Becoming Legal = Education and Citizenship

We began our discussion about youth immigrants in my last reflection, discussing the stereotypes of undocumented immigrants and the consequences this discrimination takes on in the modern day. Youth immigration has boomed in the last five years due to recent legislation allowing children considered refugees from unsafe countries to enter the United States and receive United States citizenship. Now, notice how I said children, not families. In the past year, over 65,000 children have immigrated to the United States from Central America all by themselves. Imagine traveling thousands of miles to a new country without your parents, hardly any resources (including food, water, and money), and the constant fear of being deported. Doesn't sound anywhere near exciting if you ask me. 

Nora Sandigo and a few of her children as they work on schoolwork.
Courtesy of veooz.com

While listening to NPR the other day, I tuned into a piece about a woman with 817 children. No, it's not the story you would expect. The podcast was about a woman named Nora Sandigo who became the legal guardian of 817 American children of undocumented immigrants. She protected these children in the case that their parents were deported; listing herself as the child's legal guardian and even temporarily sheltering a few children in desperate cases. Since the children were born in America and retain United States citizenship they face the danger of being sent into foster care or being adopted without a legal guardian in the United States.

When Reyna Grande came to El Otro Lado her father constantly reminded them about how impervious it was to keep the situation of their citizenship confidential. Unlike the children Nora Sandigo provides care for, Reyna and her siblings did not have any form of citizenship and could be effectively deported back to Mexico if anyone discovered their situation. Her father spent years and thousands of dollars to obtain green cards for his children so that they could become United States citizens. 

What I found interesting about both of these stories of immigrating to the United States was how both "parental" figures in each story found the importance of education. In The Distance Between Us, Reyna's father constantly reminds them about how a good education will affect their lives forever. When Reyna's sister Mago dropped out of community college, her father had a complete meltdown. All I could think of when Reyna graduated college was the fact that she truly made her father proud and stayed true to getting an American education, going to college, and making a living in the United States. Nora Sandigo tried to soften the pain of the children she sheltered by reminding them of how proud their parents would be because of their being in school, working hard, and not give up. 

Courtesy of arkansas.gov

Although in both cases there are many hardships of going to school constantly trying to hide your identity in Reyna's case, or just trying to forget your parent's situation in the case of Nora Sandigo's children. As many of these children come from non-English speaking countries, they must learn the language of their home in order to "reap the benefits" of being a citizen. Reyna described how even when she worked diligently in writing contests, her books, papers, and essays were treated differently because she was an "ESL kid". Likewise, the children Sandigo shelters have a hard time focusing and interacting with people at school. In many ways, these children had to acculturate to American citizenship and leave their past behind them. Whether it be by speaking a new language, or trying to forget about a broken family, immigrants to the United States face more issues being an American citizen than becoming one.

Even my Italian ancestry believed that by getting an education their children would have better lives in the United States. Since my grandpa and his siblings were very young when they immigrated to the U.S. crossing the language barrier wasn't as difficult an issue. It was an issue for my great grandparents instead. My grandpa told me about how when he was a little boy he would come home and tell his momma about all the things he learned in school each day, especially English. Every spelling test he took, short story he wrote, poem he brought home, all were heartily consumed by my great-grandparent's desire to learn the language of the country. It was difficult to say the least, even my grandpa still uses a bit of Italian in his speech, but everyone in my family benefits from the hard work my relatives made. 

Already having full citizenship to the United States being born here makes one appreciate how costly something like what I have is to other families, and all that they would sacrifice to have what I consider a birth right. Same with my education, I grew up appreciating it, but I never realized that if I lived in the Middle East or even in Central America, my learning experience would be totally different. As a fourth-generation of a once Italian immigrant family, I have fully acculturated to the life of being an American citizen. I have citizenship, I have an education, and I even have the native language down plus a foreign language! Not to mention, my entire family has citizenship in the country as well. 

So next time you find yourself dozing off in class, forgetting the proper conjugations in French, or wanting to move to a different country, remember how hard your ancestors worked like Reyna's father, Nora Sandigo's children, and even mine to even be able to have a second of what you're doing. It is a wonderful country to live in, but it takes more than a small effort to become a citizen, and even more to acculturate to what being an American citizen really means. 

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Links to artifacts discussed in this reflection:

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=335720816

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/27/335720816/one-woman-817-children-caring-for-kids-of-undocumented-parents