Coming to America

I chose to write about the reasons why people want to come to America and what they see that is so appealing. I chose this because my Dad immigrated to America from Italy, with his family when he was in his late teens. When I asked him why his family decided to come to America he said, "It was the best country in the world and the richest country and everybody came to America. My family had nothing in Italy, we were extremely poor. America is the land for opportunity. Everybody wanted to experience it. " It seems really simple but he said it was as basic as that. Almost 50 years ago there was hardly any technology like what we have today so being able to really understand and see America was much harder than it was today. His family just knew it was better. They had nothing to loose in Italy so they made the trip to America.

I found two interesting articles to talk about but my first is about why people come to America. The article is called "People Immigrate for a Reason: American opportunity." The couple of sentences that sum up what is so great about American are, "America is not a race, a class, a skin color, a culture, or a religion. America is an idea. This idea states that its citizens, regardless of their origin, are free to chart their own destinies as individuals with equal rights and opportunities." I think this is the best couple of sentences because they describe exactly what America is about. We are a melting pot. We have endless opportunities. Immigrants come to America to form a new life. Families come to make a better life for themselves but individuals also come to leave behind poverty and strict lifestyles. I think one of the best parts about America is that there are opportunities to climb success ladders. One thing about America is that people always want more. To many people it may not be a favorable way of life but to others it means there are more places to go, things to do, and things to achieve. There are no specifications about what people need to be or look like in order to come into America.

In the description of what to blog about it says not to just state that people come to America because we are rich. An article that I found interesting as a response to that statement is about how people are actually coming to America because we are not doing so well financially. The article is from today and it is titled, "America for Sale: Foreigners Flock to U.S." It talks about how foreigners are coming to America for our real estate. The falling market and the weak dollar are appealing to foreigners. Speaking about how strong the Euro is right now the article states, "She just sold a 2,248-square-foot apartment for $11 million to an Italian man. Because of the difference between the Euro and dollar, he essentially bought the unit at a 30-percent discount."

Clearly there are many reasons why people choose to come to America. Other countries are prospering as we are financially hurting yet people still continue to come here. America is the place for opportunity. In the words of my Dad, "If we didn't come to America I would be picking olives and going to bed hungry and you would not be here today."

http://media.www.chicagoflame.com/media/storage/paper519/news/2006/03/27/Opinions/People.Immigrate.For.A.Reason.American.Opportunity-1722052.shtml

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MarketTalk/Story?id=3694871&page=3