I Would Remember

Carlos Bulosan was an immigrant from the Philippines that left his homeland due to the economic instability. He experienced hardships like starvation, no stability from jobs, and experiencing death several times throughout his life. Bulosan represents the struggles that immigrants from the Philippines experienced, and although it wasn't modern day, a lot of his struggles are still experienced by Filipinos today.

As a first-generation American, I am constantly reminded by immediate family, family-friends, and friends about the plight of Filipino Americans. Filipinos today leave the homeland for the same reason that Carlos Bulosan did, for the American Dream, which is basically economic stability. Other reasons people leave the Philippines is because of land loss, better opportunities, and corruption within the government. Although people today do not have to experience the tragic assimilation that Bulosan experienced, after experiencing working on plantations and almost dying of starvation their migration to the country isn't smooth.

It is a norm for people that go to college in the Philippines to try and come to America because it is the best bet for their success. People there are both underpaid and overworked which serves as a greater motivation to emigrate. This causes something known as "bran-drain" within the country which means that all the educated people are leaving and using their job skills and training in another place.
But in the end, opportunity is the underlying reason for people leaving. There is some unrealistic belief in immigrants vision of what America is. America is the land of opportunity, but that opportunity is directly determined by access to resources.

Bulosan's experiences don't only adhere to the Filipino immigrant experience but the experiences of many other cultures. The people used within the story that he encounters are never identified through race, culture, or sexuality. He uses this non-identification to show that these experienced are struggles of immigrants from all over the world and like the stories I told about Filipino immigrants, similar struggles are also shared.