9. Portfolio - Paper 3

 Paper 3 - Draft 1

Thi My Hanh Phan

Professor: Esther Lee

AMLA 80

19 May 2025

The Greatest Benefits of Immigration in the United States

            Immigration is a controversial topic in the United States about its myths and impaction; however, we can not deny the many benefits that it brings to the country. Immigration drives economic growth, creating cultural diversity, and sustains population growth. Immigrants use their skills and experiences, which enhance productivity and innovation in various areas, to create valuable products, earn income and pay taxes. Furthermore, their culture enriches the cultural diversity of the United States from language, music, cuisine, to art. Moreover, immigration and immigrants contribute to develop of population which play an important role in labor force. Overall, immigration brings numerous benefits that contribute to the development and wealthy of the United States.

            One of the greatest benefits of Immigration in the United States is contributing in driving economic growth by filling jobs, creating their own business, and paying taxes. Immigrants played an important role in workforce in Chinatown specially restaurant industry. Through a study, Check, Please! Health and Working Conditions in San Francisco Chinatown Restaurants, the authors shared that “There are over 100 restaurants in the approximately 0.13 square miles of Chinatown, employing an estimated 2,000 workers... The majority of restaurants are medium to large scale restaurants with 10–50 workers.” (p.6). The important thing to notice about this information helps to prove for benefits which immigration brought in economic field. Immigrants built their own businesses which had over 100 restaurants in San Francisco, created more jobs for people with 2,000 positions, earned money and paid taxes for local government. Moreover, they contributed in attracting tourists to come here to spend, which would promote the development of related industries such as transportation, hotel, and shopping. As the result, Chinese restaurant industry created large tax revenue, and it was also mentioned in this study, with nearly one quarter of the city’s total sales tax revenue in San Francisco from the restaurant field. (p.6). Therefore, immigration has contributed greatly to economic development.

            Next, immigration enriches cultural diversity of the United States by adding their traditions, languages, cuisine, and art. Chinese food has become a staple of American culture which shared in video, “Katie Salisbury: As American as chop suey” by Katie on TED Residency channel. Katie also mentioned that Chinese food was loved so much by a larger number of Americans who have ordered Chinese takeout or eating at a Chinese restaurant, and this industry grow to more than 40,000 restaurants across the country, nearly three times a number of McDonald’s franchises (01:10).  This example proved Chinese foods become popular in America family; moreover, we also have a lot of foods and beverages from Mexico, Korea, Vietnam, and so on in our country. This means that we can enjoy diversity cuisines without travelling to those countries. Therefore, immigration contributes their culture in enrich diversity in the United States.

            Lastly, immigration sustain population growth and ensure future workforce. In the article, “Children of Poor Immigrants Rise, Regards of Where They Came From”, Emily – the author of the article, shared that although the parents are poor or less educated, some their children achieve higher levels of education and income. The important thing to notice about this is we can recognize that when immigrants move into the US, they not only maintain the current workforce, but their children also contribute to labor force and ensure a future workforce. Furthermore, children from immigrant families demonstrate their talents and abilities which are better than the previous generation, even better than native-born children with higher education and higher income which proved that they got better jobs. Therefore, immigration is a important part of workforce and population structure.

            In conclusion, understanding benefits of immigration in the United States will help us have a better future where the country has fair and essential policies for immigration. From solving challenges and myths, to improving public awareness about benefits which immigration brought; we can create a stronger community where the values of diversity and wealthy growth are upholded. If we can recognized the values immigrants brought, we – both immigrants and native-born Americans can live side by side without any douts.

 

Works cited

“CHECK, PLEASE!”. Chinese Progressive Association, report, 2010,

https://cpasf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CheckPlease_full_ENG.pdf.

TED Residency. “Katie Salisbury: As American as Chop Suey.” YouTube, 1 Nov. 2017

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQlltIzzZ7w.

Emily Badger. “Children of Poor Immigrants Rise, Regards of Where They Came From.” The New York Times, Oct. 28, 2019

 

         

10. Portfolio - Reflection

Describe your most challenging moments in this class. How did you use growth mindset ideas to work through the challenges? Give 2-3 well-developed examples with specific supporting details. Reflecting on your experiences, how do you perceive writing in English now?

