What if it Was You?

Sometimes I forget how lucky we are to be Americans.  If you ask any one of my ESL students from various countries, including but not limited to; South Korea, Sri Lanka, Mexico, the Ivory Coast and Egypt, all of them will give you roughly the same answer.  "I wanted more opportunities and a better life."  

Sure, there are some cases in certain fields where Americans might leave America for the same reason, but really, we have pretty much everything here.


The immigration issue our country faces really comes down to one thing: Were you born in this country?   Well, I was born in Massachusetts, a far cry from California.  What if I was stuck in Massachusetts for the rest of my life?  With no way to legally move somewhere else?  What if I couldn't find a job in the field I wanted to go into in Massachusetts?  What If I couldn't find any job at all?  Or what if I could find a job, but it didn't pay enough to feed me or family or put a roof over our heads?   What then?  Would I try to move somewhere else (possibly Connecticut) even if it was illegal?  Well for me, the answer is yes.


Nothing against the great state of Massachusetts, by the way!


I realize the seriousness of the immigration issue, but what none of us from the United States ever have to consider is, what if it was you?  Would you do the same thing?