Interview of Three Immigrants

The one thing that interested me most about immigrants coming to the United States is the reasons that convinced them to leave the places where they grew up to move to a completely unknown land. Such a decision can never be taken lightly by any person. Immigrating to a new country is the most dramatic and adventurous trip one can partake in. For these reasons I centered my interviews around this very question, only going off topic to get a better view of the person or their circumstances. Overall, the reasons the interviewees cited seemed to parallel those discussed in class and were all very similar.

The first person that I interviewed was a 30 year old immigrant from Lahore, Pakistan named Asif. Asif came here when he was twenty in 1991 after completing his degree in biochemistry. In Pakistan it is common for students to move to the U.S. once they have completed their studies, this is a result from the lack of good job prospects available for educated people. Asif had decided to move to the U.S. during his last year in college when he saw that his attempts at an internship and a future job were unsuccessful. One of his classmates had made the trip to the U.S. a year earlier for the same reasons Asif had began to

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in order to help support the family. He stated his reason for coming to be strictly financial, saying that in Mexico he would work long hours for little pay.

Joza’s aunt started the migration almost 30 years before any one of his family had considered coming to the U. Once he did find a job in his field, he would not get paid nearly what he deserved. Since Asif could speak English fluently as a result of him taking English language courses throughout his educational career, it was natural for him to move to an English speaking country. She worked at a country club and when Joza’s father decided to make the trip in 1994 she helped him out by getting him a job at the same country club. He was overeducated for any position he would receive in Pakistan and he knew his possibilities for finding a good job were much better in the U. The only plus was that in Russia, math was taught at a much quicker pace that in America, so we did not fall far behind. He clearly believed he would not want to stay in the U. Many eastern European families place a large emphasis on education. So one can say that the reason people come here is to better their way of life, but more specifically, to better their income or the income of their children.

Approximate Word count = 2398
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)

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