Immigrants have a hard time getting jobs, too

Immigrants have a hard time getting jobs, too

In this podcast, Julio and Danny discuss their relatives' difficulty in getting jobs in the United States because they are immigrants.

Working at Home Depot

Christian and Jessie interview a worker at Home Depot.

Hellen's future

Hellen's future
In this podcast, Hellen discusses her hypothetical financial future after she graduates from college.

Two teens give first-hand accounts of working

Two teens give first-hand accounts of working
Eric and Jeffrey discuss their part-time jobs in this podcast.

Hard times with only a high school diploma

Hard times with only a high school diploma
In this podcast, Henry F. and Robert C. interview Christopher, who has a high school diploma and is struggling to find a better-paying job.

Poverty in the United States

Ani and Sargis interview an unemployed college student.

The Eye Opening "Read Me"

By: Cindy Orellana

  

          People have a biased belief that immigrants come to the US and rob Americans of their opportunities for jobs. But are those really the only reasons?

            The top reasons why people immigrate are they believe coming to America secures them financially in the future, high standard of living, education, political reasons, needs of being in a different environment, and in search of their family members.

            Although most people think it is a better life in America it is a huge challenge to get here. The majority of the people coming to the United States are from Mexico but there is a small percent of people who come from central and South America. The people who come from Central America have the hardest journey to endure. A popular way of heading to the U.S. is by train jumping. There are horrible stories of train jumping to America, bodies being disemboweled and ripped to pieces.

In Enrique’s journey he talks about how he witnessed people falling off the trains and having body parts cut off.

Enrique’s reason for his journey to America was to find his mother who left him at a very young age. Just like Enrique, many children are leaving their homes at a young age and risking so much to find a family member. If you put yourself in his shoes you would start to question yourself if it is even worth it to go through all those things just for a family member, for most people it is worth it.

Another problem these immigrants from Central America are the cartels that kidnap and abuse incoming immigrants. Enrique was violently hit and left with out a cent to his name on his way. In one occasion his clothes were ripped off and was left bare.

People who believe that immigrating is simple and it comes with no dangers. In reality most people if they really knew what they had to go through they wouldn’t take this journey, it is possibly one of the hardest experiences to go through. But it also comes with the greatest reward. When you finally reach the finish line and you find what you are looking for it is like completing your life.

If your parents left you for many years and you are missing the feeling of love or just your parents companionship, what would you do?

I know personally if my mother left me for years once I would go to extremes to find her. I don’t think I would be able to survive without her at any moment. It understandable to leave your parents at a certain point but when you’re young you need your family at all times. Grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles are dear to us but none like our parents. There is a special connection between mother and child, father and child. The love felt is different.

This goes out to serve as an eye opening “read me”. People aren’t only here to work but to find their missing half, their missing mom, missing dad.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. That will forever remain as wise words.

The 99%

Jairo Zarate

         There has always been three demographics from which people in the United States are placed upon. The rich, poor, and middle class. Many people come to the United States to follow their dreams, and for a better tomorrow. But as time has past the American Dream has slowly been diminished and seems as though it is unreachable. The middle class is slowly being diminished from existence. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate.        

         Many people risk their lives to come to the United States, only to find that in the United States you must work twice as harder. Sure there is liberty and free of chaos, but when one comes to the United States, its nearly impossible to find a stable job. Especially now since corporations have been hiring people from third world countries that work just for a few dollars all day. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor workers over the last several decades, and the middle class Americans have greatly been impacted.

         Today 99% of all people in the United States, are either poor or in the middle class. And the rest, the 1%  of the United States are rich and manage more money that the 99% of people that work so hard to achieve the American Dream. Working class Americans hardly ever reach the 1%, all we can do is see them bathe in the riches that the working class worked so hard for them to acquire.

          As the middle class once was a stepping stone to get to the riches, now seems impossible to just walk across. One must now work extremely hard to even earn a quarter of what the 1% do. Everyday that passes by the rich get richer and the poor get poorer; eventually the middle class will merely be a memory of what once people thought was a fair living. 

Surviving in the Low Wage World

By Ana Hernandez         
        We live in a society that we need money to have the basic necessities of life: 

food, water, medicine, and shelter. The United States has been in a depression before in the 1930s. and it took a long recovery. Revenue from businesses, banks, etc. have disappeared or a loss in value. The nation has been recovering from a “long-term” recession. In reality, we’ve been in a depression; however, we don’t like saying the word “depression” because it reminds of the economic suffering of the 1930s. 

