Growing Up In A Refugee Essay

When I was in third grade, I was diagnosed with a medical condition that required me to go to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh multiple times per month. It was boring, annoying, and sometimes painful. I never enjoyed going and that didn’t change as I got older. But when I just started going, I was very sick. Between the one hundred two-degree fever I had and the amount of blood they had to take out of me for tests, I felt miserable.

My father immigrated from Guatemala when he was 19 to support his family back home. My mother, from El Salvador while fleeing the revolutionary war. They have worked hard, exceptionally hard, for me not to pursuit my dreams of joining the Peace Corps. This is a I considered filling out an application to join the Peace Corps straight after college but glad I waited. I have gained experience, but more importantly, I have matured mentally and emotionally and I am capable of understanding what it would require of me to leave my family, home, and career for two years and I am ready.

I couldn’t move my legs. I couldn’t move my hands. My family took me to the hospital and from there I was admitted as patient. As a little girl I was always very optimistic. Becoming a patient meant no more school and no more homework.

Reflecting on my development as a first-generation immigrant, I can attribute a large portion of my characteristics and aspirations to my experiences growing up and to the role model whom I have admired, my mother. More specifically, being exposed to the tireless work ethic of a single parent who had to overcome the dual pressures of assimilation and poverty has imparted in me a respect for the ideals of continual self-improvement and advancement. My mother’s sacrifices have always been to better our family’s situation and to provide me with the best education opportunities. Recognizing my mother’s hard worked and what she has given up for me, I put my best foot forward in every situation to honor her. Looking back at the hardships such as racial discrimination and language barriers my mother had to transcend, as

Throughout my childhood, my parents have taught me to be appreciative of my rights as an American and what to many, are privileges, and coming from a modest background, they have instilled me to respect and value others before myself, regardless of their economic status. Because of my parents’ hardships, I have been taught a mantra of “work hard for a better future”, and I later learned that my father’s true dream was beyond achieving personal success, but rather, he wanted to pave a way to success for my sister and me. I believe that it is my responsibility to fully take advantage of my opportunities, because my American Dream is still alive. While I carry my parents’ background, I do not share their history of poverty, and I am met with new open doors and resources that my parents were not as fortunate to have. I want to pursue a higher education, and I aspire to become a stem cell scientist, which will allow me to contribute to research that holds promises of new cures and treatments.

I am Iran Munoz-Montoya. I was supposed to be writing something about me that made me want to be who I am today; something that appeals to colleges. All I know is that I am who I am because of my parents. They had me a year before they graduated high school. My mother came from Juarez and my father came from Cuauhtémoc legally, but stayed here illegally.

The Strangest, Weirdest and Luckiest Refugee 5/۞۞۞۞ Emma Musca has read an extraordinary true story of a well-known comedian. Anh Do’s amazing memoir The Happiest Refugee is about his early life in Vietnam, his journey to Australia and his amazing international success. ave you ever wanted to know what it’s like to be a refugee?

For many immigrant families moving into the U.S the culture shock is significant. Families can easily be overwhelmed by their need to fit into their new surroundings. This is especially true for children in these families. It is easy for children to get caught up in the American way of life, and that can cause the original culture to be forgotten. That is why the adults in these families have to enforce their native culture on their children, so the adults can make sure that those customs are not forgotten.

We observe today widescale human rights infringement of refugees and degradation of morality as individuals, including children, sit idle in war torn regions hoping for the chance to make a better life in America. Seeking protection, many brave and vulnerable individuals experience additional breaches of human rights as a consequence of mandatory detention. The United States holds in its hands the power to ensure all refugees are treated with dignity and regard for their basic human rights, and yet still struggles to assure the survival and the success of universal liberty due to xenophobia and bureaucratic interference. Unwilling to witness the continued undoing of human rights to which the United States has consistently been committed, this

Growing up with poverty always around is not an easy topic many people can wrap their heads around. Waking up in a run-down apartment and attending classes in bright red trailers outside of school were ideas the public tried to avoid but for me, that was reality. Raised in Bronx and then in a small town in the more suburban areas of Pennsylvania, my first priority was self-defense. After I had mastered the art of taekwondo, like any other asian kid, my focus was set on making money to further support my family. Our only source of income was from the local church my dad preached at and the little dry cleaners far from home where my mom spent her days aging.

As I walked out of the airport, unfamiliar faces surrounded me. I was beginning my first week in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere -Haiti. We rode in an open air box truck to where we would be staying, bouncing out of our seat with every bump along the way. I saw people washing dishes, bathing and going to the bathroom all within the same water source- while on ride to the compound. Throughout the week, children laughed and took many pictures with me.

When I was seven, I asked my mom why she had come to America from Ethiopia. She told me that she had come so that I could have things that she didn’t, get the education she couldn’t, and see and do things she wouldn’t. I told her that I was going to make her proud and even though I was seven, I was stubborn, and set my goals high and worked hard. I will forever remember my mother crying as I got my college acceptance letters. Now, as a junior at Old Dominion College as an international affairs major, I’m setting to make her proud again.

All first generation experiences in America have common grounds but have some differences. From the first Americans in the 1700s till current immigrants, which included the Irish, Germans, Africans, Chinese, Scandinavians, Hispanics, South Americans, etc; They all had to adjust to American culture, adjust to the way of life, and struggled financially and emotionally. Some improved their lives in society while others had it terrible. I can sort of relate to the emotional and financial pain like most immigrants, especially of my age. I’ve had the good times and the bad, but I’ve managed to pull through.

Dreamer I jumped high and low like in the Kungfu movies, which I watch in from a crack hole in a wall. I leeped thought time capcal and went back to where my home lie. I jumped in the cloud where heaven lied. I lay on the cloud as I watch the sun go down. I fell countless time but I always got up.

A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their home country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. There are many different types of refugees, these include refugees who are escaping war, social discrimination, racial discrimination, religious persecution, those who are seeking aid after a natural disaster, political unrest, and those who fear for their lives and the lives of their family. These people are given refugee status and are placed in designated refugee camps across the country where they are supposed to be cared for and educated, but this is not happening. Many of the countries only provide shelter for the refugees but do not provide the rest of the basic needs. There are many factors that contribute to a person becoming a refugee these include war, famine, racial prejudice, religion, harassment or torture due to political views, nationality, and natural disaster.