My mom is from Jundiai and my father is from Campinas, both from neighboring cities in Brasil. They met in college in Campinas, got together and they eventually moved in together. With both of my parents working at the same job, at IBM, they thought that they would spend the rest of their life in Brasil as a happy family. However, after recently purchasing a new apartment and just having moved in, IBM had a large staff cut and both my parents were short of a job. With a lack of computer programming jobs in Campinas, their only option was to transfer to the US and work there. The decision was difficult, having to leave your family and friends behind is never an easy thing to do. However, IBM, having offered to sponsor my parents’ green cards, transportation to the US, and the moving fee fully, somewhat swayed the decision to favor of moving. Because of IBM’s full sponsorship and the fact that both of my parents already had a job coming into the US, they had not faced many of the immigration struggles that most immigrants face while attempting to move to the US. Once in the US, my parents had encountered the biggest obstacle yet, the massively apparent language barrier. Even with their small English background from college, the divide was difficult. It was different being in an environment where you could barely understand what was going on around you. Now what became apparent was the need for a home, they needed a place to stay. They resided in an apartment complex for a month trying to find a more permanent place to stay. Their next step was to move into an apartment building for 6 months. My parents wanted something more, like a house, but the lack of credit history in the US made them settle for much higher interest rates. Eventually, they had become somewhat proficient in English and could navigate their way through the complexities of everyday life. Now my parents have been living in the US for almost 18 years, they still work for the same company that brought them over here, and they have settled and have had kids. They believe that coming here was the right choice because of the opportunity to raise a family in a privileged country like the US. They now live a more privileged life as opposed to their family members that stayed in Brasil.
