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Macaulay Honors College
at Baruch, Spring 2011Professor Els de Graauw
ITF Emily Sherwood -
Authors
▪ Alyssa Alicino
▪ Brandon Baksh
▪ Ru Xiao Chen
▪ Belinda Chiu
▪ Els de Graauw
▪ Becca Glickman
▪ Elisabeth Greenberg
▪ Doris Hu
▪ Peky Huang
▪ Toby Joseph
▪ Haesol Jun
▪ Nika Kartvelishvili
▪ Farrukh Khan
▪ Holly Kiang
▪ Julian Kipnis
▪ Kar Yi Lim
▪ Yang Lin
▪ Cait McCarthy
▪ Sofya Moshkovich
▪ Mariya Tuchinskaya
▪ Ying Zhang Login
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Immigration Changes Prospects for the Future
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of fourteen. She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially. For her, ultimately the desire for a brighter future brought her to the United States:
If I had stayed in Jamaica, I feel like I would have only had a, like I would have had a ceiling on how far I could go. Right now, I feel like I can pretty much do anything I want or like go as far as I want, I don’t know if that’s true but that’s how I feel. In Jamaica, I feel like I would’ve, uhm, graduated high school, probably went to university, as they call it, not college, and, uhm, then graduated and got a job. And I don’t know what would’ve happened after that. I might’ve just been in the same job. And, you know, I feel like there is more pressure to have more children earlier and to kind of get your life settled. So, I feel like there would’ve been a different life. Right now, I feel like I can kind of just do what I want to do. Like it’s my own life and I have more choices of where I want to go with it.”
Being Merely “Exotic” in the Workplace
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of 14. She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially. Here, she comments on how she has been received by co-workers;
I’d say I’ve had a particularly good experience in my jobs. People might think I’m a little exotic, that’s the most it’s affected me like, “Oh really, girl from Jamaica, tell me all about it,” and they’ll like ask me questions… it hasn’t really been a problem and I haven’t been made to feel uncomfortable in any of those situations.”
I’m Not a King Here
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of 14. She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially. Here, she comments on
If someone is jealous [of my having moved to the United States] it’s just because they didn’t like me in the first place, in which case they don’t really matter. Um, but yeah one of the things with moving here, I feel like everyone like immediately expects that you have a lot more money and you’re more comfortable, which you are, but they feel like you should be able to provide for them now. And so like my friends would be like, “oh can you bring back a cell phone and an iPod and these shoes,” and, you know especially for my parents since they’re working it’s hard. It’s particularly hard for them when it comes to family and their siblings and stuff like that. Like my mother especially will expect to send money back all the time, like when she’s coming back to bring back like a whole suitcase of stuff for them. And even with me like my friends will call asking for these things, and it’s sometimes really hard. I don’t think they understand that I’m not a king here.”
Concerned about American Race Classifications
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of 14 . She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially.
Here [in America], there was such a focus on, uhm, whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or something, and it was weird to have to like classify myself as something that I didn’t really think about before. And so like going into the future just kind of concerns me about like the kind of society I live in and you know like how that will affect me or my children or anything like that.”
Discrimination Where You Least Expect It
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of 14. She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially. She commented on how she learned about discrimination in the classroom:
I remember in high school one time I had this teacher and she was Black-American and apparently there is this long-standing rivalry between Black-Americans, Black-American people and Caribbean people that I didn’t really know about, and so she would make these comments all the time about the Jamaican people in her class and she said, uhm, someone had said that they were rich in Jamaica and then she had said that that was not possible because no one in Jamaica is rich and if we were we wouldn’t be here. And then she went on to make further comments about how we all drank the same contaminated water and how her image of Jamaicans is that we dance bare-feet in grass skirts… I was really shocked that a teacher would say that because… like I expect my teachers to be very professional and not bring in personal prejudices into their teaching. Uhm, and I was also a little angry about that just because it was so ignorant and offensive, but, I got over it.”
Family Reunification Is an Education Propellant
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of 14. She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially. Here, she comments on how her family pushed her to do well in school:
I did pretty well. Actually did better here than I did in Jamaica. Uhm, and like I said it was kind of harder in Jamaica, but also since I didn’t live with my parents in my first part of high school I felt I was kind of more like laid back and didn’t put that much effort into it. But when I moved here with my parents, they were very involved in my education and they were always checking, you know, if I did my homework and if I was studying so I would get straight A’s in high school.”
The Ease of Fitting In
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of 14. She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially. Here, she comments on how easy it was for her to fit in, in part because she attended a high school with many other Jamaicans:
I didn’t really have a difficult time fitting in. People were pretty friendly. If there were any initial reservations, it’s probably just because of my natural shyness and the fact that I don’t just open up to people very quickly, but I think people were very welcoming and plus I went to high school where were a lot of Jamaican people there so it was kind of a shared cultural background and I was able to fit in easily.”
An Initial Hesitance to Immigrate
Rose moved to the United States from Jamaica at the age of fourteen. She has lived in New York City since and has flourished both academically and socially. Here, she comments on her initial hesitance to move to the United States:
I actually didn’t want to move here, because I thought I already had like my life established in Jamaica and I had all my friends there. And so moving here was sort of bittersweet, like I did want to come and see what it was all about, but I also felt kind of lonely and weird, because I was an only child and I guess because I was in school my experience kind of centered around school. In Jamaica, my school was more of like a social thing. People could walk around and hangout and there’s this like big football field and you know like it was a very laid back atmosphere. And then here it was very institutional. It was very just four corners in a building that went up a couple of floors and it was just really weird to get used to. Um, and also like I didn’t really know anyone and I’m sure I had a weird accent. People were just like, “what?” so yeah I mean that was the biggest challenge but I got over it pretty quickly.”
