Children of Immigrants

About 20 million children are born in the United States in the United States. I am one of them. I am the daughter of the mother of two immigrants who came from Peru and Argentina. My roots are not right under me, but I am standing under this ground, but I am in many parts of the world. I grew up in San Francisco from time to time, from home to home, sometimes houses with other families. I learned to adapt quickly. I became a traveler just like my mother, and many immigrants are travelers, their wanders and ideas never exist.

Technically, I am American, but this label does not seem appropriate. When I was a child, I felt immersed in the tension between school culture and mother's house culture and came back every evening. I ate Milanza and Lomo Salt and school friends ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and talked about Thanksgiving about their excitement about holidays I have never celebrated . I will speak Spanish until I feel that it is too different from others. When I started to speak English mainly, people were shocked every time I heard a pale girl saying "pa soy Latin." At that time, I began to feel that there was neither South America nor North America. I am locked in the middle of the unpleasant thing, I am about to release myself.

In the discussion about immigrant children, scholars often deal with statistical data, but rarely deal with actual individuals who have their own opinions and identify ideas. We are not just numbers but a report that analyzes our education and economic status.

This series of portrait series was inspired by my conversation with immigrant children in the past two years. People I met talked about when they were children and how they define American culture. They contemplate imbalances between self identity and cultural identity. They are watching how the label of "Immigrant Children" will affect local people.

"To be immigrant children many times, it always means keeping your position as an" American "," said Hispanic and Dominican American Alex Santana. By disassembling our cultural identity, our childhood, and the way some people distort us, we are returning to our personality

I never thought that myself was a "child of immigrants". Because I felt that the word was full of immigrant struggle. To tell the truth, my father came to America with an Italian doctor, but he was proficient in English since childhood and was the fourth child of my parents. . - Michael Shami, 21 years old, Americans in Syria and Hungary (upper)

I think the position where you are the most important, but at the same time it is important not to give up the place you were. You should not let go of your roots as part of American society. - 22-year-old Avnee, British and Indian American

I am from an immigrant family. Many of my staff are immigrant or immigrant children. Many of you are immigrant or immigrant children. We know that our country does not necessarily welcome newcomers. After careful consideration, the immigrant story in the United States is not characterized by the goodwill of others, it is often characterized by the determination to desperately live here. The ideal we have achieved can not always be grasped, but still we can attract millions of people from the ocean and land. These ideals allowed my parents and grandparents to spend the darkest hours of our country until the day they saw their sons raise their hands to swear to defend and defend the Constitution. I am an immigrant family, America is an immigrant family so I will stand with people traveling long distances.

Children and adolescents living in immigrant families are the fastest growing group in America. As of 2014, Mexico is the country of origin of the largest share of immigrant children living in the United States. 40% of immigrant families have at least one parent born in Mexico. (Appendix 1) Immigrant children face many risks of healthy development, but only some of these groups are unique. They are more likely to live in families with lower level education and more than three brothers and sisters, with incomes below the poverty line than non - immigrant children. Children of immigrants are less likely to join health insurance. Nonimmigrant children are more likely to join 3 times health insurance than children of first generation immigrants and children of second generation immigrants are twice as likely as children of second generation immigrants.