Imagine you're an immigrant

Solution Preview

I wrote this from the perspective of a woman; so if you are a male, you will have to go through and change "husband" to "wife", etc. Also, feel free to change anything around.

Thanks!

108129
Tina L. Wheeler, MAT

*****************

Dear Immigration Office,

I moved to the United States in 2000 from Haiti. I came to this country to further my education and look for better opportunities and a better way of life. I left a life of farming and poverty in hopes of bettering myself and the family that I left in Haiti.

My first priority was school, and I attended a university here as an undergraduate student studying education. I wanted to give back to the country that had allowed me to come and be educated. It was here that I met my husband, who is a US citizen. We dated for many months, and after a year and a half, we were married in 2001. I never dreamed while in Haiti that I would fall in love while getting my education. However, I did, and we were married.

Once I graduated and received my Bachelor's Degree in Education, I began working as a teacher at a local high school teaching French. I really loved this work, and the student seemed to like me. Because I was a native born French speaker, I was able to give the students a fresh point of view that teachers who are native English speakers could not. After a few years, I decided to return to school and further my education by earning a Master of Arts in Education. Though I have only been able to attend part-time, due to financial and time restraints, I have achieved much. At the present time, I have only two classes left until my graduate degree is awarded.

After a few years, we decided to start a family. First our daughter was born, and then our son. We decided early on that we would be together as a family as much as possible. In my home, family values are very important. We eat dinner together each night as a family, making sure that everyone is home, and we share what has happened during the day around the dinner table. If we do happen to be away from home at dinnertime, we still make a point to keep our tradition alive by gathering someplace and sharing our daily events. This is a tradition that many families have, and one that we hope we can pass down to our children. Once a week, sometimes more, we hold family game night. We play various games, including board games, acting games, dancing games, and a variety of others. On game nights, we make sure that we are playing a game in which everyone can be involved in equally, including our children. We do not make the focus of the games winning and losing, but about fun and good sportsmanship. Our children love game night, and we make it a part of our regular routine. After our family time each night, my husband and I switch off reading to our children. I will read to our daughter one night, and then read to our son the next night, and vice versa. We read two books before bed, and then put our children to sleep. The traditions in our household are build around family and togetherness. Sending me back to my homeland in Haiti would not only usurp those traditions, but would also undermine any further attempts at educating our children about these values. A hardship would most definitely be caused on the emotional and psychological development of my children if were I to be sent back to Haiti.

My family back home in Haiti is also an important part of my family values. Though I moved to the United States over a decade ago, I continue to keep in contact with them. We write ...