I am currently under a TN visa and have gone through an insane amount of hoops to get here. Still trying to win the H1-B Lottery because its the only way i can apply for residency. Been living in the US for 10+ years starting with a student visa.
This is a tough question because the only real answer is “it depends” I guess my advice is to keep in mind that in the USA, your worth as a person directly correlates to how much money you can make for someone else. If you don’t have a safety net (relatives that can help you while you get settled) it’ll be really hard to get started. A lot of services and apartments require high deposits because of the lack of credit history so you’d be at a disadvantage in that area.
I have very clear boundaries on what is mexican and what is mexican-american and i think that has helped keep the culture shock to a minimum. I feel that mexicans here can be more trustworthy and are always eager to help any way they can, the communities are very well organized and there's a vast network of support out here.
Do you run into other people going thru/who have gone thru the immigration process that say stuff like "I did it the right way, I don't support illegal immigrants."
Yeah the vast majority. I managed to inform a lot of my friends and family as to why that way of thinking is terribly wrong but we all started like that. Even I said those exact words at some point in the past. Some don't ever inform themselves and stay like that. There's a huuuge sense of spite from the "legal immigrants" towards DACA recipients and ironically those are the ones i feel the most sympathy for. The worst cases, like my aunt who we don't speak to anymore (a lot of hispanic families have that one aunt), came in illegally and managed to become residents and are now complaining about illegal immigration....
Yeah I have heard the same sentiment from friends and classmates unfortunately and obviously there are a ton of US-born people that have the same (or worse) ideas about "legal" immigration. What ended up "radicalizing" you about immigration? Have you seen people changing their minds and getting a better take about it in the last couple years at least?
For sure its getting better, i think trump kinda made us have a common enemy and that helped a lot. Personally for me it was teachers, specifically teachers in the US. They see this shit daily and in the most raw possible way. From students who's parents got deported to students who have been told by both mexicans and americans that they don't belong in either group. it's rough for the kids out there.
Most white Americans, even the best intentioned liberals, don't realize that Mexico still has a lot of problems with colonial hierarchy in their own country. Internalized colonialism is the hardest kind to break, that's why there's fuckheads like the Latinos for Trump. I didn't think about that bit about teachers, but now that you say it a huge percentage of latinx students I knew in college were going into education. The school system in America is still an organ of colonialism, but at least in my neck of the woods we're going through the growing pains of bringing in new teaching methods.
Yes, mostly people telling me they're surprised I can speak english without a mexican accent. I had a bilingual uprising because I am from a border town so if anything I have a Texas accent. I've had security called on me for "looking suspicious" at a rest stop in middle-of-nowhere ,Texas. Was on a school trip to Florida and we stopped in Alabama and were denied service at a gas station, straight up told us "we don't have enough employees to follow you around and make sure you don't steal anything". In a professional level, the closest thing resembling racism was being asked with some translations but I don't think it was ill intended because I do put on my resume that I am bilingual and willing to help with any spanish-english translation.
straight up told us “we don’t have enough employees to follow you around and make sure you don’t steal anything”.
Jesus christ. Thanks for the answer.
A bit more context: A student organization at my university planned a trip to Disney/Universal and we all pooled money for a charter bus. My school, being in the border, is 90% hispanics so when we stopped at a gas station to re-supply and use the restroom (it was a 24hr drive) they locked the door on us and told us to keep driving. Sucks for them, we were all hungry and bought a ton of food at the next gas station
