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Essay: Pursuing the American Dream: The Immigrant Experience and Cruel Optimism

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10/22/2017

American History 201W

Entrepreneurship and the American Dream

Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunities beyond currently controlled resources, and can thus be applied to situations outside of a business context. In the pursuit of the American dream, Americans are entrepreneurial when those with minimal resources actively pursue better opportunities rather than remaining complacent. Cultures form as groups follow the American dream and attempt to improve current circumstances, and American identities are shaped from culture. The majority of Americans, foreign or natural born, do not have the necessary resources to pursue better opportunities. Immigrants have no starting point from which to build, African Americans are systematically oppressed, LGBT Americans do not fit in with “normal” American culture, and all disenfranchised groups suffer from the unequal distribution of wealth. As seen in … these groups are lacking resources, but they are entrepreneurial in their attempt to improve their situations.

The definition of the American Dream from an immigrant perspective is to pursue "life, liberty, and property" by coming to America to provide for or start a family, then living in freedom and obtaining wealth through hard work. However, defining the American dream is in the eyes of the beholder, as each individual has a different context for success. Once in America, immigrants often face "cruel optimism" in which they maintain hope regardless of their current situation. With an end goal in mind, it is easy to ignore current unfavorable circumstances. As seen in the struggles of an immigrant family in Drown and immigrant experiences in the 1980s in …And the Pursuit of Happiness, the American Dream attracts immigrants and fuels ambition. Additionally, findings from Cruel Optimism attempt to explain the prevalence of the American Dream as it relates to immigrants.

Drown is a collection of short stories about a poor Dominican Republican family that can be pieced into a complete narrative. Ramon abandons his family by moving to the United States, leaving Yunior and his brother Rafa to live with their uncle while Mami, their mother, works in a chocolate factory. After many years, Ramon returns to the Dominican Republic to bring his family to New Jersey. As Yunior progresses through high school, he helps his Mami pay rent by selling marijuana. Yunior is unsure of his sexual identity because had gay encounters with a friend when he was younger, but has a girlfriend his adult life.

Although cowardly, Ramon’s actions are entrepreneurial. He leaves his family and finds work in America, then uses his gained resources to move his family to America. Ramon, however, is forced into complacency when there are no jobs available to help him escape poverty. The experience of Yunior and his family is similar to that of many immigrant families in America. Life in is better than in their home country, but the available legal resources do not provide enough money to move up in American society. Mami works as a housekeeper, providing enough money for food, but she cannot pay rent.

Entrepreneurship does not imply legality, and in selling marijuana, Yunior uses illegal resources to supplement his family’s income. Yunior proves to overcome adversity when he makes enough money to move out and start a life for himself. Conversely, Ramone and Mami embody the cruel optimism that is prevalent in immigrant communities. They do not have the resources to pursue better opportunities, but accept their current situation and remain hopeful for the future.

Some immigrants from South America do not have the means to obtain a visa, so they come to the United States illegally in search of a better life. Once in America, they must work low-paying jobs since they are not legally employable. Undocumented immigrants can persevere through cruel optimism, achieve the American dream, and yet still be deported with any minor legal infraction. In comparison to legal immigrants, they have less access to jobs, resulting in less opportunities, and finally less ability to establish a culture and American identity.

The documentary Lost in Detention covers the Secure Communities Initiative under the Obama Administration and how it incentivized authorities to deport undocumented immigrants. It claimed to deport the worst offenders, but the initiative allowed deportation even if illegal immigrants were parents to United States citizens and had no previous criminal record. The documentary gives the example of family that was ripped apart when the mother was deported for a simple traffic violation, emphasizing that this was the experience of many other families. The fear of deportation alone is enough to stunt entrepreneurship. Illegal immigrants cannot go out in public, much less create fruitful communities.

Lost in Detention also covers flaws in the detention system. Illegal immigrants do not have the same legal rights as citizens. They have no choice over the location of their detention and do not have the right to an attorney. Further problems are addressed in the following quote. “What’s more, detainees reported difficulty accessing detention center law libraries, legal materials and mail. Detainees at all facilities reported that legal materials available in the law libraries are very outdated; that country condition reports vital for asylum applications were several years old; and that few of the materials are available in Spanish. Postings of contact information for consular offices and pro bono resources were routinely out of date.” Detained illegal immigrants do not have the proper legal resources to defend themselves against deportation, and a lack of resources diminishes the opportunity to escape deportation.

As implied in the name, the purpose of detention centers is to detain illegal immigrants as they await deportation; detention is not supposed to be imprisonment. However, many detention centers treat detainees worse than prisoners. The documentary questions former staff and detainees in Willacy Detention Center, and reveals that it had serious problems with mistreatment and abuse, amassing over 900 complaints by detainees.

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