What is immigration? Who is considered an immigrant? Where do immigrants come from? Why do they decide to come to the United States of America? Immigration is a hot topic today it is all over the news most of the time. There are congressmen trying to decide on an immigration reform and they have been talking about such a reform for years now. My name is Nancy Cortes, I was considered an illegal immigrant at one point in time. I was born in the state of Zacatecas in the country of Mexico. There, I grew up in a place where freedom was the thing that we all had in common. Money was scares, we did not have many new clothes or plenty to eat, but love was always around us and family was the most important thing that we had. Even though there were harsh moments in my childhood I was happy to live in Mexico. .
Immigration is the act of coming into a new country as a permanent resident (Schaefer, 2012, p. 18). The Department of Homeland Security estimates that, "there are 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States today (CNN, 2013)". Who is considered an immigrant? Being an illegal immigrant is different than coming into the country as a bracero, a contracted Mexican laborer brought to the United States during World War II (Schaefer, 2012, p. 228). It is different because a bracero would come into the states with legal permission to work and an illegal immigrant comes into the states without the legal authority to work or to reside in the United States. Where do immigrants come from? "People, in particular young people, are leaving poorer parts of the world in search of job opportunities in the richer part of the world. For many years economic migrants have been leaving Mexico and parts of Central America in search of jobs in the US (CNN, 2013)". Why do they decide to come into the United States? Most immigrants decide to come to the United States because it is easier to make a living by working in what they are already accustom to, working in agriculture, and construction.