I really love this class and all of the insightful things I learn each week.  It is always difficult to try to narrow down what I want to say.  I think today my post is going to be about a study we read on illegal immigrant families and the struggles they face coming to America.  Too often I think we look at the illegal immigrants in the United States and despise them for coming to our country, not speaking the language, and taking our jobs.  Are these really accurate descriptions of the people who come into our country though?  Imagine a mother and father with several children whom they love very much!  They want to give them everything they never had; excellent schooling, job opportunities, and new experiences.  Doesn't sound harmful at all right?  In fact I'm sure that's how most of you feel about your children.  It doesn't matter what country you come from, we can all relate to wanting the best for the ones we love.  When we start to see immigrants in this light it changes a few things.  In class we discussed the trials and hardships a family may face if they choose to immigrate.  Usually the Father leaves the family first and tries to begin a life here in America.  As a family the father being gone leaves a hole; the soul provider is gone causing the mother to have to go to work which takes her out of her motherly role in which she cares for the children, cooks meals, cleans, and is the nurturer.  Other family roles may change as well.  The older siblings may take on more adult responsibilities causing them to step out of their norm.  It just spirals until all of the original family roles have been changed.  Now the family finally gets the chance to move to America with their Father.  They haven't seen him in years... what does this do to their relationship?  The father may feel useless because they have learned to get along without him now.  The husband wife relationship has been damaged by the distance.  Aside from family relationships, the whole family is in a strange place, with strange new people, facing a new language and many things they don't understand.  All of this is because the parents simply wanted a better life for their children.  In this new place the children may be ridiculed and criticized because they can't speak the language or don't understand everything.  The support system the family once had from their own extended family is now gone and they must be feeling very alone.  This brings me to a question, is it really worth it to leave everything you know and everyone you love for what you think might be a better life?  Do we as Americans contribute in any way to making this country a better place for them to come or do we make it a worse place than they could have imagined?