The United States is a nation made up of immigrants. For centuries, people have come to the US in search of prosperity, freedom, financial success, and many other reasons. According to dictionary.com, an immigrant is a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence. People may immigrate for different reasons; the harsh conditions in their native country may have been to hard which resulted in their need to travel to another country. Why come to America of all countries? America has blessed every citizen with rights and privileges that can’t be taken away. The promise of such rights entices others to come to our country to retrieve what they could never get in their country. That is why thousands of people migrate to the US every year. Thanks to the naturalization process, many of those people can become another member of the beautiful country we call America. Being an American is a term that many take very lightly, but can be explained in many different ways. To me, being American means being apart of this “melting pot” and enjoying the fact that we live in a place with so many diverse ethnicities. The exposure to all the different races allows for the learning of various cultures and rituals. It also means that you are included in the leading democratic country in the world which gives you the right to choose and have an opinion on what you think is good, not only for you, but for the country as a whole. If you’re a native citizen, these privileges are guaranteed to you since birth, but if you’re a naturalized citizen there are some steps you have to take to attain those privileges. Turning 18 years old is a major part of this process, along with being a permanent and lawful US for 5 years. If you can read, write, and speak simple English and have some knowledge about US gov’t and history, you are already half way through the process. Applications for citizenship are available through www.uscis.gov, where all the information that you need about becoming a citizen will be available to you. All that’s left is your interview, test, and the finally the ceremony where you are sworn in as an official US citizen. Becoming an American citizen is the start to the successful life that most only dream about. Once a citizen, the justice system gives you rights that no one else can take away, some of which include a speedy and public trial, having a witness testify in a court and protection from cruel & unusual punishment. These, along with others, separate American citizens from underprivileged countries. Not only do they separate us, they unify us as a nation. Becoming unified doesn’t mean physically becoming a single, committed unit, it means honoring the fact that we all have different opinions and that were human and make mistakes. Judging people doesn’t make us unified, it separates us immensely. Being free and created by the same God that gives us all the same inalienable rights makes us unified; Not only as a nation, but as people in general. Some people immigrate to the US mostly because of financial, sentimental, economic, religious and political reasons. Some come to flee wars in their home countries. They hope to find a better future and to escape crammed spaces. Some want to experience new things and find new opportunities that weren 't open before. There is also a push/pull factor, where your country has few jobs but your neighboring country have many jobs available. Many come here because they are in poverty and are in need and see America as a place that can help to change that situation. United States of America is known as the land of opportunity for many immigrants who dare to dream of a better life. Since the beginning of American history, United States has focused more about equal opportunity than any other country. There are many people who strongly believe that once they come to the United States it is almost guaranteed to find success. For example, my relatives in Jamaica always say how my parents how become successful and have earned so much since making the decision to come to America. Moving to America probably was the hardest thing my mom had to do. Leaving a place that you knew so well to come to such unfamiliar surroundings must have been such a culture shock. But leaving allowed a variety of options for her family that wouldn’t have been available in Jamaica, which had an extremely positive affect on our life seeing that it has changed for the better. Traveling almost 1,600 miles away from home can be tedious and scary. It takes guts and courage to do something on your own like that, which is what my mom did. Coming to see if she could “further help my family and I” was the driving force behind her decision. Upon her arrival, it was difficult but she eventually learned to adjust to everything. The hardest thing would’ve probably been the weather, Jamaica is a tropical island, where the temperature is most 90-100s and the lowest it can get is in the 70s. America, the East Coast, definitely deals with temperature lower than that especially in the winter. Getting a job was hard for her seeing as though she could’ve used the subjects that she passed along with her High School Diploma to get a very good paying job. In America, college is where you have to go if you want to even think of getting a good job, because my mom never went to college many jobs that she wish she could apply for are out of her reach because she doesn’t have the proper requirements. Despite all of that, my mom embraced this change and came into America with no fear, just her eagerness to get used to all the different cultures, landmarks, and people. Citizenship is a beautiful process that welcomes anyone to a place full of different kinds of people. This place allows all races, ethnicities, to come together and become one and won’t turn you away because of your right and determination to live here.
Works Cited Graf, Katie. “American Citizenship.” Central High School. 02 September 2010. Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 21 Sept. 2010. .
