One of the reasons why it is hard for immigrants to come to the United States is that many people feel nonchalant towards what may happen like you will get sick or you might be bitten by a dangerous animal. They do not know what the future holds. When I was coming from El Salvador, I did not know what to think because people before me we’re deported and this seemed illogical. When they returned to El Salvador two of them talked to me about how hard it is for people to survive. Some people even feel antisocial because they don’t want to talk about their experiences. There are many challenges they may need help at a big one which is housing. Based on articles about housing for immigrants in Oakland it says that a lot of Immigrants don’t have a place to live because the rent is going to high and because people don’t trust in Immigrants.
Firstly housing for immigrants is hard because the rent is going up.
When the rent goes up a lot of people and Immigrants don’t have a place to live because housing is too expensive. For example in the story of what happened to Maria Pelayo and Rosa Gaona who are both Mexican immigrants living in East Oakland. They currently pay under $1000 for rent, but their landlords want to raise their rent 130%. Both women “fear they wouldn’t be able to stay in Oakland” (Tadayon). This is a big increase of money in a short time and people might have to get two or more jobs and they could not feel rejuvenated. In an interview with an Oakland resident who is an immigrant from El Salvador he also discussed how housing has been hard. He explained that when he came he felt excluded because of rent increases he has to work more hours and he did not have time to be with his family. In another interview with an immigrant from Mexico, Maria, she discussed that it was hard for her to do the security deposit because her landlords charged her a lot of money before she started living in the apartment. As an immigrant, she did not have this extra money. Therefore, housing is a challenge as rents are increasing.
In addition housing for immigrants is hard because people talk unacceptable about Immigrants and landlords are making an impediment so they don’t rent to immigrants. That is something that happens a lot because people talk awful about Immigrants. In an interview with Joe Castro, who is a Mexican Immigrant who has been in the United States for 10 years he says “that it is really hard because people don’t like immigrants and there are only like 10% out of 100% trust on immigrants and that is something that I cannot describe because it is sad and it makes me feel angry that people are being racist to people and that they don’t know their personality and what was the past” (Castro). This lack of trust makes it hard to find housing because it’s unfair. The immigrants are not crummy people but racism tricks people to think they are. Castro said he felt “angry” which is a true feeling because it is unfair to be rejected from housing just because a person is coming from another country. Castro also talked about being threatened when he tried to defend himself from somebody racist. He explained that at times people will say “leave or I am going to call ICE” (Castro). This is something that needs to change because immigrants cannot be sacred and hide anymore about I.C.E. therefore landlords to trust in immigrants.
Another perspective as to why immigrants struggle with housing is that President Trump is racist to Immigrants and he talked trash about Immigrants. On the website called “Oral History of Trump’s Bigotry” by Davi A. Graham he reports, “They are absolutely ridiculous” (Graham). They are many people that believe and agree with what he says. There are sometimes that people from other cultures like White,Black and all of them get angry because Donald Trump says that immigrants come in and steal Americans jobs when that is not true and that just makes immigrants feel angry because they pay a lot of money for coming inside the United States and the last word they want to hear is that the President is being Racist.
In conclusion housing for Immigrants is hard because the type of president that we have now. People are treating people just because they are undocumented. The three people interviewed they all talked alot about how the new president and how is he turning people around “the other way”
Annotated bibliography
Graham A, David. “An Oral History of Trump’s Bigotry.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 20 May 2019, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/.
This website talks a lot about how Trump talk trash about us and this article is credible because it tries to defend immigrants by putting this website up and reminding us that he talked trash about us and that he is reist to immigrants because they are not white and because they don’t speak english and because they have different traditions that trump hate and he hates them because he does not know them and he just get mad at us for no reason that is why this article is credible because it reminds immigrants that Trump talk trash about us.
Cruz, Maria. “Housing For Immigrants Interview.” 27 Nov. 2019.
The interview was about how hard is for immigrants to find housing and what did they have to do in order for a person to enable their. Another example is how many years she has been in the united states and how things had been changing over the time. Also how her life was in her national country. Maria is a credible person because she is an Immigrant that wasted almost all her life to work to take care of her 3 children. Maria is a credible person because she is from Mexico and in Mexico she was working in a tortilleria every single day were she made tortillas. Maria has almost 15 years bing on the united states. Maria’s age is 45 know maria is working in house cleaning where she gets paid 12$ per hour and maximum she works 8 hours that will be 88$ dollars per day.
Castro, Joe. “Housing For Immigrants Interview.” 23 Nov. 2019.
This interview with an mexican Immigrant was about how hard was for him and his family to find housing. Joe has been in the United States for 18 years and he’s real age is 45. He talked a lot about how the city of Okland has been changing over time and how much does the rent increases every year. Also he talked about how many times he had to change houses because the rent was going up really fast. Joe talked about how many times he changed houses in 18 years he is sad that he had to change houses for 5 times in 18 years which a lot of people that I asked how many times they changed houses they said that 5 times in 18 years was a ton of times because the people that I asked told me that they switched houses at least twice in like 10 years.
Tadayon, Ali. “East Oakland Tenants Face Devastating Rent Hike.” East Bay Times, East Bay Times, 14 Sept. 2019, www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/09/10/east-oakland-tenants-face-devastating-rent-hike/.
