Essay by an 8th Grade Award Winner

By Valentina Ardila Valens

“No sir, the problem is not immigration, it is EDUCATION! Being different doesn’t mean being inferior.” – Domingo Moreno-

When someone asks “What are the immigrants?” they will tell “People who come from a different country. ” “People who want a better future.” “People who want to leave us without work.” They said that so easily and with a tone of disgust or hate as if being an immigrant was the worse thing. Immigration is not just leaving your country and traveling to another. It is a big step to take. When you become an immigrant you are a person who leaves all your whole life in a different spot, and you change all your viewpoint of life, you change your thinking, you change everything of you..you are never the same person again. And if you are an immigrant who comes without papers, even if you are a teenager or not, it would be always hard for you. It doesn’t matter if they try to not do it, in the end, people judge or talk about you just because you don’t have papers.

People always said “you don’t have to treat them differently” or “they are humans like us” but they are the ones who treat immigrants differently. It doesn’t matter if it’s just by a look or a sign, and this happens a lot in schools. Sometimes people do this without intention but immigrants understand that and it makes us feel as if we were not part of that place. We want to feel like when we were in our country, simply fit in with a group of friends where you don’t feel judged for anything or even feel comfortable when you arrive at school, knowing that if you don’t know the language they have things that can help you to understand what’s going on.

An idea to try to make immigrant students feel comfortable in school could be putting signs on the walls of the hallways in other languages like saying the name of the “main office” “nurse” and “auditorium”, boards announcing events and describing them, for example, the traditional Big Nick, the winter dance, or the plays. Another idea would be talking in classes about the challenges that an immigrant face, and the different reasons for an immigrant to come to the country. They would talk and watch videos about different modern cultures, and do projects of different cultures. Finally, the school could do a culture day where in a different class the students can talk about their culture, what traditions they have, how they treat other people and the things that students can learn and adapt when they are talking with a person of a different culture.

In conclusion, making immigrants feels welcomed at school would be changing their mindset and showing them that there’s no just their culture but also my culture and everybody’s culture.