Immigrating from Germany

Alex Uppenkamp

February 23, 2017

Mr. Aguirre
 Do you know how many people immigrate into America each year? There are about

500,000 legal immigrants who come to the United States and around 700,000 illegal immigrants

each year. Tina Uppenkamp is an immigrant who came from Germany in 1989. Tina lived in

Germany for all of her childhood. She grew up in a little town named Nrnberg. She came to the

United States because she met her husband in Germany when he was in the Army. He is from

San Diego and Tina came to the U.S. to be with him. She works as a nurse in the emergency

room at Sharp Hospital. She has lived in San Diego since and was able to get her American

citizenship.

She said, My grandparents had to take my mom into the bunkers underground when the

air raids happened in the city. Her grandparents lived through World War II. Her mom was very

young but still experienced that time. My mom immigrated in the year of 1989. During 1989, the

Berlin Wall opened up to let people travel from East to West Berlin. It was torn down by the

Germans in November. The Cold War was still going on during the time she immigrated.

When she came to the U.S. in 1989 with her husband, she knew English already because

that was a requirement for the schools to teach in Germany. She got here by airplane and landed

in San Diego where her husband, Mike Uppenkamp, lived. When she came to the United States

she wasnt allowed to work because she didn't have a work visa. She applied for her work visa

after she got married to Mike and the immigration agency granted it to her. After she got her

work visa it took her four months to get a job. She went to school at UCSD and got her

chemistry degree and got a job working at a small environmental company cleaning soil and

water. After that, she went back to school and now she is a nurse in the emergency room.
 I love the United States, I love living here, I think it's a great country but a country with

problems, but Germany has problems too.

There are many times in her life that shaped and changed her life such as immigrating to

a new country and overcoming breast cancer. Some things change a person's life forever and

when she had breast cancer, that time changed her life. She saw that life changes in an instant

from great to horrible whenever it wants to, and now she makes the most of everyday by making

herself happy. From the time she immigrated here many things have changed in her life. She has

her US citizenship, a husband, three kids, and has a job.

This nation faces a lot of problems right now and this is a country in turmoil. There's a

lot of racial division right now and I think that the government and the people have to come

together and try to overcome this. Now, she is worried about our new president and how he is

going to run our country. She is a risk-taker and has a lot to share with the world.