The Experiences of Immigrants

 

“One day, when I was either five or six, soldiers came my house, and they said they needed my older sister… to carry their heavy things for them. She could not go with them because she has asthma and was not feeling well, but the soldiers said “If you don’t follow us, you know what we’re gonna do.” (Cing, 39).

Something that really stands out to me between the Green Card Youth Voices book, as well as the New Georgia Encyclopedia readings is the violence and threats that immigrants face. What is most prominent to me, is how a lot of immigrants flee their home countries to escape violence, and then when they come to America, they face even more threats and sometimes violence. It really shows a lot about our society and values and feel it is something important to be discussed. I read a story like Dim Cing’s sister, who was threatened by soldiers in her town, told that she would be killed if she did not help them and then when she escaped them, had to run away to Malaysia out of fear for being killed. Imagine how traumatizing this must be for the sister and Dim herself, knowing her sister had to leave home to escape soldiers. I think a story as simple and scary as this can really demonstrate just how scary these experiences can be in immigrant’s hometowns. And while Dim did immigrate to America just fine and is happy here, I can not help to think of hostility towards immigrants as a whole throughout our history. I read the encyclopedia and what struck me is how these immigrants came to Georgia looking for work and found that “the Ku Klux Klan held an anti-immigrant rally in downtown Gainesville, and the North Georgia Klan remained active in protesting immigration for decades afterward.”  (New Georgia Encyclopedia). What I feel is most important about completing these readings and working on this research project is to look at the story as a bigger picture. While I find it so interesting to see the writing structure of the book, reading each individual story, I feel what sticks out to me the most is how most of them came to America to escape a certain situation in their country. What this challenges us, as Americans to do, is ask ourselves, how can we help them? What can we do to make the immigration process easier for them? These are important questions that can not be answered individually, and questions that politicians fight over often. We can make progress but there will still be some that do not push for that change. And while immigrants see this hostility, how can they cope with their pasts and presents? For me personally, when I experience troubles in life, I turn to creating something, and I feel an important part of examining and understanding immigration, we need to turn to their writings, paintings, art works, etc. That is why I am really intrigued and chose art as my group for this project. The major question is- by looking at immigrants’ artwork, what can we learn about the immigration experience as a whole?

To hear more of Dim Cing's story, click here

 

Nikuze, Marie. Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School. Green Card Voices, 2019.

Ollsen, Tore C. “Latino Immigration.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/latino-immigration.