immigrants

Americanization of Immigrants

AMERICANIZATION OF IMMIGRANTS
The goal of our project is to provide orientation to the immigrants, newly arrived or already settled, in all spheres of life so that they become productive members of the American society. The term immigrant implies to the people who have moved in the United States from other countries and are now the members of the American society. It has been reported that one out of eight United States residents is an immigrant. These immigrants arrive here from many lands with different cultures. They come from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Russia, Germany, England, Malaysia, Haiti, Korea, Philippines, Africa, and many other countries. These immigrants aspire to attain a better status of life than they led in their own homeland in the American society which is quite different from their homelands. They require sound training and support to acquire information about the American government and its policies besides knowledge of the American life and its culture.
The people who arrive in America usually take a very bold step in leaving all their dear things behind and also the pleasures of life they had in their native land. The fallacy that they are coming to America to harvest the richness here is not correct. In fact, people come here because they find themselves unfit in the society they leave behind. Either they are smarter than the members of their community where they are living or the communities in their home countries do not provide them the opportunities to ameliorate. The main objective of this project is to get these immigrants integrated in our society so that they can be useful members of our society. They will, therefore, open the doors for their children to grow up in our society as progressive and compliant members to our laws and traditions.
The educational guidance of the immigrants is very essential as their number is increasing and they are becoming an intimate part of the work force and culture. They face many challenges but the main obstruction in their progress is their ability to speak in English language. In fact, language proficiency becomes very important when they need health care services for themselves and for their children, or they want to join the workforce with all their education and expertise. Our project will help them learn the pronunciation of the English language and give them enough mastery of the language to communicate easily. Besides learning the English language, they would also learn the laws governing the establishment of entrepreneurship; civic rules of government in tenancy or ownership of the residences; integration of their ethnicity with the American society; importance of participation in Census; understanding of the rules and regulations, and sifting of the candidates in casting votes for local, regional, and national candidates.
The immigrants would also be provided with job training including improvement of their acquired skills. Our program of integration of the immigrants, therefore, would make these immigrants more productive society members. This educational guidance is very essential for all ages and at all levels, especially to the adults. Immigrant Adults are the torchbearers for their children who can help the future generations achieve success in the educational institutions of higher learning and become professionals. They have to learn how to deal with the civic authorities here in America and not to compare them to the ones they left behind. Their civic participation is essential for the future growth of all the cities and changing population in the cities. Though their role is not being recognized, they do contribute to our society. It is our moral duty to enhance education, health care, and culture awareness of these individuals to alleviate their poverty and help increase the numbers of healthy, learned citizens of the United States of America. The educators have found that usually the children of these immigrants improved their grades faster than the other community children because of the enthusiasm of their parents to improve their standing in the new society.
Our plan consists of integration of immigrants in the Floridian Society by improving their comprehension of the important aspects of this society which directly affects their daily life. This process would fortify the social and civic aspects of their life. The immigrants need to be made aware of the services available to them to improve their role in the American society, the interaction and communication with other ethnic groups, their collaboration with other members of the society, improvement of their trust of the local members with their newly-acquired command of English language and communication skills.
All of the above-stated goals can be achieved only by providing the immigrants distinct educational programs with a curriculum tailored specifically for their needs and their children’s guidance. This education and practical training would then result in preparing them as useful citizens of their community. The individualized curriculum is needed to prepare them and their children for the future higher level of literacy and education. We need to prepare fully informed, motivated, and primed citizens to help select the intelligent leaders for this great country of the world. The immigrants need to be educated and prepared to utilize their voting power to remove the useless public leaders in order to replace them with the genuine leaders who care for this country irrespective of financial gain or party affiliation.
Our project is ready to be launched. The professionally trained teachers are willing to impart education to the immigrants by communicating with the students in their native language while teaching them English language and pronunciations. We have teachers ready to teach civics and social studies. We are also seeking help from the local government in implementation of additional programs in this project.
We are in the process of getting government grant to launch our project. The greatest problem we are facing is the renting of the facility for all the above activities. We are looking for the financial assistance to help us get over this hurdle and help us in the operating budget regarding supplies, books and equipment. We are also inviting community members who feel capable of helping in this cause to become members and participate at all levels of organization.
Mahmood Anwar Ph.D.
Chairman/President, Board of Directors
American Association of Environmental Technicians
P.O. Box 20434, West Palm Beach, FL 33416 August 1, 2009