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How and why did your family come to the United States?

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How and why did your family come to the United States?

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My family journey to the U.S.A. actually occurred pretty recently, starting with my own parents. Both of my parents are immigrants from another country. My mom came from Saitama, Japan, and my dad, Bordeaux, France. Let's begin the story.

My mom came to the U.S. when she was just 15 years old (around our age). She left her home country due to family complications and issues, and decided to live with a foster family. She barely spoke English, and had to learn while she was living in the midst of a foreign country. She was also only being sent a paycheck from her parents a month to cover her own expenses, so she was forced into adult responsibilities at such a young age. Her parents were planning for her to come back after she graduated high school, but after spending time in America, despite the hardships, she didn't want to go back. When she refused to return when her parents demanded her to, they cut off all her finances and forced her to find her own source of income. My mom struggled to scrape by, and was working very hard to survive. She was by herself, until she met my dad.

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My dad was born into a family with lots of siblings. Because his mom had so many kids and soon figured out that she couldn't tend to all of them, she sent my dad along with a couple of his brothers to live with his grandparents, who lived in Deir Ez Zor, Syria. Here, my dad grew up, graduated college with a PhD in computer science, and dodged a military draft by moving to America. He decided to move here on a whim, for he had a couple options to move to other places but ultimately came to the states. He moved in with a friend in Boston, but it all soon went downhill. My dad only came with a couple hundred dollars in his pocket, and was already struggling to find a job. Within the first two weeks, his roommate and him got kicked out due to a quarrel with the landlord. He did a lot of jobs and gigs to make some cash. He did everything from a waitress to a window washer. Eventually he generated enough money to get himself a shelter and to live by.

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Somewhere along the line, both of my parents met at a party, through friends of friends. They became fond of each other, and then started dating. My dad finally got a stable job as a computer programmer, and my mom worked as a massage therapist (her career path changed after the birth of my brother). Eventually, they had me, and that's the story on how I came to be a child here in the United States.

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Both of my parents experienced many hardships when they originally arrived in America. One main issue was the language barrier. Both of my parents had come from completely different continents which spoke completely different languages. Both of them had to live and provide for themselves while simultaneously learning English. Another hardship was finding a place to live, and to generate money for themselves. Neither of my parents came to this country rich, despite their relatives. My mom came when she was a minor, so she had to rely on the small paychecks that her parents mailed to her and whatever her foster family gave her. My dad on the other hand, came with a couple bills in his pocket and a friend that he could stay with. They both struggled to make money and live a comfortable life. They had to persevere and work hard to get where they are now.

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What was going on historically in the U.S. during this time and how did it affect your family?

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What was going on historically in the U.S. during this time and how did it affect your family?

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Though it wasn't happening in the U.S., one of the reasons I was told why my dad wanted to move to another country was because he was originally supposed to go back to France, but at the time, the country's economy was crashing, and it would be detrimental for him to enter at that time.

Another event that was happening was the Cold War, which made it difficult for my parents to travel in between countries. My dad specifically pointed this out, and talked about how difficult traveling was for him during this time.