An Immigrant's Story

Episode 1

The population of the country this single parent comes from is a little over 100 million people of which nearly a quarter live in one large metro area. The average income is about $16,000 annually.  The unemployment rate is a little over 8%. However, the distribution of wealth is very unequal.  Twenty percent of the population make over 52% of the income.  The rest is divided among the remaining 80%.  Obviously, most jobs are low paying positions. 

Her main goal was to provide for her family and, in particular, make sure they had the best possible education so their lives and standard of living would be better.  

Our immigrant had a job as a teacher’s aide that supported her family but when the school closed, she had to look elsewhere. The “elsewhere” was a country about 4000 miles from home.  There foreigners were being paid higher wages and they were advertising for foreign workers.  

But, to make the move she would have to leave her children, her family, and the familiarity of her country and travel into the unknown.  She would have to leave her children with relatives for an extended period of time but she believed the sacrifice would be worth.  Ultimately, she believed, her sacrifice would make it possible for her to afford to send her children to college when the time came. They would benefit from her sacrifice with financial security and a better life.

What do you think of this decision?  What would you have recommended?

An Immigrant’s Story

Introduction

Immigration has been a hot button topic ever since the current administration has been in office.  Arguments over border fencing and quotas have been constant headlines and news reports.  Even now, while dealing with the Covid-19 epidemic immigration has once again come to the fore as the administration stops all immigration until the epidemic is past.

As with most political arguments these days the extremes of two positions have come to be focus of the debate.  On the left are those who would apparently have no borders, at least to immigration.  All would be welcome and any enforcement of current laws would be, and are, ignored or resisted.  On the right are those who would seemingly make this fortress America with walls and legions of guards to keep all out.

We have all been witness to the seemingly endless caravans of would be immigrants marching north in hopes of rushing the border and being allowed to stay.  We have each taken positions, left or right, on the response to these caravans. 

According to Homeland Security’s 2018 Yearbook of statistics, a little over one million people became lawful permanent residents in the United States that year.

I thought it would be interesting to find out what you folks thought about immigration when the conversation moves from pages of statistics and television scenes to actual people. Not a newscast where selected images are gathered for a 30 second sound bite.  Instead I thought it would be interesting to look at some real life, actual living breathing people and their travels to this country.

These people are some I am personally acquainted with.  No names or countries are given but the situations are factual.  I am splitting the account into about five episodes with questions at the end of each episode to help get your thoughts on the events and decisions made by these would be immigrants.  I hope all will read these, each spaced about a week apart, and that if you read an episode you will respond either in the comments section or by email or by messenger. I welcome any and all comments.  The episodes will also be available on my blog: www.esperanzainstitutebiblestudy.com (Click on the Blogger symbol in the upper left hand corner and then pull down the blog titles in the upper left hand corner and select An Immigrant's Story.)