    Taking AMLA 80, a writing course, was not easy for me; however, I gained a lot of knowledge and experience over time. This class brought numerous interesting things for me from facing with the challenges, recognized the growth mindset and applied it to experiencing the journey of learning English. Overall, taking AMLA class brings many benefits in learning English.

    First, challenging moments helped me identify my weakness in using English. My listening is terrible, my speaking is not clear, reading is limited, and writing is not stable. I remembered the first day I joined the class; I didn't understand what teacher said. After that I was introduced a lot of rules for this class, so it made me feel nervous totally. Moreover, some of class activities such as reading in teamwork made difficult for me at the first time. When starting work in team, I could not find out the link to reach the source or material for my assignment, it took me time, so I could not keep up with my classmates. For reading, after we read out cloud, most of my friend could answer the question, but not me, I needed to read again by my eyes to be able to understand the meaning of those documents. I recognized a terrible thing when I read English by my voice, I just focus on my speaking, I can not understand or translate the meaning of words or sentences, except it is simple sentence like I go to school. 

    These weaknesses made me hesitant to share my thoughts and discuss in the class. I was afraid that I made mistakes, and everyone could not understand my idea, so I chose to keep quiet. However, I also wanted to show my ideas, and it was fortunate to learn about growth mindset, so I tried to interact with my teacher and my classmates. I tried discussing in the part of reading a book - "Distance between Us".  Moreover, I also started to speak frequently with my friends in breakout room. I felt happy when I open my mind and communicate to them. For my writing skills, I tried to turn off the feature auto-correction and predictive text of my keyboard at my paper 2 and paper 3. Although these papers seemed shorter than paper 1, they are my words. As the same time, I also recognized that my vocabulary which I could use naturally in a limit is less than for reading. Therefore, I need to practice use more words to expend my words.

    Through lessons about writing skills, I felt my progress in writing. I knew how to self talk to the material, which I can apply to analyze the topics for writing. I can outline step by step to develop my essay. In other hand, I knew four types of a sentence, I learned how to make a thesis statement, I understand types of introduction and inclusion. Those skills are all which I need to make a essay. Moreover, this class provided skills and tools for me from creating paragraphs to essays. This skill could expend my topic and make it become professional and deeper because I could prove, analyze my idea stronger by giving or providing ideas and number of others. Although I don't fully understand the MLA format, I knew it, and I knew where I can find its principles to apply in my works. For example, I could not find out the authors of a article "Check, Please! Health and Working Conditions in San Francisco Chinatown Restaurants", so I didn't know how to make the reference in the works cited. 

    Inclusion, learning always is useful, and knowing other language is wonderful. Therefore, talking language class will help us achieve our goals. Especially, AMLA classed will help us use this language naturally and professionally. Although taking a class is challenging, it is worth. You will receive many values through the class not only for your knowledge but also for your develop and mature in your mind.

8. Portfolio - Paper 2

 Draft 1

Thi My Hanh Phan

Professor: Esther Lee

AMLA 80

19 April 2025

Immigration myths and the consequences of them

Immigration’s issue in the United States not only has a long history, but it is also a

controversial topic. Through topics of debate, we can identify that many people have

misunderstanding or bias about immigration. Most of people think that most immigrants are here

illegally, and it’s easy to enter the country legally. Why can’t immigrants today? Many people

assume that today’s immigrants don’t want to learn English, or immigrants take good jobs from

U.S. citizens, or the worst people from other countries are coming to the US and bringing crime

and violence… However, all of them are wrong, and they are common myths about immigration.

They cause negative effects and separations to communities in the US, and make the next

generation have misconceptions about immigration. Overall, distinguishing the truths and myths

about immigration is important for creating a better society, because it helps to reduce

misinformation, reduce discrimination, and help people have more exact perceptions for this

topic.

