El Norte - Keira

Immigrants to the US face both opportunities and barriers as they come to terms with the reality of the American dream. Enrique and Rosa were not wrong when they dreamed about the abundance of opportunities in America. There is a chance to make lots of money, own a fancy house, or have a working toilet—the thing that Enrique and Rosa and many immigrants don’t know is that the large majority of them won’t have access to those opportunities. Just like Enrique needed a green card in order to get the better factory job, people living in the US are locked out of the American dream unless they are part of the highest social status. It was sad to watch Enrique and Rosa filled with the belief that if they worked hard enough, they could go as far as they wanted—and then Enrique immediately got the immigration police called on him, and he was out of work. That scene emphasized the point that immigrants (and descendants of immigrants) are commonly denied full access to the financial/social/societal services American citizens have simply because they are seen as “other” people.  

The fact that immigrants are never actually seen as full Americans relates to this “otherness” identity of immigrants. As the chapter “Indecent Proposal?” said how the majority of Arizona voted in 2004 in favor of Proposition 200, a lot of public sentiment exists against immigrants and against pro-immigration policy because of our rhetoric calling immigrants “aliens”, “illegal”, “job-stealers”, etc. Many states’ policies don’t see immigrants as people. As Enrique’s dad said, they are seen simply as “a pair of arms” to do sub-minimum wage labor. America may claim to be this proud nation of immigrants, but in truth America has never extended its opportunities to immigrants to the US.



Comments

  1. Catherine BolzendahlMarch 11, 2023 at 2:01 PM

    Nicely written and great use of a graphic to really engage with the topic. I was struck by this line in your post, "It was sad to watch Enrique and Rosa filled with the belief that if they worked hard enough, they could go as far as they wanted" - wow. It kind of sums it up. A lot of people have been successful so they would argue its possible, but certainly when not immigrating through official channels the obstacles are steep.

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