Summary Of Two Ways To Belong In America By Bharati Mukherjee

In the 1990s, a movement to suppress immigration to the United States arose as many American-born citizens worried about their place in the new globalized economy. This eventually led to the passage of legislation that sought to retract government benefits from resident alien “outsiders,” who contribute greatly to the United States’ workforce and productivity. These immigrants, illegal or not, often escape from adversity or seek better resources to improve their economic prosperity, so this legislation angered many. Bharati Mukherjee, renowned author and Indian immigrant to the United States, addressed this topic in an opinion article in the New York Times. In her essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America” (1996), Mukherjee employs juxtaposition,

She recalls that the interaction “sounded like the description of a long-enduring, comfortable, yet loveless marriage, without risk or recklessness” (9). Her comparison highlights the strained relationship between the United States and new immigrants that search for opportunity there because the government does not protect resident aliens as it does US-born citizens. She also alludes to arranged marriages, common in India, as a symbol of unmodern cultural practices from her home country to parallel them to the “backwards” immigration policies of America, continuing her point from earlier in the essay about the questionable virtue of many Indian values. By utilizing a simile of two serious issues, she makes the reader aware of the severe impact the legislation can have on immigrants as well as the nation as a

She discusses her shock: “I felt the same sense of betrayal that Mira feels now. I will never forget the pain of that sudden turning, and the casual racist outbursts the Green Paper elicited. That sense of betrayal had its desired effect and drove me, and thousands like me, from the country” (12). She repeats the phrase ‘sense of betrayal,’ and uses strong, negatively connotated emotional words like ‘pain’ to illustrate the emotional impact other legislation has had on migrants. She continues to evoke the sympathy of the reader for these innocent immigrants who came to these developed countries seeking economic and personal freedom, but were rejected because of their countries of origin. After describing what qualities she shares with other immigrants, she asserts how she is different by contrasting herself with her sister. Her sister is “happier to live in America as expatriate Indian that as an immigrant American,” whereas she “need[s] to feel like a part of the community [she has] adopted… [She] needs to put roots down” (13). She describes the challenges that many immigrants encounter of maintaining their original culture and identity while still embracing their adopted country. Often, like her and her sister, they end up choosing one lifestyle over