Sara’s (Saranya’s) tale of immigration starts with her father. He was a college graduate working for the BHC when he decided that he wanted to go to the U.S. in order to continue his education and further assist his family. Prior to this, he met and married Sara’s mother, who later gave birth to Sara’s older sister. When the time was right, Sara’s father came to the U.S. on a student visa with several of his college friends. While there he obtained his masters degree at NYU and began working for the DEP as a civil engineer. After getting his job with the DEP, he began sending money back to his family in India and wrote what his daughters call “love-letters” back and forth with his wife. This lasted for about 8 moths to a year.
Over time, Sara’s father was able to bring his wife and daughter over. After obtaining a visa, her Sara’s father was also able to bring his parents and a brother over. His brother worked for a while, but eventually returned to India. They’d been living in a friend’s basement, but later moved into a 1bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment in Jamaica, Queens. Eventually Sara was born.
Sara’s mother was excited to come to the U.S. She wanted to study, get a job and be a career woman. Her husband’s parents did not support this however, as it was more traditional for women to become stay at home wives and mothers. In spite of this, she studied at NYU the same way her husband did and became a certified accountant with a CPA. She worked at a travel agency for a while, then later for Urbani Goods Company.
While working, Sara’s mother sponsored three of Sara’s aunts so that they could come to the U.S. They all stayed with her for a while, and then went their separate ways. One now lives in Colorado, another in Queens and the third in New Jersey.
While in Jamaica, Queens, Sara’s father saw a beautiful red house that he’d have loved to make his own. He liked it so much that he would purposely walk home on a path that allowed him to pass by the house. When the house became available, it was his wife who saw that he liked it and convinced him to buy it. He’d told her that it was far too expensive, but she said it’d be fine. In the long run, it was, as they paid off the mortgage on it just last year.
Life in the U.S. had both ups and downs. For Sara’s father, obtaining a job in the U.S. meant prestige for his family back home. For her mother, it meant having opportunities that most women back in India would not. The down side was that they had to be far more independent than they did back home. In India, family was a key component of everyday life. If one ever had a problem, he or she could always find a family member or family friend that they could talk to and confide in. If one had to raise children, but needed free time to attend to other matters, there was always an aunt, uncle, or other family that could babysit. In the U.S., however, Sara’s parents were mostly on their own. This made working and raising children at the same time more difficult. As a result, when Sara was born, she had to spend a year in India with her grandparents.
Other troubles Sara’s family faced included communication, subway issues, slowness or lateness of transportation in general and, for Sara’s mother, trouble travelling while pregnant. When it came to communication in particular, Sara’s parents actually did know English, as they’d been required to learn it in school. However, they still had strong accents that made it difficult for others to understand them.
Cultural changes for Sara’s parent were not as severe. There was a temple in Jackson Heights, which allowed access to traditional religious experiences. Food was able to remain unchanged as all necessary spices could be brought over from India whenever someone visited. They were also able to celebrate cultural holidays such as Diwali: an Indian national holiday in which they invite many friends and family over for a big party.
In spite of separation from culture not being a problem for Sara, there was still a loss of culture from her parent’s generation to hers. Sara does not consider herself to be an immigrant. She does consider her parents and sister to be immigrants. However, she thinks that she is actually more Indian than her sister. She believes this because her sister came to the U.S. when she was only a year old. Thus, her sister didn’t have much of an immigrant experience the way her parents did. While Sara’s parents sent Sara on many trips back to India to maintain her cultural roots, Sara’s sister was in college, and couldn’t always go. As for Sara herself, in spite of her many visits home, she doesn’t speak her family’s language, and as a result, there is a slight language barrier between her and her grandparents. She also feels pressured by them to get in touch with her culture more, but she’d prefer not to do so.
Overall, it seems that the immigration story of Sara’s family ended in success. Sara’s father’s standards and work ethic earned him respect within the workplace. When he first came to the U.S., white people mesmerized him, as they were highly respected in India. Now, he has white people working under him. He also obtained and slowly paid for the home of his dreams. Sara’s mother was able to balance working, studying and raising a family and has a career and two beautiful and intelligent children to show for it. Both parents were also able to assist their family members back home and allowed them to experience the U.S. for themselves, whether permanently or temporarily.
