Me, my brother, my sister, and my parents have worked together to help transition five families so far to New York City and we are currently working on bringing home a sixth. All my uncles and aunts were willing to change their lives completely and leave behind their past to come to America in hopes of allowing their children to have a greater opportunity to succeed. They believe that “only in America” would they have a chance to be in a system where hard work correlates with success. From just watching this transition, multiple times, within my family I was able to see this core belief. I recall multiple conversations that showed how because my cousins feel that they went through a hardship of coming to America, they believe that it would be a waste of time to not work hard in this nation. Why go halfway across the globe to only achieve mediocrity?
This relates to the YouTube video, “Stephen Fry and Craig Ferguson on America”, that was shown in class on Wednesday. Stephen Fry discusses how with an exception of the Native American and African American population; the rest of the population chose to come here. By choosing to come to this nation and taking a risk of leaving everything that you had in your previous nation, you develop a core belief of hard work. Only through hard work, would the journey across the globe be worth it. I’ve seen this belief within immigrants and I think the ambition that comes with this belief is passed on to those that were born here. In class on the 8th, many classmates agreed that since they grew up here, they didn’t have the risk taking and hard work mentality that Stephen Fry believed Americans have. But, I believe that this core value of hard work was translated to us. Almost all of within the Macaulay class of 2020 have parents or grandparents that immigrated to this country. We all push ourselves harder because we know how much hardship our parents went through and because of this we work not only for ourselves but we work to provide for them in the future.
I loved Raian’s last sentence in his blog post. Raian writes: “We all push ourselves harder because we know how much hardship our parents went through and because of this we work not only for ourselves but we work to provide for them in the future.” I completely agree with this sentiment because I live it first-hand with my own life experiences. I know that beyond just pushing to achieve for myself, I try my hardest and persevere so that my parents can happily retire knowing that they can retire in comfort and without any worries. After toiling for over two decades in America, I want to flip the tables and let my parents be the one who have fun with their lives and explore the world, just like how they let me live my life the past 18 years.
Yep. My dad worked really hard his whole life partly because he was so aware of the sacrifice his parents made for him. Is my generation (i.e. the second generation to be born in USA), less hard-working? Maybe!
This blog post really made me think and realized how I take for granted the luxury of a life I live now, compared to my parents and grandparents. I realized that my family has done such a good job allowing me to live how I want that sometimes its difficult to imagine the types of hardships they had to go through.
I think the idea of the second generation immigrant family member being “lazier” is also extremely thought-provoking. I think that “lazier” may not be the best word but that it is rather a difference in perspective. Second generations may not work as hard as first generations, but isn’t that why these immigrants come to America in the first place? So that generations down the line can live the life they want and not suffer through what they’ve had to?
As a 3rd generation American I feel as though I have always taken for granted the country that has given me everything that I have. This post makes me realize that what I have is truly a gift and while the phrase “only in America” has always had negative connotations for me, I think it may be time for me to change my attitude. Hopefully even though I come from a long line of Americans I could work just as hard as those who have close immigrant roots.
Raian’s point of view definitely resonates with my own. Our families came here with almost nothing, willing to sacrifice anything in order to make us and our upcoming generations comfortable and stable. This yearn to work hard and thrive is something we witnessed while growing up and, hopefully, adapted into our own work ethic. Seeing my family progress in America opened my eyes to the endless possibilities this world has to offer. I vowed from a young age to work as hard, if not harder than my parents in order to show them that their journey paid off and to keep that resilient attitude running through my family.
I agree with Raian’s last sentence that “we all push ourselves harder because we know how much hardship our parents went through and because of this we work not only for ourselves but we work to provide for them in the future”. However, sometimes it makes me wonder if that intention is truly what our parents/ancestors want from us when they move to America. And when we are so aware of the sacrifices that they made for us, are we then working hard for our own future, or are we working hard just so that we can just make ourselves feel better by repaying the sacrifices that our parents made through fulfilling their expectations? It seems to me that some immigrant children are living for their parent’s dreams instead of their own dream because they are too aware of the sacrifices that their parents made when immigrating to America. In addition, I think that immigration right now involves much less risk-taking in comparison with the conditions of the last two generations. Nowadays many immigrants can have the opportunity to just go back to their hometown if their life in America isn’t successful.