Ongoing Immigrant Struggles - Mrs. Chu’s Story is a Story of Many
Written By Tina Lam / VFT 2021
Every early morning at dawn, the frail yet cheerful Mrs. Chu anticipates her daily activities at the senior center. She puts on her coat and backpack and grabs her cane as she looks up at a black and white portrait of her late loving husband, whom she lost to old age. With much enthusiasm, she heads towards the apartment elevator, where she navigates her way to two buses and uses limited English to greet and thank her bus drivers. She uses her cane to support her feeble figure while walking in the direction of her local senior community center. This location is like a second home that warmly welcomes her and her many friends who share an interconnection through their Cantonese language and immigrant background. She feels that, like a missing puzzle piece, the community center completes her and her needs.
With the loss of her husband, she looks forward to surrounding herself with friends and acquaintances who provide her with enough human interaction to brighten her day. But despite having many friends at the senior center, at the end of the day, she goes home, alone, to an empty apartment. This story is the story of many, portraying the daily lives of elders who immigrated in hopes for a better life and are now living in the U.S.
Mrs. Chu is one of the thousands of others contending with the daily challenges of aging and being alone with no family or close friends. This is especially difficult in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising anti-Asian racism. Mrs. Chu’s husband had immigrated to the U.S. long before her and had applied for her to immigrate so that they could be together. But she confesses that, since his passing, she has had a hard time and often feels unsettled, as she is on her own without any family in the U.S. The pandemic has not only led to the closure of businesses, but senior community centers as well, leaving many seniors like Mrs. Chu to be further isolated at home.
Seniors like Chinese immigrant Mrs. Chu face the burdens of poverty, language barriers, and learning to adapt to a new culture and environment. Some immigrants go as far as changing their names to English-sounding ones to face less discrimination. Immigrants are willing to take lower wages and physically challenging jobs and even forgo labor rights, and yet are not welcomed with open arms into this country by its people and society. Immigrants who come from countries that stem from conservative, traditional, and perhaps religious backgrounds are often in “survival mode” and put aside their own mental and physical health and resist speaking up or engaging in confrontations. Survival mode means doing the best to support their families and not putting a burden on their family members or others.
The concept of an immigrant hoping to find opportunities and stability in the U.S. has created an idealized immigrant narrative that doesn’t include the many hardships and sacrifices that immigrants experience daily. The immigrant narrative often includes the phrase “American Dream” or “Success Story,” but it never includes the difficulties and tough experiences immigrants face daily. Such diverse experiences make room for gratitude and wisdom earned from beginning a better life in an unfamiliar country surrounded by a new language and environment.
After working hard to make a living in a new country and providing the best for their families, elderly immigrants enter the path of retirement without many options to return to their home country. My own grandmother has not returned to her home country nor seen her family for more than 30 years. Upon asking her why she did not go back or won’t go back now she explained that most of her family members have already passed away over the duration of that time, and that she has already settled her whole life here in the States with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I experienced a moment of heartache when my grandmother said that, despite the cultural and language barriers she had faced when immigrating here, it has been all worth it because of the many successes in education and career of her descendants— that she wouldn’t have it any other way. However, in the case of Mrs.Chu, who does not have any family members or descendants in the States, she is stuck, has nowhere to go, and is vulnerable and alone.
With the prolongment of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of reported anti-Asian hate crimes has continuously soared—particularly cases involving Asian seniors who are vulnerable and easily targeted. It raises vigilance and leads to uncertainties such as with Mrs. Chu, who lives alone and relies on public transportation for travel. Because many immigrants do not want to put a burden on others and want to protect their jobs and livelihoods (including legal status), many Asian hate crimes go unreported or are reported months after the fact.
When looking back at the ongoing history of Asian racism and how much was sacrificed to achieve the “American Dream,” we recognize the pattern that continues today and realize that we must educate ourselves. We need to recognize the hardships and sacrifices Asian immigrants—especially the elderly—undergo for the benefit of their loved ones and themselves, only to continue facing further affliction and suffering. We must support our communities and raise awareness to take action to prevent further violence from being inflicted on the vulnerable Asian communities that do not have the resources and voice to attain justice. This calls for action to support our elderly, immigrant, and minority communities in creating a sanctuary for all in which hate is not welcomed and there is only support for communities—especially during the pandemic. As said by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez: “Our world is one that flourishes when different voices come together.” Although all immigrants come from different backgrounds with different cultures they are all able to relate through the struggles that they experience.