Latoya Edwards
September 21, 2010
Period: 5/Civics Hon
Mrs. Graf
Citizenship Essay
Cited: Graf, Katie. “American Citizenship.” Central High School. 02 September 2010. Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 21 Sept. 2010. . Latoya Edwards September 21, 2010 Period: 5/Civics Hon Mrs. Graf Citizenship Essay
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
America is founded in immigration. Aside from those of pure Native American descent, every one of its citizens has origin elsewhere. Their motivations for leaving their birth land are all but unknown, and are the core of what makes America. All of them can be rooted to an expression with many names; freedom, opportunity, and liberty.…
- 241 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
The United States of America, what we call the land of the brave and freedom does not belong to anyone but to Native Americans who were here before anyone else colonize it. Immigration began in the 1850s by European immigrants and, now in the 20th century we see it with Latin Americans and Mexicans. These groups have some common things, both of them want a better future, education, and lifestyle as Nancy Foner makes a great point on her article “Who They Are and Why They Come” about a strong reason why they come to the U.S. “It has always been too simple to see immigration to this country as a quest for liberty and freedom. Nor is the move inevitably an escape from hunger and want, as the occupational backgrounds of many of today’s newcomers…
- 182 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
Picture that it is one sunny afternoon, as you walk around the University of California, Davis campus filled with thousands of students walking by. As you observe your surroundings, you notice that there are students of different colored skin, speaking a variety of languages. UC Davis is home to a diversity of students from different ethnic backgrounds, Asian, American Indian, and Hispanic, to list a few. International students in particular have sparked my interests. I wanted to learn more about them and hear about their life experiences here in America. In this paper, I will relate an observation made on my fieldwork to what it means to be a citizen and discuss the complexities of translations between two cultures.…
- 1445 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Immigration means to move from one country to another to find a better way of life for yourself and for your family. Some come to work temporally, some are running away from their past and some come to work hard to take of their whole family. Coming from immigrant parents I can understand the struggles that they went thru to provide for the family and themselves. Growing up it was hard because people treated you differently if you were from another country. Even though I was born in America kids still teased me because my parents are from Haiti. It was hard seeing my parents work hard just to be accepted in a place where they…
- 756 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Foreign-born citizens are given every right that a natural-born citizen has, with the exception of running for president of the United States. Many people are opposed to this law and as a matter of fact, two proposals have been presented to allow foreign born citizens to become president of the United States. The United States Constitution should be amended to allow a naturalized citizen to be elected president of the United States. Naturalized citizens are being discriminated against. These foreign-born citizens have greatly contributed to America. Also, there are millions of intelligent naturalized citizens in America today.…
- 828 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Immigration is the act of leaving one’s country to settle in another. People from all over the world have come together in this land to form a unified country. This great nation of the United States of America has been built upon immigration. Year after year people leave their home country in hopes of finding something better in the United States. They leave their homes for economic, social, and political reasons, hoping that they will find the answer they are looking for here in the United States of America. Through struggle and hardship many immigrants better themselves and at the same time enrich the United States. They make economic, social, and political contributions.…
- 2108 Words
- 9 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Immigrants come to America in order to prosper and expand from their previous life styles. During this process of induction into America, some people believe that America…
- 733 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
For as long as America can remember, throughout the years, hundreds of thousands illegal and legal immigrants from all over the world come to the United States. Of the thousands of immigrants that come into America, they each have many different reasons and stories. Immigrants come to the United States, some to better their life and to go after opportunity’s that they could not do in their home country. Others are refugees and have no other choice but to flee their home country due to the wars and persecution. Over all immigration has held a major role in shaping our country, it promotes cultural movement of people and positively keeps the economy running in ways like increased employment and student graduating rates.…
- 1648 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
When one place has better resources, opportunities, and living conditions than the current place, it makes sense for someone to migrate to the better land. That better land in today’s world is the land of opportunity-- America. This nation is one founded on immigrants. The founding fathers came from Europe with hope and ambition for a better life for them and their children. Today, people immigrate for the same reason. The difference is that immigration is now looked at with a negative eye. Immigrants now are often blamed for the hardships of American citizens. Immigrants receive accusations of stealing the jobs of American citizens. They also face discrimination and are under represented in congress. Immigrants are also blamed for overwhelming democratic support, which deteriorates the accuracy of who the American citizens want for president. Despite all of these negative views on immigrants, immigrants are not actually that bad for America. People who see immigrants as toxic for America fail to remember all of the times they have benefitted America. The benefits Mexican immigrants bring to the US outweigh the harm they may bring.…
