In terms of overall wealth, “Of the 44 million immigrants in the United States as of 2019 whose poverty status could be determined, one-third (14.8 million) were low income” (A Profile). I thank God every day that I never had to go through a moment of poverty in my life, but it is so unfortunate that this is the reality for many immigrants who come looking for a better life and find nothing but lies and false illusions.

https://talkpoverty.org/2014/10/01/reducing-poverty-through-immigration-reform/

Many immigrants struggle to find affordable and adequate housing for every member in their families, which in turn leads to them living in unsafe conditions, typically in urban areas like Los Angeles, D.C., Chicago, NYC, etc. (Migration). I can personally attest to this since for 13 years of my life I have lived in a one bedroom/ one bathroom apartment with  my sister, father, mother, and all kinds of animals (yes, it was very crowded). My neighborhood was predominately Salvadoran and African American and it was dangerous, but I never knew this until I visited friends’ homes in another ward.

 

I am pretty sure that everyone has heard about the stereotype that immigrants take people’s jobs, and although I feel as if this is a clear lie, many ignorant people do not see it that way because they want to blame their unemployment on to “illegals”. The truth is that they can see the positions that immigrants fill as field workers, janitors, and babysitters, but not the ones that they create through authentic family businesses like corner stores, restaurants, and artisanal projects (Immigrants). Immigrants play a vital role in all of our communities by sharing their countries’ blessings with the public, honoring and contributing to the idea that America is a melting pot.

 

Still, there are so many immigrants that miss out on employment opportunities as well. This is in part because of their documental status and language barrier. In my familial case, my mother has gotten jobs as a cashier when she first came here, a baker (where she met my father), and even a certified nurse’s assistant, or CNA. During all these jobs she has been babysitting and cleaning houses for years–even now, but she has never been able to maintain a quality job due to discrimination and xenophobia in the workplace and her employers paying her too little for her quality of work. My father on the other hand, he has worked as a window washer (those people that clean the windows on the tall buildings), a house painter, and a baker, where he has worked and stayed at. My father was luckily able to gain promotions due to his hard work and dedication to the company, but this is not to say that he has never faced discrimination as well.

https://prospect.org/labor/unions-help-immigrants-resist-deportations/

Compared to Native-born Americans, Foreign-born Americans are vulnerable to the injustices that are set in place in the law. For some reason, ignorant individuals feel that just because someone was not born in this country, that makes them dangerous and malicious. In order to ensure the safety of our foreign brothers and sisters, we must breakdown these stereotypes and build positive ones. Of course, we as citizens also have the right to vote for individuals that represent what we want from them in regards to immigrant safety. I also invite you all to not be shy and ask an immigrant about their experience and see what are some of the things that they have encountered.

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/supreme-court-daca-decision-oped

Citations:

“Here’s What We Know about Foreign-Born Workers in the U.S. – and How Their Demographics Compare to the Native-Born Population.” Peter G. Peterson Foundation, https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/11/the-foreign-born-labor-force-of-the-united-states#:~:text=The%20unemployment%20rate%20for%20foreign%2Dborn%20workers%20rose%20in%202020,rate%20than%20the%20native%20born.

“Immigrants and the Economy.” American Civil Liberties Union, https://www.aclu.org/other/immigrants-and-economy.

Loesche, Dyfed, and Felix Richter. “Infographic: Most Migrants Live in America’s Metropolitan Areas.” Statista Infographics, 22 Feb. 2017, https://www.statista.com/chart/8207/us-metro-areas-with-the-most-unauthorized-migrants/.

“Migration and the Right to Housing.” OHCHR, https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/migration-and-right-housing#:~:text=Often%20unable%20in%20practice%20or,in%20cities%20and%20urban%20areas.

A Profile of Low-Income Immigrants in the United States. https://www.migrationpolicyinstitute-europe.com/sites/default/files/publications/mpi_low-income-immigrants-factsheet_final.pdf.

 

 

 

 

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