My parents came to the United States in 1985 as a result of the Vietnam War. They were both in their late thirties with some education, who had been raised in middle class families in Vietnam. My family escaped by boat to the Philippines. From there my mother's brother sponsored my mother, my older brothers and me to the United States. After having left my father and my younger brother in the Philippines for three years, my mother was finally able to establish herself in the U. S. so that she could have our family united. My mother was the last of her siblings to arrive in the United States. Establishing a nuclear family was not the concern of my parents when they came to the States. They set out to work and take advantage of the economic opportunities of their new homeland. They also felt the need for a two-income household, as a family of immigrants.
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United States
Happy Mother's Day Mom!My family now consists of my father, my mother, my three older brothers, who are currently twenty-six, twenty-five, and twenty-one years old and my seventeen years old baby brother. However, our household had always remained inconsistent throughout my childhood as well as my adolescence. When I was seven years old, my father sponsored two of his younger brothers to the U.S. As a result, they moved in with us. That same year, he sponsored his oldest sister, who also moved in with us. A year later, my uncles started to sponsor their family and moved out. My father's sister stayed with us for a couple of more years until she was married. In addition, my mother has nieces and nephews who claim our address as their permanent address. They visit and stay for months and sometimes years. Although their presence...