The article is about how an Oakland residents were kicked out of their houses just because they were immigrants in the past. This article is about how people were deported just because they were Immigrants and they did not have documents. Also this article talks about how they are trying to take their house because the landlord realized that those people were immigrants. This Article is credible because it talks about how Oakland residents are trying to defend Immigrants. Als it talks about how they were working how did they live on this house how many times it has been since they have been paying for this house and a lot of people think that is sad seeing people living just because they are undocumented.
Dear Victor,
I found your piece on immigrants and housing very compelling. My parents are also immigrants from El Salvador and you are very right, it is such a huge risk to take. Leaving everything behind, moving to a country where you don’t understand the language, and risking deportation. It does almost seem illogical. It is very sad to read that immigrants are treated so poorly and I agree that President Trump’s racist comments only add fuel to the hate and the racism in this country. Sadly, most people can agree that housing in the bay area has become extremely unaffordable. I really did enjoy reading your blog, great work Victor!
Hi Victor,
I go to San Jose State University and I really enjoyed reading your piece. It truly is sad how the price of rent impacts the ability for immigrants to prosper in our society. To live in fear is a terrible way to live because you are held back from doing so many things. Just like you mention they’re scared to do basic human things like defending themselves because of their status and being turned away from housing because of their status is terrible.
I like this line ”The immigrants are not crummy people but racism tricks people to think they are”. People do hate because they’ve been misinformed by other racist people who are pushing their own agenda.
Everyone deserve to be treated fairly regardless of their immigration status because at the end of the day, everyone is human regardless of skin or immigration status.
Dear Victor, I am a student from San Jose State University and when reading your post, it is very heartfelt. I can not imagine the pain and hardships you are feeling and it must be so hard for you. A line that stood out to me was “There are sometimes that people from other cultures like White,Black and all of them get angry because Donald Trump says that immigrants come in and steal Americans jobs when that is not true and that just makes immigrants feel angry because they pay a lot of money for coming inside the United States and the last word they want to hear is that the President is being Racist.” I can relate to what you are speaking here because I think all people deserve equal rights as well no matter what and who you are. Thank you Victor!
Hi Victor,
Thank you for sharing your story and perspective. I’m the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, so I can definitely relate to some of what you’re explaining, although I can’t say that I’ve had the same first-hand experiences as you. Nevertheless, I completely agree with your point of view. It’s frustrating that so many people do not trust immigrants, especially when their families immigrated to the United States not too many generations ago. It also saddens me that immigrants have to deal with so many racist threats when renting houses. Racist individuals seem to lack the ability to empathize and it’s causing so many hardships for immigrants who just want a place to call home. I hope that this country starts making more of an effort to fight this issue. In the mean time, I hope you keep writing insightful blog posts like this one so you can shed light on important topics that need to be discussed!
This is heartbreaking. Coming to this country to find a better life, then just to get exploited. This country has a mean history of treating first and 2nd generation immigrants horribly. I am Italian, Irish, Czech and German. All of my ancestors were the Mexicans and South Americans of their time. Immigrants are resilient and will over come all of these initial obstacles for a better life. There are so many structural issues that cause this problem too. Working under the table, getting taken advantage of over property rentals and more.
Thank you for this post.
Hi Victor,
Thank you for sharing your personal immigration story. It takes a lot a bravery to do so in these days, for all the reasons you mentioned in your post. Though my family immigrated from Guatemala and Mexico long ago, the issues they faced then are similar to the ones you described today. I encourage you to continue your research on the statistics of immigration in Oakland and how much the price of rent impacts their ability to prosper in our society.
Dear Victor, you are awesome fro bringing light onto this issue. This hits home for me because I have immediate family members that are undocumented who struggle with just finding housing. I would suggest to look deeper into why housing costs are going up, because isn’t entirely connected with racism and stigma against immigrants. Think about the location, the job markets, house markets, and economy associated with the area that rent is going up in.
I’d love to read what you found and that you really care about those that are being marginalized by basic housing injustices.
Dear Melissa, Thankyou for read over my work and I agree with you because alot of the ime land lors dont trush on immigrants because other people tlk bad about them and that makes the land lords mad.
Dear yaritza, Thank you for reading to my work and agreeing with me because this is a sad topic to talk about and see alot of people who left there original country to find a better life but what they found is the opposite of what they are looking for thnak you for giving me more Ideas to write in my next blog.
Dear Victor, I think your post was very relatable because my family also struggled with housing so I understand this topic and relate to it well. A line that stood out to me was “housing for immigrants is hard because people talk unacceptable about Immigrants and landlords are making an impediment so they don’t rent to immigrants”. This line stood out to me because people in the United States create a stigma around immigrants and it causes landlords to not rent to immigrants because they think they will do something bad. I agree with your post and the evidence you used was great. Keep up the good work and I hope to read more of your writing!
Dear Victor, this a strong and relatable topic to others because there’s people from other countries that come here to the U.S without being able to get housing. They don’t know their surroundings because their whole life they’ve lived somewhere else, and sometimes they don’t have any family around. I agree with your article about it being a very hard struggle for people coming from other countries and not being able to get housing. Thank you Victor.