Social Mobility

Paper Summary:

The author of this paper talks about her personal experiences as a young girl and new immigrant to America. The author talks about how her parents and grandparents accepted, perhaps because of their culture and lack of opportunity in their homeland, their inferior social status, and her own conscious decision not to accept anything but equal status and equal opportunity in her adopted country of America. The paper talks about how the author was able to conquer her feelings of alienation and other obstacles typical to the immigrant experience and achieve upward mobility and greater social status.

From the Paper:

"Many differences exist between me, my parents and grandparents. I was born in Spain and came to the United States when I was eleven. My mother, sisters and I settled into a small town where we were subjected to discrimination and made to feel like outsiders. My mom did not speak English very well which further differentiated her from the rest of society at the time. She worked as a waitress in order to support the family, as this was the only work she could find given the lack of skills and lack of education she attained while growing up. My grandparents and mother lived in a world where upward mobility seemed impossible due to the constraints placed upon them by society. They accepted a lowly position and status in society, and did not question their status in the world. They were a product of poor living conditions, lack of skills and educational opportunities."

More papers on Social Mobility:

• Essay # 88276 : "Social Mobility in Industrialized vs. Developing Nations"
• Essay # 2861 : "Social Mobility in the United States"
• Research Paper # 34149 : "Education and Social Mobility"

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