The essay “How Immigrants Become ‘Other'” by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco illustrates the issue of immigrants never truly being accepted by natural born citizens of America. In the essay, it is discussed that immigrants are and have been treated differently. The different ways immigrants are treated differently is almost an unintelligent question to ask. Instead the question, “How aren’t immigrants treated differently?” should be asked. Even the names politicians and society have created to describe immigrants are alienating and harsh, “Illegal, undocumented, alien.” The idea of a human being illegal is something that most people overlook, but the reality is, no human is illegal. This idea of immigrants being associated with names that have such negative connotations is one of many ideas discussed in the essay “How Immigrants Become ‘Other’.”Even though America is known as a “melting pot,” immigrants will never truly be accepted as a part of society no matter the amount of assimilation due to the blatant racism, segregation, and prejudice that non-immigrants have against immigrants.
To begin with, racism in America towards immigrants is a strong factor that perpetuates the non-acceptance of immigrants in society. “‘In The Psychology of Skin Color’(Gaborro, 2008) Rondilla and Spickard contend that it was at the time of the American colonial occupation that ‘racial marking of a biological sort’ was intensified ‘in support of United States colonial domination.’” (Hall p. 62) This statement shows that in history, there has always been a favoring of lighter skin, as well as more European features, which is a characteristic of racism. This favoring of lighter skin is one of the many ways that make assimilation for immigrants hard. Discussed in the essay “How Immigrants Become ‘Other'” by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco, immigrants are isolated in society because of how they look. There are slurs and discriminatory words for Mexicans and Cubans that are to put down and make fun of their counterparts that sneak into the country illegally. These slurs are used against them even though they themselves haven’t done those things, but because of how they look, the words are used on them. The stereotyping of mainly Latinos and Latinas is very prevalent in society. The physical features of immigrants are characterized and used against other people of that same race. Muslims are called hurtful names like terrorist even though they are not associated in any way to the terrorist organizations that happen to be Muslim. They are called these hurtful words and isolated in our society to the point where assimilation is almost impossible for them simply because of the way they look. Further research has shown, “Light supremacy in the 21st century is then acted out by light-skinned non-White immigrants who relocate to the U.S. with aspirations of assimilation. Not a few arrive with preconceived notions as pertains to human hierarchy whereby light-skinned Euro-Americans and to a lesser extent light-skinned non-White persons in proximity to light skin maintain a superior status and dark-skinned African-Americans by default of racism are considered inferior (Thomas, 2016).” (Hall p.62) This statement shows that even though immigrants try to assimilate into American society, because of their skin color, they are less likely to be accepted due to the white supremacy that reigns in American society. The white supremacy has given non-Hispanic white non-immigrant Americans a superiority complex where they believe that they reign supreme. This complex has caused them to believe that they are different and better than immigrants which have led to the use of words that separate and divide immigrants in society. This division is what continues to make assimilation into society so hard for immigrants. Coming into a new country and trying to learn and fit in with the culture is hard enough, but having people that aren’t accepting on top of that creates a disconnect between the immigrants and fellow people in their community and in America as a whole.
In addition, the segregation in American society contributes to the poor acceptance of immigrants and their assimilation into society. “According to the spatial assimilation model, which is invoked to explain residential arrangements, in particular, differences in acculturation and socioeconomic status across racial and ethnic groups help shape patterns of segregation (Massey 1985). The model posits that new immigrants often settle in fairly homogeneous ethnic enclaves within a given metropolitan area. This may be due to migrants’ feeling more comfortable with (and welcomed by) fellow co-ethnics.” (Iceland, J. & Scopilliti, M p. 80) This statement brings up the point that immigrants do not feel comfortable around non-immigrants and people that do not have the same background, possibly because of the fear of discrimination. A third common theory of immigrant incorporation is segmented assimilation. This perspective focuses on divergent patterns of incorporation among contemporary immigrants (Portes and Zhou 1993; Zhou 1999). Individual- and structural-level factors affect the incorporation process, and there is an important interaction between the two levels. Individual-level factors include education, career aspiration, English language ability, place of birth, age at the time of arrival, and length of residence in the United States. Structural factors include racial status, family socioeconomic background, and place of residence. (Iceland, J. & Scopilliti, M p. 81) This statement shows that you are less segregated and more accepted into American society based on factors, which supports the idea that segregation does exist. “…foreign-born Hispanics, Asians, and blacks are more segregated from U.S.-born non-Hispanic whites than are the U.S.-born of those groups. In addition, many of the patterns can be explained by the average characteristics of the foreign-born that are generally associated with higher levels of segregation, such as lower levels of income and less English language fluency.” (Iceland, J. & Scopilliti, M p. 91) This statement shows that through data analysis, it can be seen that segregation continues to fuel spatial assimilation which shows that segregation in society is related to the reason why even though immigrants do try to assimilate, they still aren’t fully accepted.
Furthermore, the prejudice that non-immigrants have is another factor that advances the un-incorporation of immigrants. “For many immigrant groups, assimilation is seen in a variety of ways, with one of the most obvious being native language proficiency.” (Vega) This statement shows that the preconceived notion that immigrants cannot speak English has pushed immigrants to learn English so that they can begin to assimilate. “According to Pew, 76% of Hispanic millennials speak only English at home or speak English “very well,” and 88% of Hispanics ages 5 to 17 are proficient English speakers.” (Vega) This statement shows that assimilation is working because of immigrants, Hispanics in particular, find it very important to learn English in order to be accepted into American society. Non-immigrants hold a prejudice towards immigrants, mainly Hispanics that do not know English or speak it poorly. “95% of Hispanics think it’s important for future generations to preserve the cultural tradition of speaking Spanish, 71% of them say that it’s not necessary to speak the language in order to be considered Hispanic.” (Vega) The fear of discrimination because of not knowing English has led to the decline in Spanish speaking Hispanics.
Although, the argument is made that immigrants aren’t accepted because they are living here illegally, which seems unfair. In the essay “How Immigrants Become ‘Other'” by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco it is stated, “Outcry over our broken immigration system is focused on the borderline. Frustrated and fearful, Americans ask, ‘Why won’t these illegals get in line like everybody else?’ On the surface that is a perfectly reasonable question. The reality, however, is that there is no orderly line to join. The terrorist attacks of September 11 threw sand in an already rusty machinery of legal immigration.” This statement shows how the argument of illegal immigrants being here is the reason why they are alienated in society isn’t a very good way of thinking. If the immigrants could be legal, they would, but the way the immigration system is set up, it’s basically impossible for them to become citizens at the rate they need to in order for them to not resort to entering the country illegally. Therefore this argument, while understandable, isn’t practical because that is not how the immigration system works even though it should. This means that it isn’t the immigrant’s fault, much rather the faulty system that grants them their legal status, so the immigrants aren’t to blame and should not be treated as poorly as they are.
Overall, immigrants first step when they arrive in America is to begin assimilating into American society. But due to the racist and prejudice ideals of non-immigrant residents in the United States, as well as the segregation in the society has led to the poor/non-acceptance of immigrants in American society. This modern-day discrimination of other races is the opposite of what America should be. If the acceptance of all immigrants no matter wealth or skin color was promoted, America would be a society that actually is blended and beautiful instead of one that is divided into many levels.