Coming To America - Why People Do It

So let’s play a game – the following pictures show houses in the same community. Both are owed by amazing families. I personally have spent significant time in both. Both have at least 5 family members living in the residence. And the heads of the households are related to each other. But there is one major difference: one house has a family member who worked in the USA and the other didn’t. Any guesses which house is the house funded by working in America?

It’s pretty easy to see the difference. The first house (top picture) is owned by a family that has 9 children and at least 10 people living in the house at a time. It’s sufficient to cover heads during rain and provide space for eating, sleeping, and storage. The second house has 3 children and a total 5 people living there, including Don Cirilo, the house owner.

At 36, Don Cirilo already has an amazing family with his wife. But when he needed a bigger and better place, he somehow ended up in Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. I’m not aware of what means he took to get to the States, but he ended up busing tables for 2 years in a Mexican restaurant. One would assume that at best he made minimum wage although it likely was less. Cirilo returned to his family two years later, and was able to afford to build a nice house, mostly funded by his trip to the States.

What’s interesting about this case is just how far a poor paying job in America will go south of its’ borders. Cirilo likely could not have been able to pay rent in Boston suburb with his wages in Massachusetts, but back in Guatemala, he owns one of the nicer houses in his town. This is why people still risk their lives and come to America by any means possible; they dream of owning a better house, providing a better education for their children, or buying more land to farm on. Instead of sleeping on wooden plank beds that are built above a dirt floor, one can build a cement house, with real mattresses, a TV, and a refrigerator.

I’m not advocating illegal entry to the States. My point is that one must try to understand why people do what they do and these housing differences are a simple illustration to see why people come to America at all costs.