- 1679 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
In the late 1800-early 1900’s, immigrants began to settle in cities in large numbers. As a result of this increase in population, cities began to grow and change. People who come to life perinatally in a foreign country are known as immigrants. Immigrants came to america to start new and better lives. Immigrants came from all different countries but in the late 1800-early 1900’s immigrants mainly came from europe and asia. Immigrants would take a long journey to ellis island, where they would take many tests to see if they passed or not. If they didn't pass one of the all tests they would get sent back to the country they came from, But if you passed all the tests you where send to start your new life in america. When They came into america…
- 1127 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Immigrants play a critical role in our nation, boost our economy, and know that citizenship is morally right decision. People of all ages have been continuously fleeing their countries from war, persecution, and poverty. Immigrants have been willing, immigrants have been hardworking, and immigrants deserve the right to become a U.S…
- 642 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The United States of America are defined by our way of life. This way of life is defined in the declaration of independence. In America, we have the opportunity to overcome our challenges by coming together and finding solutions that many cannot do in other countries unlike most countries on earth. In America, it is believed that you have the opportunity to become anything you would like to be. For hundreds of years The United States has been attracting immigrants from several different countries, races, religions to come live on the land of the free and full of opportunity. These immigrants were looking for more than just freedom and rights, just to take part in being an American. Immigrants wanted to find something better than the life they had, which was struggling every day to keep food on the table and always being worried about money. Therefore immigrants came to America to find happiness and freedom and do the things they wanted to do. America is the "land of opportunity" and immigrants hoped that coming to America would get them out of poverty and into the riches.…
- 754 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Immigration is when a person crosses from one country to another without residence or permission to be in that country, the immigrants as they are called in the United States cross to the U.S to have a better economic status and a better state of life is to sustain their self or to support their families in their home countries because in their countries there is no work and the economic level is not as high than the United States. Immigration is a result of a number of factors, including economic and/or political reasons, family reunification natural disasters or the wish to change one’s surroundings voluntarity. Immigration to the United States has been based upon three principles the reunification of families admit immigration with skills that are valuable to the U.S. economy.…
- 772 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Americans are increasingly concerned about immigration. A growing number believe that immigrants are a burden to the country, taking jobs and housing and creating strains on the health care system. Many people also worry about the cultural impact of the expanding number of newcomers in the U.S. Yet the public remains largely divided in its views of the overall effect of immigration. Roughly as many believe that newcomers to the U.S. strengthen American society as say they threaten traditional American values, and over the longer term, positive views of Latin American immigrants, in particular, have improved dramatically. To live in America, then, is to live in the atmosphere of these immaterial standards and values, to possess them in one 's own character, and to be possessed by them. This means to live in close, spontaneous, daily contact with genuine Americans. For the native-born American of American ancestry, as already stated, this is natural and automatic. What is it for the foreign immigrant? One thing that makes the United States different from any other country in the world is that all the people who live here are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. The reasons people emigrate from other countries is that the United States offers opportunity and a chance for growth and economic gain. In addition, many were driven by war, famine, economic hardship, persecution and environmental changes.…
- 2866 Words
- 12 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Today America is one of the most diverse countries in the world. But how did our country become this way? People who emigrated from different areas around the world immigrated to the United States and founded our nation. Even the people that would be considered "indigenous" to the U.S. had more then likely immigrated to the continent at some point in time. But today this is not the case, our nation has cut off the right for people to move here freely and we are also deporting people that have already made it here illegally. In my opinion this is wrong, the United States is supposed to be a country that was founded on the rights of an individual person, it is completely deceitful to reject citizenship to someone that wants to have it. Immigrants help to make us a stronger country; we need them for a variety of different reasons. According to Richard Rodriguez, “We will begin to see the immigrant as the figure who teaches us most about what it means to be an American. The immigrant, in mythic terms, travels from the outermost rind of America to the very center of American mythology. None of this, of course, can we admit to the Vietnamese immigrant who served us our breakfast at the hotel this morning. In another 40 years, we will be prepared to say to the Vietnamese immigrant that he, with his memory of tragedy, with his recognition of peerless freedoms, he fulfills the meaning of America.” (Blaxicans 104). And this meaning is that America is a land where there is freedom and an opportunity for prosperity and success. Immigrants want this same opportunity just like the rest of us do. Do we actually have valid reasons not to let them have it? I’m not sure about that, but I have reasons why they should be able to.…
- 1222 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays