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Nowadays more and more people are emigrating looking for a better life in other countries, leaving their houses generally in the search of a better income, but what they do not realize is that with the house they leave their home, and with their home a lot of cultural and social things that are going to change in that new place. Despite the cultural and social differences immigrants might have to face, they are always looking for their personal growth and, as Lin-Manuel Miranda says: “immigrants do their job”.

The motivations for leaving one's homeland are diverse but essentially fall into an economic or political category, or both. Fundamentally, emigrating expresses a desire for freedom to improve their quality of life. Also, it is possible to appreciate a difference between native people and immigrants who live with them, since it is not only a different passport or place of birth but also clothing, ways of living, languages, ethical codes, physical complexions, wages, religion, and culture. So, it could be said that immigrants are not always completely free due to the cultural, social, ethnic and physical differences they must face, so they can achieve their true personal growth once they have achieved true total freedom.

As is common knowledge and has been going for a long time (since immigration has existed), immigrants once settled (or not) in a country that is not theirs of origin, are not completely free because many are exploited and they are not recognized; on the contrary, they are rejected despite their efforts to support their families and wants for a better life. A clear example of this can be seen in “Hamilton” when in the first musical song (“Alexander Hamilton”) is explained in a summary of how the life of Hamilton was. It allows people who listen to it to see he was not completely free since he did not have the same opportunities as other people, largely due to his condition of immigrant. In fact, Lin-Manuel Miranda tells in an interview that he was grabbed by Hamilton’s story because he was actually an Immigrant, arguing that “He was born illegitimate; he was an orphan by the time he was 10 and he was penniless.” (Miranda).

Another example that can be set is the case of Concepcion Dieguez, a Spanish grandmother that emigrated to Uruguay in the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco (40’s). Her experience as an immigrant was really tough especially the first years, in which she could not find a job and, although the fact that she was legally in the country, she was not used to the culture and certain differences were marked towards her. Unfortunately, this feeling of non-belonging and rejection to immigrants still happens and it can be seen with the immigrants in America that are exploited and not secure in the country. As the song “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” from the Alexander Hamilton Mixtape tells, immigrants in America are called lazy, ugly people or people that come just to steal jobs only for the fact of being immigrants, but they are the ones that actually do the dirty job, like it is said in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s song “Immigrants- We get the Job Done”.

Almost all immigrants are going to feel the differences between countries and most of them are going to be subject to complaints, but it is on their hands to make the people respect them by working hard and setting the tone, always being respectful with others. In addition to being respectful, all the previously mentioned things can be achieved by overcoming some differences between immigrants and the native people of the country.

Groups like Zero Population Growth and the Sierra Club have opposed immigration in America, being the core issue of their protests centered on whether the new immigrants could be absorbed into the nation, questioning if they would abandon the old ways in favor of core American values. (Stevans) Having exposed that, an immigrant may not feel comfortable or completely free in the country where he or she lives not only because of the obvious fact that they are not in their original home (meaning that they are not in the country where they were born, where their parents raised them and where they used to play as children) but also because of cultural, social and ethical differences that are constantly being felt by them everywhere.

Defined as the various beliefs, behaviors, languages, practices, and expressions considered unique to members of a specific ethnicity, race or national origin, cultural differences greatly impact in the life of the immigrants, to such an extent in which it is said that “Individuals who migrate experience multiple stresses that can impact their mental well-being, including the loss of cultural norms…”. (Bhugara and Becker). Thus, it is not possible to be mentally free unless the immigrant inserts himself in the culture.

Moreover, social differences are huge players in these matters as well, since if “if individuals feel isolated from his or her culture, unaccepted by the 'majority culture' and have a lack of social support, a consequent sense of rejection, alienation and poor self-esteem may occur.” (Bhugara and Becker). This shows that due to social differences, immigrants will not have any social support, feeling rejected to the point of not being “one more” citizen of a country.

Due to the aforementioned differences, it is possible to affirm that immigrants are not totally free since there are differences with the people of the country of origin from which they cannot easily escape. So, although immigrants are said to be free, they are not totally, and that is why in many cases they do not get to achieve their wanted personal growth.

People immigrate for a reason, and although sometimes is for political issues, family issues, or something out of the ordinary, they are always looking for a better life, better economic solutions, in fact, they are looking for their personal growth, which cannot be achieved without first getting full freedom, not only physical but also mentally.

As Lin-Manuel Miranda said about Hamilton: “This is a guy who pulled himself up from out of nothing and helped to create our nation” (Miranda), referring to the fact that Hamilton is an example of personal growth, which could be also set as an example of someone who went from rags to riches. Also, immigrants in general that immigrate looking for personal growth serve as an example. It is important to state at this point that “immigrants have become a significant driving force in the creation of new business and intellectual property in the U.S. …” (West).

The balance between economic and mental goodness should be a priority, since people think that they are going to another country to improve economically, but they end up being a prisoner of a culture to which they do not want to belong, ending up not being free at all.

Personal growth refers to improvements in habits, behavior, actions, and reactions, but is often confused by people with economic growth, so immigrants leave their country looking for personal growth and the only thing they end up finding is maybe more economic freedom, but no personal one.

People who are immigrants in a country will almost always have noticeable differences with people from the country of origin, so they must face them. This can end in many cases with immigrants not being free since although they are not imprisoned, there are certain actions towards them and differences that will make them not be able to enjoy total mental freedom, being that only when they manage to overcome the state of non-freedom, they may just achieve personal growth. People emigrate and immigrate in search of happiness and freedom, but sometimes they end up not being free due to the differences that they themselves decided to move to.

Work cited Bhugara, Dinesh and Matthew Becker. NCBI. 4 February 2005. . Miranda, Lin-Manuel. HOW HAMILTON’S IMMIGRANT STORY INSPIRED LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA Broadway Direct. 15 May 2015. West, Darrel M. The Cost and Benefits of Immigration. Political Science Quarterly, 2011. Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Hamilton: An American Musical.” Hamilton: The Revolution, edited by Jeremy McCarter, Grand Central Publishing, 2016. Immigration: Immigration, edited by Ilan Stavans, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stu/detail.action?docID=554362. Created from Stu on 2020-04-11 10:39:25.