Over the past decades, immigration has become a big part of the American culture. However, many immigrant families are known to work extremely hard to make a living in America. Many immigrant children are known to experience childhood depression and stress from the experience of growing up in a new country.
       Watching media in America, you may be familiar with the ‘Tiger Mom’ stereotype. The mother who sacrifices their child’s mental and physical health so that their child maintains a high standing in their academic background. It is a reality for many immigrant children in first world countries because of the intergenerational impact of witnessing poverty in underdeveloped countries. Poverty in third world countries is different from poverty in countries like America. Many immigrant parents have witnessed first hand how it is to live in actual poverty and projecting their trauma onto their children. 
         There are limited options for immigrant children to attend college because many of them don’t have access to loans. Some attend school and work simultaneously, while others don’t even reach for higher education. First generation immigrant students also have to help their families with whatever situation they may be in while attending school. Growing up, my older siblings had jobs in middle school and I would have to stay with them and do my homework in the back. It wasn’t the best condition to be doing school work, but I had no choice but to. This may not be the case for every FG student, but there are many different situations that they have to go through to accommodate their family situations.
      Many students suffer from mental health issues because of the stress of education in America. It is less about education and more about getting the highest scores. This stress from school, with the combination of pressure from parents to succeed can often be overwhelming to first generation students. 

       The reason as to why so many first generation students are pushed to work so hard in  school is because of the high cost of education in America. Education in America is extremely high compared to other first world countries. They work hard to acquire scholarships for their education because that is their only means of financial aid.

       Education should be easily accessible for all. America’s average tuition is more than countries like the UK and Canada (Cooper, 2019). They are the second most expensive education system in the world. If America is the patriarchal society they push to be, they should think about their citizens and make education more accessible. More than half of America’s public funding goes to national defense (Tax Funding Center). This funding should be put into the youth’s educational future. If America wants to improve as a society, they need to put the funding where it is needed and who it needs to be given to.

     Schools preach mental health, yet do nothing but worsen the condition of students going through mental disruptencies. Many students are in great need of therapy, but can’t afford it or don’t have enough time between school and home. Even if school officials can’t do anything personal to help students, an overwhelming amount of work won’t help their situation. If anything it worsens it. 

       Schools shouldn’t be allowed to give large amounts of work to students. There is no correlation between the amount of homework a child gets and their performance in school. Educational leaders don’t take the time to study children’s learning habits and what works best for retaining knowledge in children (Kohn, 2006). More funding should be put into schools so that they can understand what will actually benefit the child's performance. 

       Parents need to be aware of how expecting for their children may affect them. Going into adulthood, I know personally how putting pressure on a child can affect them mentally and emotionally. I didn’t have any dreams or goals unless it was educationally driven so I could bring success to my family. Mental health should be emphasized to adults, just as it should be to teens. Many adults from ethnic backgrounds don’t believe that mental health exists, and that is the root of the issue. 

       It is argued that immigrants should be grateful for coming to America, and shouldn’t complain that they have to work hard because many people would rather be in America. Many immigrants come from poverty ridden countries, so America is the dream life for them. 

       This mindset is offensive to immigrants because it invalidates their struggles with the argument that “it could’ve been worse”. Immigrants are more likely to have suicidal tendencies compared to the general population due to thinking like no social network for employment, and little access to healthcare information. (Forte, 2018). My mother came here with me and my sister with virtually nothing and no relatives in her state. She was denied government aid for food and shelter because she was new to the country and had to be here for a certain amount of years to qualify. This doesn’t make sense because that is probably the situation she would need it the most in, however she was denied aid because of it. There is little compassion for immigrants in America.

       Immigrants need to be treated like the citizens they are in America. Many immigrants are the root of businesses in America and contribute to the economy just as much as the general population. A majority of the American population is not originally from America, so immigrants shouldn’t be treated any differently from anyone else. Equal opportunity for all should be encouraged and fought for in America. 

Works Cited

Cooper, Preston. “America Spends More On College Than Virtually Any Other Country.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 22 Sept. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2019/09/22/america-spends-more-on-college-than-virtually-any-other-country/?sh=36b7a3923348.

Forte, Alberto, et al. “Suicide Risk among Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: A Literature Overview.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, MDPI, 8 July 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6068754/.

“How Does the Federal Government Spend Its Money?” Tax Policy Center, www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-does-federal-government-spend-its-money#:~:text=More than half of FY,health care (figure 4).

Kohn, Alfie. “Homework: No Proven Benefits.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 19 Oct. 2006, www.edutopia.org/no-proven-benefits.