Paper Example: Reasons for Immigration Into the US

Immigration has become a common phenomenon all over the world. People move to different places with some traversing continents while others settle in neighboring countries. The immigration has for long been due to reasons that threatened their existence in their regions/countries of birth while others being the need to explore the world and to look for new opportunities. Some of the reasons that are common and known that necessitated immigration include; personal freedom, land and job shortages, and movements away from oppressive regimes. However, despite the well-known reasons for immigration being common, some reasons such as climate change, broken families, and entertainment also contributes to the immigration (Casteli 2). This research paper seeks to explore the known and unknown reasons that cause people to immigrate to new places while integrating Enrique's intrigues in his journey of immigration.

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Immigration due to known reasons accounts for close to 70% of the total immigration that happen across the world and more so those who immigrated to the US. The leading cause of immigration among many immigrants into America was the need for economic freedom. Most the immigrants who immigrated into the US in 1770s to 1990s were forced by hard economic conditions that they were exposed to in their countries (Caseli 986). A good example being the Irish immigrants who moved into the US in hundreds of thousands when their country, Northern Ireland, become unproductive. Their mainstay economic activity, Irish potato farming, was completely destroyed by worms while at the same time rains stopped for close to three seasons. The conditions resulted in gruesome situations where thousands of Irish people starved to death. The situation forced thousands to flee the country into other countries in order to look for better opportunities elsewhere.

Many of them settled in Europe while others immigrated into the US where they settled down and began farming activities. The Irish's immigration into US presents a perfect explanation that causes people to move as a result of land shortages. In early 1800s the some sections of the most productive lands in the Northern Ireland could no longer produce foodstuff that could feed the people ("Root Causes of Migration" 1). Apart from the main crop, Irish Potato, drying up, there was pressure on the land due to high population. The quest for economic freedom as well the need to end poverty is a major cause of families to disintegrate because parents see the need to leave their children so that they can go out and look for food to feed them just like the case of Enrique's mother.

Equally, some of those who immigrated into the US wanted to run away from oppressive regimes, wars, over-taxation and other forms of torture or persecutions. A good number of immigrants who came into the US from the Middle East were as a result of oppression, wars, and oppressions. Although the immigration of Arabs into the US is considerably insignificant in terms of numbers as compared to other groups, their causes are due to chilling stories where some of them underwent untold frustrations and torture while others lost their loved ones (Caseli 991). Just like the case of Enrique, their movement into the US was not smooth they had to pass through many challenges along the way. Some were beaten and deported while in worse cases some even decided to end their lives.

Perhaps the movement of Arabs accounts for the latest forms of immigration into the US since most of them happened as recent as 2000s. The political instabilities in the Middle East and the rise of terrorist activities that led to death of thousands of people forced out a number of others. The people flee the oppression in order to seek peace in other countries where such mayhem is not being witnessed. The majority of those who settled in the US were granted asylum a good case being a number of Syrian refugees who were forced out by the oppressive Syrian regime in 2014-2017 (Casteli 7). Although the majority of them were fleeing due to oppression and war, they were also looking for economic freedom because they were living in poverty in their countries due to lack of income generating activities.

Personal freedom is another widely known reason that causes immigration to other places. This reason is widely common among the young generation or young adults who feel that their freedom is being curtailed by their relatives or guardians ("Root Causes of Migration" 1). The need to seek personal freedom has always pushed people to move to thousands of kilometers in search of it. On the same not, slavery and oppression of any kind curtails people's freedom thus forcing them to move to different countries or region in order to alleviate the situation (Wainwright 2). The immigrants who moved into the US as a result of this reason accounts for close to 10%. As mentioned earlier, the people who moved into the US as a result of oppression such as the case with Arab-Americans, moved because their freedom was being curtailed.

On the other hand, there are those who immigrated to the US in search of personal freedom not because they were being forced or oppressed but because they just wanted a personal space for themselves away from their relatives, friends, and family. Many of those who moved into a new place due to personal reasons happen to do so because they wanted to have freedom to do what they want to do without nagging questions from their relatives. The majority of those who immigrated in the search for personal space where they can live their lives without interference and not because they were being oppressed represent around 2% of the total immigrants into the US (Wainwright 3). Most of those who sought personal freedom wanted to ran away from the watchful eyes of their loved ones because they wanted to try things such as drugs and other illegal or immoral substances that they couldn't do them while amidst their loved ones.

