The Death of Jesseline by Margaret Regan

I am very conflicted about this book. I think that's why I forgot to post the blog when I originally wrote it almost a year ago. 

6/20/13 – The Death of Jesseline by Margaret Regan

This is a book about immigration, and I’d like to start by telling you a little bit of my immigration story. As long as I could remember, we were coming to America. I can’t remember a time when we weren’t planning to come to America. 

My mother had two brothers. The younger brother had the luck to be scouted by an American company in the late 60’s and came to America. The younger brother started the paperwork for the visa for my mother and her older brother. Ten years later, the visa finally came out for us and we immigrated to US in 1978. However, my uncle, my mother’s older brother, died a few months before the visa came out for him and his family. Therefore, because of a matter of months, my cousins and my aunt didn’t receive their entry visa and couldn’t come to US. Our cousins were like our brothers and sisters, and losing them like that when we had planned for ten years to come to US together was a blow and a life-long loss to all of us. 

Even now, I’m not convinced that my parents’ decision to emigrate was the correct one for our family. We had a good life in Korea. A lot of people have nannies in Korea, and we had one, too. We took fun vacations, and we had a comfortable home. My father was on track to become a vice-principal of a girl’s high school, and my mother stayed home. I remember her bringing hot lunches to our elementary school.

My parents, they definite had a better life in Korea. Once in America, my parents both held down several jobs to make ends meet, and I think they usually go 4 – 5 hours of sleep each night. They never took vacations, and we lived from paycheck to paycheck for many years. Just recently, I asked them what induced them to give up all they had to come to America. They said, it’s hard to understand now, but a long time ago, a chance to come to America was like winning the lottery. Only those who had money to be educated abroad could come here and settle down, then invite his family to join him. Or like my uncle’s case, only those with very special skills could come. So, they asked back – if you thought you had won a once-in-a-lifetime lottery, would you turn it down? Of course, not!

I have to say, I think I’m more interested in the matter of the American Immigration policy than most people. Because of my personal history, I expected a lot from this book, and I don’t know what it is that I feel about this book. I know. It’s funny. I can’t say I liked the book because I didn’t. I wouldn’t read it over. However, it doesn’t take away the fact that this is an important book. Everybody who is associated with shaping of the American immigrant policy should read it. 

Every life, both lived and died, described in this book is worthy of notice and remembrance, and every one of the stories is heart rendering. There are no happy stories because even those who make it over the fences, through the scorching desert, and disappear into the vast American landscape must face the harsh realities of living in America – long separation from loved ones, uncertain future, and walking on egg shells every day for detection and deportation. Yet, hundreds and thousands make the arduous journey because there are definite rewards for making it into America – being able to provide for their families better. Is it worth risking their lives? Depends on how desperate their lives were…. 

If these people want to come to America so badly that they’d risk their lives to get here, how many would work toward to weakening that society? This book does talk about the toll the illegal immigrants have on government budgets, but I don’t think this book does a good job of talking about what these immigrants bring to America. 

But when the people complained about how long the visa process takes (10+ years!) for them to come to America legally, I had little sympathy for them. We waited that long or longer. There are thousands of people, all over the world, who wait that long for an official visa to come here. The only difference is that the geography prevents them from coming here illegally. So, why should that be any different for the people mentioned in the book? I guess I’m torn by the human misery and toll versus those thousands who are patiently waiting for their visas. 

I’ve learned some important things from this book. I’ve learned some oxymoronic laws that seem to punish the good and reward the bad, but the more importantly, we need some kind of reform. There must be a way, we must be able to figure out a way, to save lives.