Immigrant Opposition Only Points to Our Own Prejudice

On Thursdays, after four classes back-to-back starting at 8:30 a.m., the only thing I want to do in the time before I have to work at the Cooper Center from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. is crawl into bed and take a nap. I never get the chance, though.

I don’t get to nap away late Thursday afternoons because instead, that is the time I have scheduled service learning hours at the Asian Community and Cultural Center tutoring two Burmese men in English.

I’ll admit, when it’s time to get in my car and head down to the center, located on “O” St., I do it begrudgingly. I’m only human--it’s hard for me to sacrifice what minimal free time I do have because it doesn’t occur often.

But as with so many things in life, it’s important to keep things in perspective. All I have to do is drive ten minutes across town and spend two hours every week tutoring in my native language. However, for the two men I tutor, these two hours are crucial.

While I spent the ten years of my adolescence listening to the Backstreet Boys and dreaming about life outside my small hometown, these Burmese men faced ethnic cleansing, government persecution and ten years in a refugee camp in Thailand.

The men are part of a Karen people who live in Burma, but are being persecuted and executed by their own government. They became a part of a resistance group when the main concern in my life was an upcoming Spanish test.

What many people don’t realize is that Lincoln is recognized as a refugee city by the U.S. government. Therefore, it is a place designated as a potential home for refugees who enter our country. Which is why Lincoln boasts such a wide variety of international marketplaces and cultural centers like the Asian Community and Cultural Center.

When discussion turns to the topic of immigrants, so often we hear people think that immigrants should learn English before being allowed to enter our country, but what these protestors fail to acknowledge is the situatio of many of these people.

While it’s easy for an American student to sign up for classes in another language, such facilities are not available in refugee camps and underdeveloped nations. Where are they supposed to learn English, then?

If our country’s immigration policies bring these people into the United States, the least they could do is ensure that they have the best means to do more than contribute to the poverty rate in our country. It’s really not the fault of immigrants that they have never had the opportunity to learn English. It doesn’t indicate ethnocentrism or their unwillingness
to adapt to the American culture.

On the contrary, Americans’ thinking these exact things of immigrants seems only to indicate the very presence of prejudice within ourselves.

As Americans, we are privileged to call such a wonderful country our home. We don’t have to worry about freedom being threatened or extreme levels of government corruption. However, citizens of many countries around the world are no where near as lucky.

Therefore, when they come to the U.S., with full permission off our government, in hopes of making a new start, they should be given just that. We’re used to having the freedoms that comes with being a U.S. citizen, and it’s time we be a little less selfish about these rights. Just because a person isn’t born in American doesn’t mean they are not entitled to everything our country has to offer.