Having discussed the known reasons that caused a number of immigrants to abandon their home countries in search of new ones, it is clear that most of them succeeded and had a life they had envisioned for themselves but unfortunately some did not make it. The road to new environments and new homes for majority of the immigrants were full of challenges, gruesome experiences, brutality, and adventure. In the case of Enrique as presented in the Enrique's journey was the one full of bad experiences that could have even resulted in death (Nazario 17). But Enrique's resilience and the drive to keep trying and to keep pushing is a definition that befits many of the immigrants who went through a similar experience like his.

However, despite reaching their desired country and finding his mother, Enrique's expectations were not met because not long after he traced her and they started living together his mother, Loudres, was not pleased with his presence thus quarrels and fights ensued between them. The second part of Enrique's story represents a number of situations that some immigrants were met with when they arrived in the US. Some immigrants' hopes were dashed off because the new opportunities that they came looking for became nightmares. Some were subjected to even more gruesome situations as compared to those they were experiencing in their countries. The not widely known reasons why people immigrate are many. However, climate change, entertainment, and broken families are some of the key unfamiliar reasons. Climate change has for long time been subject of discussion with many predictions being made that in the future pollution will increase, water levels will rise, and desertification will also encroach lands that are currently agriculturally productive. Climate change not only threatens the existence of human beings but it also threatens the existence of animals ("Root Causes of Migration" 1). Some animals have moved from their natural habitats and settled in other places.

Some even move from continent to continent while others have borne the unforgiving brunt of harsh climatic conditions such as desertification or extreme winter leading to their extinction (Casteli 15). From the explanation, immigration that is necessitated by climate change is largely a threat to existence. In the case of Irish immigrants discussed above, partly climate change played a role in their movement and settlement in the US. Despite the need for more space to practice farming, their lands had become less productive due changes in climatic conditions. On the same note, the immigration of other European groups into the US was also partly due to climate change.

In as much as entertainment could not have caused someone to move to a new continent or region or even country and settle there, in the modern world entertainment is the cause although it is still an unfamiliar reason. Some people close to thousands have immigrated into the US and settled in the country because of entertainment reasons. Some of the most common entertainment sectors that attract people into the US are film and music industry, sports, arts, and gambling. The robustness of the US film industry in terms of diversity and unique content is largely attributed to the immigrants (Caseli 989). Some people come for gigs where they appear in films and arts through invitation.

The inconvenience of moving in and out of the country forces some to seek temporary visa thus end up being naturalized with time. Same case happens with sports, currently the US basketball league -NBA, Soccer -MLS, and football are rated among the top in the world. The players in the respective clubs are highly diverse since most of they are signed from different countries depending on the level of their talents. MLS alone has more than five hundred foreign players and professionals who are involved in the every segment of the MLS sport (Caseli 991). Same case applies to other sports as well.

In a more keen interest, immigration as a result of broken families is perhaps the most intriguing cause. As mentioned earlier, families that live in abject poverty are the ones that immigrate the most. Parents leave their children in search for jobs so that they can provide for their children. A good elaboration of this point has been captured in Enrique's case. A family of three, mother -Lourde, Son -Enrique, and daughter - Belky, lived as squalors in Central America -Honduras (Nazario 10). When the situation became worse the mother decided to leave the family and move to the US in search of ways to earn a living so that he can support her children. The mother set off and after going through a lot of challenges she finally landed in the US and she settled there.

However, unlike she expected, she did not get a good means to earn a living that could enable her to send money to her children back in Honduras, a situation which forced Enrique to also move to the US. By the time Enrique was moving to the US he had a girlfriend who had a child with him. Just like her mother, Enrique left his girlfriend and the kid and took the treacherous journey into the US. The journey had a lot of challenges but his resilience and hope of reuniting with her mother saw him through (Nazario 23). When Enrique eventually, united with her mother, they soon had major differences that led them to separate and lead separate lives.

Enrique moved to different states within the US while searching for opportunities where he could get work so that he can perhaps support his girlfriend and the kid back in Honduras. He worked as a lowly paid employee in different joints and all through he was saving some money which he used to smuggle her girlfriend into the US. Enrique's journey into the US can be summarized as treacherous, risky, and full of resilience (Nazario 15).