                Society consists of a social pyramid that is divided into three classes. The top of the pyramid is the rich and the famous. There are the ones who pay little taxes in the nation, have a prestige education (i.e. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.) . The middle class are people who do have a decent education and jobs. They are responsible for paying taxes and voting on upcoming elections. Last but not least, the working poor. It consists of people who are living in poverty, barely making ends meet, and living in minimum wage. The majority of the work requires being strong and work long-hour shifts for low pay.

The working poor are people who live in poor neighborhoods who have little or no government help. In the state of the California, the minimum wage is $8.00; however, when you work for long-shifts, money is deducted away from your pay due to taxes. The total earned for an individual person who is working full-time for minimum wage is $320.00 a week. Less than $20,000 is earned per year. That’s barely enough money to cover for all the expenses for a college student attending a CSU per year. Depending on the person, some could qualify for welfare opportunities.

An average person has to work hard everyday to meet ends meet and have the basic necessities of surviving in American society. High school students work part-time at local restaurants, stores, etc. in order to save money for tuition. Students have to maintain more than two jobs because a family member might be sick or have a work-related injury. From a different perspective, you can see how hard and painful it is to work on minimum wage.

Nowadays, the economy is making housing more difficult to afford. If you live in California, it now depends on the city or neighborhood where you live in. The cheapest apartment to find are not furnished or it’s not required to pay for gas and water. Apartments in the San Fernando Valley are expensive and very small. For a one-bedroom apartment, it can range from $675 and up. If you're lucky, a roommate can share an apartment and split the rent 50/50.

Food has a factor to surviving the real world of minimum-wage person. A family of four spends approximately $100 on groceries that will last about a week, two weeks maximum. Food stamps is a government program that provides a certain amount of money into a card every month that will allow to buy food. (i.e. produce, dairy, meat) The price of food is on the rise, making everything difficult more than it is.

This is the harsh and cruel reality of poverty. There are opportunities out there that will guide you to a better success. Having a higher education will take you far. You just have to find the right doors and open it.

         

Relating to Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America"

By Hassan Muhammad

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America was a very good way to portray the living conditions of the working poor. She gave up her good and prosperous lifestyle, although not entirely, just to experience what it would feel like to be a low-wage worker. She was awestruck by how her co-workers cope with such struggle. Many people, such as my friend Mark Burton, can relate to the lifestyle that the book portrayed. The book opened the ears of the people for the unheard voices of the poor and “middle-class.”

Ehrenreich, a journalist and an author, gave up her good and satisfactory lifestyle to feel and experience what it is like to be poor, working at a low-wage job, living in a really small and tight place, and spending money like how a poor person would when trying to save money. I personally know friends and relatives that are struggling in the same situation. My friend’s, Mark Burton, health is at risk because he lives in a small and unsanitary apartment that he pays $300 every month for. He barely has enough money for food and he doesn’t have a car. Ehrenreich did not suffer, however, for her job was simply to write about the life of the low-wage workers and, if needed, she would have used her own money just to keep her good health.

Many of her poor co-workers struggled with low-wage life. They did everything they could just to make ends meet. Many of them worked the living life out of themselves just for very little money, similar to my friend Mark. Despite of all the hardships most of them share a good laugh from time to time and when they do, it does not come unnoticed by Ehrenreich. Mark finds a way to enjoy time with his friends even if it’s just playing basketball or walking at the park. He’s making the best of what he’s got.

            My friend Mark Burton actually read the book before. He really enjoyed and agreed about every single thing that the author talked about. He cried while talking to me and relating to the story, “It’s just sad to get out of the little bubble that you enclosed yourself in to forget about your struggle and realize that the next day you have to chip a nail, get a bruise, get a wound and hurt your back to earn enough money for a single piece of bread.” He felt, oddly enough, happier. Happier because he’s not the only one struggling and that there are a lot of people like him.

            The book opened the ears of the people for the unheard voices of the poor and “middle-class”. She portrayed the low-wage life very well. Her story related to many people that I know. She saw that you could still have a laugh or two while struggling in life. Mark agrees and became really emotional when he tried relating. If it wasn’t for Ehrenreich’s book, we wouldn’t be as informed as we are now and the problem of the working poor would be unheard.