Chapter 8: Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung/ Extra Credit

Chapter 8: Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung/Extra Credit

This article, Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung, discusses how illegal immigrants, who are mostly Mexicans, live as the lowest and poorest social class in the U.S. In the article, there is a comparison between two immigrants, one of whom is a Mexican illegal immigrant, and the other who is a Greek immigrant who eventually attains wealth and U.S. citizenship. One of the two immigrants, John Zannikos, came from the Greece and has lived in the U.S. for 25 years. He is the owner of a restaurant found in upper Manhattan, where he has large financial success when compared to other immigrants. Compared to Zannikos, Juan Manuel Parelta is a Mexican who has a lack of English skills, as well as an illegal status in the U.S. These two immigrants came to the U.S. to achieve better lives and further wealth, so that they could make their family’s lives more prosperous. However, they are poor, uneducated, and unskilled because their countries are also poor and underprivileged (Actually, Greece has better social conditions than Mexico). Zannikos could accumulate wealth by working in manual labor, where he could eventually own a restaurant placed in an expensive community. John is the example of a successful case, for it is generally hard to get a high social position in the first immigrant generation.
Compared to Zannikos’s successful life, Parelta could not move his social position upward, even though he worked hard to earn money, despite his poor education and English skills. Moreover, Parelta is an illegal immigrant who did not possess legal immigrant documents. Therefore, Parelta’s life is always unstable because he can be deported at any time if his status is exposed. Parelta also cannot complain to his owner even if he experiences exploitation due to his illegal status. Thus, he has to withstand the worst working environment to keep his job and to make money for his family. In contrast to Parelta, John married an American citizen, so he was able to become a U.S. citizen and run a restaurant legally. By becoming a U.S. citizen, John could move his social position upward and further accumulate wealth.
Unfortunately, Parelta gives up the American Dream, for he is an illegal immigrant who can only have manual labor jobs that offer the lowest wages. Instead of the American Dream, Parelta has the hope that his children have access to more resources because they are U.S. citizens with American education and native English skills. Parelta and his wife feel that it is impossible to assimilate with mainstream Americans. Universally, the first generation of the immigrants works hard to establish financial and social foundations in the new country for their families, even though they experience the worst working conditions. The second and third immigrant generation has a high possibility of moving their social positions upward based on their higher levels of education and native language skills compared to their parental generation. Parelta’s children are also Americanized by being able to speak English. However, it is hard to expect that his children can move upward socially because their parents, Parelta and his wife, cannot earn enough money to invest in their children’s education. Therefore, Parelta’s children also have a high chance of being in a situation similar to that of their parents, where they are in the lowest class engaging in manual labor.
Most immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants, come to the U.S. to live better and to escape poverty. However, most immigrants, including Parelta, find it hard to accumulate wealth in the U.S. because they receive the lowest wages as manual laborers due to their lack of skills, poor education, and little knowledge of English. Most immigrants send some money regularly to their families who live in the original country. In the present, immigrants who come from the poor (Third World) countries are cruelly exploited by American capitalists without legal protection. Under this social structure, these immigrants remain vulnerable in the lowest class level.