Who Belongs?: Immigration Outside the Law and the Idea of Americans in Waiting Hiroshi Motomura* By Hiroshi Motomura*


Who Belongs?: Immigration Outside the Law and the Idea of Americans in Waiting Hiroshi Motomura*    By Hiroshi Motomura*

Quote:

“Treating immigrants as Americans in waiting is especially crucial to combat the feeling among Latin American, Asian and African American immigrants, that no matter what they do, they will always remain strangers in the land-perpetual foreigners because of their names, skin color, languages or accents. Unless there is meaningful integration of immigrants with reciprocity and respect, they will be marginalized as permanent outsider”


Meaning:

By definition, immigrants come into the United States as outsiders. If we are not American, we are outsiders coming to America. As immigrants, we become insiders of the United States when our differences no longer affect the ways we interact with others, the opportunities we have for ourselves and our families and how we participate in politics and social entities. However, adapting to the new environment, the new American society, learning the language, does not guarantee total acceptance within this large society that treat immigrants as outsiders regardless of achievement. If immigrants are grudgingly only tolerated as residents, they are very unlikely to feel they are full members of society and this may result in immigrants pulling back from social and political engagement. As long as people remain as outsiders, they will feel and truly be insiders.

Chosen:

This quote was chosen because as an immigrant myself, it tells the truth about how some members of the American society no matter how far we’ve come in life and our achievements in this society, for them we are still outsiders. We might feel like we belong here became we have adopted this life style and follow society rules and laws, but the ugly truth is that we are outsiders in this beautiful land.

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