Running head: IMMIGRANT CHALLENGES 1

Immigrant Challenges
Ramona Torres-Martinez
Fresno Pacific University

The video that I viewed was about a Syrian refugee family that migrated to the United

States to escape that war horror occurring in their home country. Before their lives were

interrupted by the countrys war the father was a middle-class store owner. The familys home

and business was destroyed during the airstrikes leaving them homeless. They made the difficult

decision to abandon their hometown and seek refuge after the war threaten the well-being of the

family. The father, his wife, and two children took shelter in a refugee camp but the poor living

conditions and the lack of treatment for their autistic son encouraged the family to make the

determination to leave Syria. Through the help of a refugee relocation program the family was

given the opportunity to flee from the destruction of the war and relocate to the United States.
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The family left Syria and relocated to the United States during summer of 2015. The

refugee program assisted the family with temporary financial assistance and helped the family

find a small apartment to live in. The program assisted in finding the father a job in a nearby

city. They were also provided with medical assistance for their autistic son.
One of the greatest obstacles that the family faced upon arriving to the United States was

the hostility towards Syrian refugees because of the recent terrorist attack that had occurred in

Paris. The media and government officials were portrayed a negative image of Syrian refugees to

the public claiming that allowing them to enter the country would put the American lives at risk.

The family fearing for their future limited their interactions with people in their neighborhood.

They felt that people were intimidated by their Syrian nationality and Muslim religion. Another

obstacle that the family faced was the language barrier because the father and mother both do not

speak English. They worry about not being to communicate their needs and wants to others if

necessary. However, despite the anti-bias movement, the father made the decision to become an

advocate for the Syrian community and refugee relocation program.

The immigrant story of the Syrian refugee family is has similarities to the experience that

my family and I encountered during our migration to the United States. My familys immigrant

story began when my paternal grandfather first came to the United States as an agricultural

worker. He participated in the Bracero program, which offered temporary field work to Mexican

citizens. My grandfather used the money that he earned working to continue the construction of

his family home in Mexico.

Then in 1975, my father like similar to father in the video also made the decision to leave

his home country and venture illegally into the United States to seek a better future for his

family. Unlike the familys violence experience with the war, my father motivation to migrate

was driven by poverty and lack of financial resources. He had a family to support and the wages

that he was earning work in Mexico were not enough to provide for his children. During his first
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attempt to across the border, he was arrested, physical assaulted, and robbed by the Mexican

authorities. My father eventually succeeded in his attempt to enter the United States to seek a

better future. Once in the country he found housing in Fresno by sharing a two bedroom

apartment with six other immigrants. During this time my fathers greatest fear was to be caught

working illegally and getting deported back to Mxico.

It would take my father five years of being away from his family and working odd job to

finally afford bring his family over to the United States. In 1986, my father was granted resident

legal status in the country through an immigration amnesty. The first time that we enter the

United States it was illegally. My mother, sister, and I were crossed over by a coyote or

smuggler. We had to across a mountain side running because we risked getting caught by border

control. I was only four years old at that time, but I still remember vividly that my mother

became ill and the smuggler attempted to abandon her in the middle of the journey. Thankfully,

a few of the men part of the group helped carry my mother to the awaiting car that would

transport us to a safe location inside the United States. Then a few years later after migration to

the country, my father filed a petition with immigration and we along with the rest of my siblings

were granted a legal status in the country.

The greatest challenges that my father faced during his migration ordeal was the risk of

drowning while crossing the river at the border state and extreme heat condition while walking in

the desert during the day. He also faced the possibility of being robbed by the smugglers and

abandon in the middle of the journey. Another challenge that we faced as illegal aliens in the

country was being deported because immigration deportation was a common occurrence. We

were afraid to befriend other people because we did not want to disclose our status to others.

Similarly, like the family in the video the language barrier was an obstacle that we faced as

immigrants in this country. My father knew a few basic English words that he had learned from
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his time as a dish washer in a hotel, but the rest of us did not comprehend or speak the language.

We overcome most of the obstacles, once we gain a legal status in the United States.