Sebastian Velez

English 150
Thursday April 23, 15
Reflection essay
Immigrants In The United States Of America, A Reality
In the second semester of my first year at Unl I decided that it
was time that I took care of myself, so I applied for work a company
called Gallup. I passed the interviews and started working for them.
Gallup is a company that does polls through the phone for banks, big
enterprises or for the government, with the purpose of getting
opinions of the general public all around the US. At Gallup I met this
person called Luis, he told me his story. He is a son of immigrant
parents from Mexico; their parents came to the us from Mexico more
than 20 years ago. And because his parents came from Mexico, even
though he was born in the US, he is still not a citizen from the US. He
told me that the US government allows people like him to study like a
normal citizen, however they never get a ID as resident and they just
get a paper that says they can stay in the state. The Id they get lets
them study and work only. They cant drive, vote or participate in any
event of the state. So I asked him how is he going to get the money
for college? He said that he is working for it, and that even though he
can work he has to find his way around to get to work. After months
of being his friend I decided to ask him about his parents and he gave
me eye opening answers. He said that his parents work twice as much
as anybody else, that his parents have more than three jobs, and that
these three jobs were the kind of jobs that no other American wants

to take, because it requires lots of effort and sacrifice.

He started

telling me how people in general think they are bad people just
because they are not from US and are here illegally. He said that
people cannot se beyond of what is in front of there eyes. They cant
see that they come from a country that is going through trouble, that
living good is no longer a possibility for the low income people. That
he comes from a great country that is so good that was taken by
politicians and drugs, were one hour of work is worth ten times less
than one hour of work in the US.

After all these facts and words that Luis told me, I decideD to do
some research, and search the effects of Immigrants to the us. I found
out that at least 40 million or more immigrants live in the US (foreignborn).

That this immigrants make around

13 percent of the

population now on day. More that half were from Latin America and
the Caribbean.

On my research I was able to find out that the

population of immigrants hasnt reshaped the Americans way of

living, moreover it has shown a process of culturazation from the
immigrants towards the American community.

In cities of high immigration congregation that usually are areas

with big agricultural companies, in the past two decades the crime
has gone down, cities have gained growth, low income neighborhoods
have been remodeled, and thanks to the hard work immigrants work,
and the fact that some have to run from big cities because of papers

little towns all around the us have begin to grow again. For example
the New York time magazine says that crime has dropped significantly
more in cities were there is more presence of immigrants. Some
attribute this to religion. In other countries like Mexico, families are
strongly attached to religion and fallow their believes, dragging their
children into a good religious path. Towns with high immigration were
associated with reduction for homicides and robberies. Young
immigrants were found to be less involved in crimes that native
Americans in similar living circumstances.

Large

cities

have

seen

an

economic

revitalization;

with

somehow a reduction in concentrated poverty. In my opinion this is

because of the extra work the immigrants put into the low paid works.
Letting the low income Americans with the better well paid jobs.

After doing these research I asked myself If immigration isnt

totally bad for the US, Why there is such a rejection and lack of
attention towards it. Even though I came to the conclusion that part of
the answers to these question can be answer. I think it lies purely on
language, religion, social believes , changes, and last but not least the
acceptance of Americans to others. Even though the world is divided
into continents, countries, states, and cities. Everyone is the same.
The only difference radiates in the outside. Every single human is
trying to live its cycle in earth, some find it easier in some places than

other, other have to move in other to survive, but all have the same
right to be accepted by there same kind.
Sources
http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economicletter/2010/august/effect-immigrants-us-employment-productivity/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/opinion/the-beneficial-impact-ofimmigrants.html?_r=0