Immigrants pass the poor
With the help of the spokesmen for the poor, we believe our poor are ‘trapped’ in poverty, yet we know poor immigrants get ahead. Our poor are fluent in English and are ‘left behind,’ yet poor immigrants with limited English do get ahead. How?
Many immigrants come from countries where they’ve seen: squalor, illiteracy, disease, civil unrest, war, homeless kids on the streets, low status of women, and corruption we could never imagine. Some have had relatives taken away. Some have left or escaped through great hardship, been preyed on by smugglers and pirates, and lived in miserable refugee camps.
The American poor, on the other hand, have never had such hardships; but are pictured as ‘victims of a postindustrial, technical society’, where they have ‘fallen through the cracks’, and are ‘caught in a cycle of poverty.’
Some immigrants here live in slums, garages, and converted chicken coops. When Americans live like that, it’s ‘dehumanizing, substandard, and stigmatizing’.
Many immigrants come from countries where there is no minimum wage, welfare, Medicare, poverty ‘line’, etc. They had to work. Here they pick crops, wash dishes, work on assembly lines, collect newspapers from trash, get parts from junk yards, shop at thrift shops, save pennies, avoid eating eat out, etc.
Many American poor thumb their noses as such practices. They are told such work is ‘menial’ and ‘undignified’ and welfare reinforces this by making it impractical. Their work habits deteriorate, and they fall out of the mainstream.
Many immigrants avoid gambling, alcohol, drugs, and crime and unplanned pregnancy. When the American poor get into these, it’s blamed on ‘poverty, discrimination, peer pressure, boredom, lack of alternatives, stress’, etc.
Immigrants pool their money and start small businesses in ghettos where it was thought impossible. Some work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some of the American poor criticize them, their prices, their not hiring locals, and say these immigrant shopkeepers should give something back. Give back? They provide services in bad neighborhoods services no one else will.
Some American poor harass immigrants, boycott their stores, beat them, and worse. They’re a scapegoat.
Many immigrant youth are taught respect, obedience, manners, and hard work. They have to honor their folks and retain their culture often going to language schools on weekends. Since their parents sacrificed to come here and hack out a living, they are obligated to get an education they could never have dreamed of in their country.
Some are not allowed to date till their late teens or out of college. Some stand when a teacher enters the room. Some carry a text under one arm and a bilingual dictionary under the other. They crowd the libraries. Some have gone from arriving without English to graduating from high school five years later with top honors. In their youthful idealism, they only hope to pay back their new country.
Many American poor fight the schools. They have been told schools should lure them into education, which is supposed to mean social success, mental health, career, and maturity. When they don’t study, drop out, get pregnant, commit crimes, and can’t get a job, it was the fault of the school, ‘society’, immigrants, or the economy.
Some cry ‘discrimination’, yet the Jews and Japanese advanced most when discriminated against the most. Some cry ‘color’, yet the Blacks that came from the Caribbean are far ahead of American blacks.
Immigrants have different meanings for ‘poverty, family, work, saving, and education.’ Little wonder they despair about what the American view of poverty is doing to some of their people.
American poor Immigrant poor
Live like kings compared to 3rd world .. have seen absolute squalor.
‘Street’ values …………………………….. traditional values.
Getting ahead means luck …………….. means hard work.
Weak families ……………………………. strong.
Become homeless ………………………. don’t.
Won’t take any job ………………………. will.
Panhandle ………………………………….don’t.
Often poor work habits ………………….. superb ones.
Can’t save money ………………………… do & send it abroad to relatives.
Retain poor English ……………………… try to improve their English.
Some harass teachers …………………. most respect teachers.
Drop out …………………………………… study hard.
Reach mid-20s without working …….. without a vacation.
Rarely start a small business ………… often start one.
‘Decent, living’ wages & benefits .……. any wage.
Look to government ……………………… to selves.
Self-pity, resentment, protest ……….. gratitude.
Are ‘alienated’ …………………………….. are the real aliens.
Bored ………………………………………. never enough time.
Disprove the Am. dream ……………….. prove it.
Poverty spokesmen Immigrant poor
Crowded living is subhuman…………………is tolerable
More subsidies…………………………………fewer
Welfare is beneficial…………………………..is a cancer
Decent, ‘living’ wages & benefits……………impossible with many small family businesses
The poor are ‘oppressed’ …………………….have seen no freedom of speech, press, protest, business intheir countries
Yell about rights……………………………….quiet
Am. is discrimination, exploitation…………opportunity
Schools ‘fail’ the poor…………………………the schools are a blessing
Crime, drugs, alcohol, illegitimacy, etc. are due to poverty…..no excuse for these
