I have worked with immigrant children and families in my profession for years. For a while, my school had a large Vietnamese population. Thereafter, I served Bosnian and Serbian families. There have always been families from the mid-east. Thereafter we had families from all over Latin America. Now I work in a school with Korean, Chinese, and Indian families. I have known the "legal" status of very few of them. I do know some where refugees escaping unspeakable atrocities - including genocide. Some were highly educated and had great job offers. Some were dirt poor and my school was their first experience with public education. Some came on boats. Some am with work visas. Some walked across at legal points of entry. For many, I do not know how they got to me. Some had parents with advanced college degrees. Some had parents with third grade educations and were barely literate in their native language.
However, they all have had two things in common: They missed their homeland. They wanted better lives for their children. I have taught them all to the best of my ability. Some thrived. Others struggled. In these respects, they were no different than my U.S. citizen students and their families.
I do not fault any of the immigrants I have taught for being here. I lived in Spain for a while and, when my time there was over, I was more than ready to come home. It's hard to live away from your native land. The culture, norms, language and more are different -and therefore uncomfortable. As much as I loved living in Spain, the idea of staying there forever did not suit me. Life at home would have had to have been pretty rough for me to choose to stay there forever.
As I think about the number of folks who desperately want to come here. I have to consider just how bad things are in their homelands that they would abandon everything they have and know to come here. What would you do if your kids were starving or facing threats of violence and death? Personally, I would do anything to keep them safe and would violate laws in a heartbeat if I had to.
As I get older, I become more convinced of a few things: As Americans, we are no different than other people. We just happen to have the good fortune to live (be born?) here. I am not threatened by folks who come here for a better life. Instead, I feel bad for them. I have known more than a few Mexican men who go months without seeing their wives or kids because they are working here to send money home. As a husband and father, I find that idea to be painful If we truly want to slow immigration, we need to help struggling nations to better themselves. Instead of spending money on walls, perhaps we could refund the State Department and help to build schools and infrastructure in Mexico? Instead of having great jobs here for which we hire immigrants, perhaps we could help these other nations to have their own jobs - and give people a reason to stay?
Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.