Migration Experience from the west Indies ti the US Essay

Migration Experience from the west Indies ti the US - Essay Example once they reach here are faced with challenges which they have to conquer if they are to have an easy life and eventually succeed in their new environment. This research examines the challenges immigrants go through with the discussion focusing on a family from Haiti. The paper will expound on how immigrants go about in settling in their new homes, general receptiveness of neighbors, race discrimination, jobs, deciding whether to assimilate or acculturate and young ones schools life. Marie Lafont, who is my aunt, migrated to the United States of America from Haiti in 1976, she settled in Brooklyn New York with her husband and three children. The area was predominantly black with a large Haitian community therefore the general reception they got was a warm one. Portes and Rumbaut state that once here, some immigrants enjoy better conditions than back home (18). This is demonstrable in my aunt’s case where the house they were to live in was bigger than what they had been accustomed to back in Haiti. In their new home they had a front yard and the rooms were much larger than what they were used to. Transitioning into their new way of life was not easy with things like speaking English with a French accent being an issue but with the help of the community around them, transitioning was made simpler. Upon their settling down in Brooklyn, my aunt discovered that the race factor was a major problem in the US, an issue that had not crossed her mind back in Haiti and was a major defining factor in her new home. She found out that due to her skin color, certain barriers were erected for example being discriminated against when applying for her nursing job. This new dimension added on to the everyday difficulties she was starting to face. All of a sudden the complexion of her skin became a problem and to make matters worse, this was an issue she had no control over. Through her interaction with her neighbors, she found out that Haitians who had preceded her had faced and