Family Immigration - Essay Example

Family Immigration I had often wondered about the origins of my family as I grew up and schooled in Chicago, whereby I learned in school that America is essentially a nation of immigrants. The majority of them originate from Europe but there are still minorities whose origins are from the rest of the world and their backgrounds are as diverse as they come to United States. Therefore, in order to gain some perspective concerning my family background, I approached my father, who is well versed in and extremely proud of his family’s history so that I could interview him and get to understand my origins. From the interview, I discovered that my family is an immigrant from Romania; whereby, my grandfather’s father, Petru Balkan, having come to the United States in 1904. Petru came to the United States to make money so that he could return to Romania and start a business that would ensure the prosperity of his family. He came from a peasant background and because of this, he wanted to start a business in the one of the cities so that he could escape the poverty that tied many Romanian peasants to the land. In the beginning of the twentieth century, Romania was still a backward country both economically and industrially with most of the population still living in rural areas and working the land to make a living. The fact that many Romanians lived in poverty in rural areas provided them with the incentive to leave their homes and either go to the cities or to travel overseas where they believed they could attain a better life. In most cases, such as that of Petru Balkan, going to countries such as the United States was a temporary move which was done to ensure that they raised enough money with which they could return home and get involved in businesses which would enable them to become members of the small middle class of Romania. Therefore, the move to the United States by Romanians of the early twentieth century, in most cases, was inspired by economic factors and for many of them, the move was only temporary. The idea of coming to the United States was given to Petru by one of his cousins who had gone to the United States several years earlier and had managed to raise enough money to start his own business in Romania; a business which had achieved relative success. Therefore, at the age of twenty-two, Petru travelled to the United States with the intention of returning to Romania after five years at most. Petru came to America by ship and he had a rough time because, in addition to having never sailed before, he was very seasick and this lasted throughout the trip. The conditions in the ship made the situation even worse because it was heavily packed with immigrants who wanted to get the opportunity to attain better lives in the United States. The cramped conditions intensified the unclean environment in the ship because of the low hygienic conditions; there was a time when there was an outbreak of diarrhoea on the ship and it was only by a miracle that Petru escaped it. Petru finally arrived in the United States but his original expectation of getting suitable employment easily did not come to pass because when he got to his destination, it took him several months before he could get any job that was satisfactory. He came to work in a meat-packaging factory in Chicago, and this job sustained him for the next decade. It was during this time Petru found the love of his life, Mariya, also an immigrant from Romania, who unlike him had come to the United States to stay. The two eventually got married and their only child, Anton, who would eventually become my grandfather, was born in 1906. Petru still intended to return to his home country and in order to achieve this objective, he saved as much money as possible so that when the time came, the move back to Romania would be much easier so that his family could effectively settle in Bucharest. While it was his original intention to go back home, World War I began in 1914 and Petru’s plans to take his family back to Romania came to a sudden end (Becker 208). He came to the conclusion that Europe was no longer a safe place in which to live and this made him change his mind about returning to his beloved Romania. Instead, he applied for American citizenship which was granted to him; essentially enabling his family to establish themselves in their adopted country. Having discarded the idea of returning to Romania, Petru used the money he had accumulated over the years to start a laundry business and by 1920, it had expanded to three locations within Chicago. Despite his lack of formal education, Petru had an instinctive grasp of business and this accounted for his success within such a short time. With his new financial abilities, he was able to send Anton to the best schools which ensured the latter’s success in life starting with his becoming the first member of the extended family to go to college when he went to Havard to study law. He later joined one of the most prominent law firms in Chicago where he would made himself a name as a criminal lawyer. Therefore, one would suggest that individuals such as Petru became the embodiment of the American dream because despite the fact that he came to the United States with barely anything other than the clothes on his back, he became successful. The result was that he achieved his entry into the middle class of society only not in Romania as he had intended, but in the United States. While Petru changed his mind about settling his family in Romania, once he achieved success, he often took his family on annual visits to his native country where his siblings still resided and this became a family tradition, and even today, my family frequently visits Romania where we still have strong family link to our roots. Works Cited Becker, Jean-Jacques. "War Aims and Neutrality". In John Horne (ed.), A Companion to World War I. New York: Blackwell Publishing, 2012. Read More