United States is known to be a diverse country, people with different nationalities and cultures are basically the definition of U.S. Many immigrants who come from different countries wish they can live better lives in U.S. A perfect example would be the Chinese immigrants. Although China continues to grow and has become industrialized, families from China continue to wish that they can come to U.S to improve their family living as well as providing a better family standards for future generations. Although I was born in U.S, I lived most of my childhood years in Hong Kong. When my mom decided to move our whole family to U.S, she was afraid because not only was she not familiar with New York, but she was a single mother who had to raise three young children by herself. One of the main reasons as to why she’d decided to make such a choice was because of education. Unlike U.S, Hong Kong does not have as many opportunities and choices of schools as U.S does. My brothers had a lot of stress because it was very competitive. Although, Chinese immigrants were not given as many opportunities as they should in the 1800s, but soon enough with the constant fighting, they were given the opportunities based on the 14th amendment in the late 1800s. However, should China appreciate the fact that U.S created many opportunities for Chinese immigrants which they couldn’t provide?
One of the problems in the mid 1800s was that U.S had a great of trouble letting immigrants enter into the country. Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise that U.S wanted to “convert” immigrants into believing and living by the U.S culture. It sounds bizarre because I do not understand how one can forced culture into another person’s life. I believe it is a good idea to expose the American culture to immigrants, but forcing it is a bit too much. An example would be when I came to U.S at age 8, I was very unfamiliar with my surroundings because I was not use to it. My teachers didn’t force me to believe in anything that I didn’t choose to. However, as I was growing up , I gradually began to live a life style where many Americans would considered “normal” where my mother would not agree to. My point is that, I was not forced to live a certain way, it was because of my environment as well as experiences which led to this result. Also, People naturally decide to change because they’re doing what’s best for them. Therefore, if anyone feels that a certain trait in the culture is beneficial to them, they would do it naturally. However, children who are born in the U.S of different nationality, should they have to worry about their ancestors’ culture being lost as future generations are born?
