I have a question… Why is it that when we think of immigrants we automatically think of Hispanics? Whenever anyone talks about immigrants they talk about hopping the border and the Mexicans crossing the river but when will they consider all the other immigrants there are?
While Mexico does provide the largest amount of immigrants, 70 % of immigrants come from the Eastern Hemisphere of our planet. China and the Philippines are the second and third largest population of immigrants. While they are now the second and third they are rapidly growing and catching up. Among the top 10 foreign born population percentage is Korea, Canada, Cuba, India, Dominican Republic and Vietnam. As we can see the vast majority of immigrants in this country are not Mexican or Spanish at all. Most of them are European, Indian and Asian.
So, all I ask is for immigrants to stop meaning Mexicans. When we walk through New Jersey and we look around 57% of the people we encounter will be foreign born. If we walk around New York 35% of the people will be foreign born. When we look around at these immigrants we will notice that they all look completely different, come from different corners of the world and all deserve the same amount of respect.
I do not think of solely Hispanics when I think about immigrants. I think about every race and ethnicity.. but I know what you mean. Many people do think of only Hispanics. My boyfriend, his mother, father, and two sisters came from Poland twelve years ago and they were immigrants until they got what they needed to become a citizen. NOW they are citizens. It is hard to think that they were one immigrants.
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