My thought of the week is connected to the topic of climbing the social ladder. In reading some findings in a research done on the Mexican families who immigrated to America. I had memories from when I lived in northern Virginia. Where I was there is an extremely large amount of immigrants from a variety of different countries. The research was called “the cost of getting ahead”. They look at 10 families with teenage children and a mom and dad being apart of the picture during the moving process.
The universal desire for these ten families was to provide a better life of opportunity for their children. The typical process for them to come over would be for the father to go first to find work and begin sending the earned money to the family to provide for their living at home and save for the expensive, and dangerous trip across the border. The plan for most families was to join the pioneer shortly after they left, roughly six months to a year. Unfortunately, the family often did not immigrate until two - three years(the longest case in the study being eight years). This is partly because the father would not be able to get a good paying job. The jobs available for them being hard blue collar jobs like construction, landscape, or factories. And if they came over undocumented the employer would not be required to give legal pay. Making the process of earning the right amount for the move very long and hard on both sides of the family.
This process of immigration is not just challenging on the financial side, but also very challenging for the family at home. The Boys lose their father figure, the family loses the main support of money, often forcing the mother to work thus losing family time at home. The Culture of mexico is very much centered around family. They often gather together especially if they live close. However, with this sudden change in the family the culture shifts a little bit. With mom working and the kids trying to learn things essentially on their own they almost cut off the extended family. It is a very hard burden on the marriage of the parents as well as the emotional health and the parental connection of the kids.
Here are a few quotes from the kids “Jamie (adolescent male). We were separated for seven or eight years. I was six when he left, he came back when I was thirteen. I had little memory of him when he came back. It is difficult to adapt to him, his way of being. Back in Mexico I had no boss. It was difficult adjusting to a boss in the house.”
“Teresa (female adolescent) Sometimes - I’ve felt shut in when there are problems, when i have a fight with mom or dad, things like that. When that happens, I have to make myself think. I used to be a happy person. I think about my family in Mexico, I haven’t seen them in so long. I can’t let them down.”
Now my thoughts after reading these findings and remembering all the people I met while in Virginia. Is the Cost of more opportunities in america really worth the cost? The living doesn’t exactly get immediately better once the family has all made it over. There are more challenges that introduced along the way. It is likely a harder life than they had in Mexico. But the children or grandchildren do eventually get to climb up the social ladder.
What do you think? Is the cost of getting ahead really worth its price?
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