The New Generation of America

The U.S. is made of immigrants. The first Americans were immigrants from Europe. Overtime, America became a melting pot, meaning it was becoming very diverse. While the U.S became more diverse, xenophobia became more prominent. Xenophobia is the intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. It has existed for a long time. With Donald Trump running for president, everyone had their eyes on immigration. Immigrants felt unsafe and citizens with an immigrant family member were scared.

As xenophobia became more and more prominent, racism developed. Today, many are arrogant towards races besides their own. Immigrants who especially know little to no english deal with the worst of racism. People rudely telling them,” This is America, learn English” or “Stop taking our jobs.” ?English may be a dominant language in America, but it isn’t an official language. People who tell immigrants to learn English usually only speak English. Many immigrants go through a struggle of not only learning a completely new language, but also adapting to a completely new culture. In the end, the many immigrants that make up the population of America are bilingual and so are their children. These children will continue on to make up the new generation of Americans and the experiences they encounter will ultimately shape the role they will undertake in shaping the future of America.

When Donald Trump was running for president, many in the media labeled him as a fascist and racist; but some saw him as a great leader. He wanted to build a wall and get the Mexican government to pay for it. He wanted the deportation of all illegal immigrants. He wanted many things that angered immigrants. However, many immigrants have worked to build things for Trump such as the Trump Tower. Immigrants have helped America in many ways. Many immigrants help plant and harvest food for our consumer society. Without immigrants, we’d lose 17 percent (26.7 million) of the 159.5 million workers in the civilian labor force(statistics from 2014).

????I feel that immigrants are a big part of the American economy. I wish those with xenophobia wouldn‘t be so hateful towards immigrants and try to keep a somewhat open mind. After the natives, Europeans came and they were the immigrants. The America we know today is made up of immigrants. I know being an immigrant is hard because, though I was born in America, the rest of my family wasn’t. My grandma, who is now eighty-one, passed the American citizenship test about three years ago. My grandma had worked very hard to learn English and America’s history to become a citizen. Many immigrants come with dreams, and they see America as a land of opportunities.

<Jennifer Kwon, 12th Grade, Ambassor School of Global Leadership>