8. Paper 2 -

 

FIRST DRAFT

FINAL

Gabriela Linares

Esther Lee

AmLa 80

April 11^th, 2025

 

How immigration myths damage our society.

 

Through the course of humanity migration has been always a part of our history. People have had the need to emigrate for a better place to live. The principal motivation of migration at the beginning of human history was access to basic resources as food, shelter, and water. Today, almost everyone on the earth yearns to come to the United States and live an American dream, because people have the feeling there is no place better that the U.S. Because of that, millions of people emigrated believing the U.S offers better opportunities. Migrants come through the desert, ports of entry, air, and ocean to cross to the United States. Some of them, have left everything in their countries to come to a land of opportunities and resources. Although, there are a lot of discrepancies of how people have immigrated to American soil and how easier was some decades ago. Today’s policies and regulations are stricter and tougher every day, making uneasy to migrate to the U.S. which has become one of the scariest and defiant things one could ever imagine. Definitively, everything has changed recently and the information we received often is based on myths and misconceptions of few people. We need to be very careful about the sources and information we collect and not to be a victim of a single story, as Chimamanda Adichie mentions on the video “The Danger of a Single Story”, because our society needs accurate information to combat stereotypes.

First and foremost, all of us at some point, have heard myths about immigration. In the article “Ten Myths about Immigration,” the second of the tenth mentions “It’s ease to enter the United States legally. My ancestors did; why can’t immigrants today?” Contrary to the belief that entering the U.S. legally is easy; maybe because, at the beginning of U.S. history the borders were open, but as of today the process of becoming legal permanent resident could take years, even decades. There is a complex process and lengthy to come to American soil legally. The Department of Homeland Security through all its agencies, has enough control of information and technology that makes so difficult to enter the United States. If someone wants to come to the United States as a permanent resident, one of the options is through a family petition that in most of the cases could take from two years or more that twenty. This timeline depends on who files the petition to whom. Another way to get a legal permanent residence is through a lottery visa, based on luck and country of birth. Secondly, applying for a visitor’s visa is a long process, that involves a long and detailed questionnaire, fingerprints, biometrics, and background checks, and a one to two year wait to have an interview scheduled. The third option is to come without any permit, parole, or visa. This idea is the most difficult, dangerous and life threatening. Trying to come to the United States illegally put life at risk. No matter how you come by land, air, or sea, all the options are very dangerous. Reyna Grande in her book The Distance Between Us, describes how hard is to come to the Unites States. Grande, in her book she mentions she and her family cross the border by walking through the dessert from Tijuana to San Ysidro, California, and narrates how she found “…a man lying not too far from me. I thought he was asleep…”(154). This is one of many histories that are around in our society. At some point, our ancestors were able to come here easily because there were no policies, rules, technology either information as it is now a days. Definitively, to come here to the U.S. is not easy.

 

Moreover, we collectively hear myths every day about how immigrants have come to this country and damaged our society. Based on the single histories we follow through algorithms in social media, we as a community need to research and verify the information, we gather with the purpose of not having misinformation that could be used negatively and damage our society. One example of the negative consequences of myths is how often people is marginalized and abused by their employers.  Discrimination is another danger our society experiments daily, how often immigrants are not treated equally based on their skin color or physiognomy, race, or religion.  The vast majority of our society relates to immigrants as dangerous human beings that do not deserve the same opportunities, and do not deserve any right. Health insurance is not for everyone in this country, only people who have a legal status is able to receive medical attention. This presumption of “knowledge” leads us to misinformation as it is also shown on “The danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Adichie (8:21) she mentions "...how she used to think about Mexicans who were fleecing health care system and being arrested at the U.S. border”. Then, when she observed Mexican population enjoying their cities, having conversations with friends and how Mexican really live in Mexico, she realized Mexicans were victims of a single story.

 

Based on these examples, we as a community, need not to be attached to by a single story and verify the information we received from our own sources. On the other hand, there is a possible solution to misinformation, tergiversated or polarized information. We as a community could use as an example of Hudda Ibrahim and her husband, a Somali Refugee that created a community in Minnesota, by organizing dine and dialogue in their community to show the society about Somalis, and their culture. These events have helped the community in Minnesota where there is the largest population of Somalis in the United States. Moreover, there is also an example of how these events “dine and dialogue” request the attendants to make questions that people usually people do not ask. This event is such an example of how the community could benefit from attending to these events to interact, learn, and disregard myths.

 

Finally, even when all the people around the world think and perceive the Unites States as the most wished dream, sometimes information we received by is tergiversated and polarized. This fact leads us in myths that affect our society. Immigrants who come to live the American dream suffer from the systemic misinformation and are victims of our society. There is a negative impact into our society, if we as a community continue to think myths are true. What can we do as a society to combat these systemic stereotypes? I truly believe there is hope for immigrants that come to this country because all people that have left everything behind also bring the best of their own to contribute our damaged society. We should the example to Hudda Ibrahim and some many others who fight misinformation. Let’s take those resources and opportunities and create the best for our communities. The best thing we can do is to stop believing in myths because myths damage our society.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Grande, Reyna. The Distance between Us: A Memoir. Washington Square Press, 2022.

Hudda, Ibrahim. “How a Somali Refugee Is Creating Community in Minnesota.” YouTube, 24 Oct. 2019, youtu.be/wgvJaveSUkk?feature=shared.  

Koenig, Darlene, et al. “Ten Myths about Immigration.” Learning for Justice, www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/spring-2011/ten-myths-about-immigration. Accessed 24 Apr. 2025.

“Tedtalks: Chimamanda Adichie--the Danger of a Single Story.” TED, 2009, https://youtu.be/D9Ihs241zeg?feature=shared. Accessed 2025.