Myths are hurtful to immigrant communities, and the most hurtful myth is US citizens

think that immigrants take good jobs from them. This myth might be come from fear of US

citizens in labor competition; they are afraid that immigrants compete directly with them for

jobs; however, it is not correct. The kinds of jobs that immigrants are taking is different from the

US citizens. In an article “Ten Myths about Immigration”, it pointed out the result of research

from the American Immigration Council that “there is little connection between immigrant labor

and unemployment rates of native-born workers. Two trends-better education and an aging

population- have resulted in a decrease in the number of workers born in the Unites States who

are willing or available to take low-paying jobs.” (Learning for Justice). It means labor ages in

the US are old, and workers have a high education level, so they are not willing to take a lowpaying jobs. In the other hands, most of immigrants are unskilled labor, so they will take any

jobs they are hired. In “A Brief History of Immigration in the United States”, immigrants came

from poverty, speaking no English and lack of education during the history time. For example, it

mentioned that “In the mid-1840s, when the first great wave of poverty-stricken Irish immigrants

arrived, new factories and a growing web of railroads absorbed the unskilled labor.” (Teaching

Tolerance). Therefore, this myth is totally wrong and hurtful to immigrants because they have to

suffer difficult time and hard work to live in the way the citizens think it is good.

Thinking that immigrants take good jobs from US citizens cause to the negative

consequences for both immigrants and the communities they live in. First, when people think

about this myth, they are discriminating in their communities. They are hurting together. Second,

it is not pair for immigrants. In the immigrant side, they will feel that their value and contribution

are not recognized, but they are still considered thieves and they are vulnerable to bullying and

exploitation. In “A Brief History of Immigration in the United States”, it gave the example that

“Today, many guest workers toil in agriculture but even highly-educated immigrants, such as

teachers, can become trapped with no path to permanent residency or citizenship. Guest workers

have no path to citizenship; their visas typically allow them to stay in the country only for a year.

They are often tied to an employer who has paid to bring them here, and they are easily

exploited. With temporary residency, guest workers have few legal protections or rights.”

(Teaching Tolerance). Moreover, the article “Ten Myths about Immigration” gave the same idea

for this problem about “it is easier for unscrupulous employers to exploit this labor source,

paying immigrants less, refusing to provide benefits and ignoring worker-safety laws.” as well,

and it also recognized that “On an economic level, U.S. citizens benefit from relatively low

prices on food and other goods produced by undocumented immigrant labor.” (Learning for

Justice). Therefore, it will always be the damage and pain when we have any myths, and these

myths will lead to wrong actions, behaviors, and thoughts for our community.

Two possible solutions to combating the consequences of this myth are developing the

growth mindset and increase the public awareness about immigration. First, it is important to

develop the growth mindset to have deeply thinking about everything, and avoid having

misunderstanding. For example, the story Hudda Ibrahim and her husband started Dine and

Dialogue program which invited her neighbors to ask questions and get to know each other, after

Ibrahim discovered that her neighbors were afraid of her family. In the video How a Somali

Refugee Is Creating Community in Minnesota, Ibrahim shared that “People were afraid to ask

questions that they thought were inappropriate or offensive, and when individuals usually come

to our dinners, we say ask us any burning questions that you might have.” (2:18). We can

decrease myths by our effort. We can explain and talk to people who are misinformed about how

immigration affect the job. We will explain that getting a job is a competition. A vacant position

is opened to everyone, not only for a person. If we fail to get a job, it might be because we are

not suitable for this position, so we try to find another job. Secondly, government and related

officials should help increase the public awareness about immigration. For example, government,

labor official, or school should organize career work-shop to avoid surplus or shortage in the

workforce, and orientation programs to make sure that everyone have equal opportunities to get a

job.

In conclusion, it is evident that a call to action on immigration is crucial in reducing or

eliminating its myths. By immigrant’s efforts, we can explore myths about immigration and the

facts that prove these myths are wrong. It is imperative that government offices and school work

toward creating a knowledgeable and fair community. Let us join hands and advocate meaning

actions and programs toward a fair community.

5. Portfolio - Office Hours/Student Hours

 A. Evidence of meeting with your professor (Esther Lee) or DS (Loisa Chen) during office hours or   tutorin hours.

B. Write a brief summary of the meeting. What was your takeaway from the experience? 

I met Loisa Chen during tutoring hours to discuss my paper and join one of her sessions. She reviewed my writing and talked about mistakes or positions I can fix and improve. She gave me helpful feedback and showed me how to use word sheet for formatting errors in details. From these meeting, I not only learned how to improve my English writing skills, but also I gained some skills in listening, making question, and practicing speaking English. I recognized that it is important to review my works carefully before submitting.