Fresh of the Boat in Queens

FRESH OFF THE BOAT IN QUEENS

Fresh off the boat in queens is an essay by Suki Kim. She writes about her memories when their family came to New York City from South Korea. More accurate, they were forced to move because of her father’s business went bankrupt, and bankruptcy could be punish by jail-time in South Korea, at the time. She describe how tough it sometimes was, to grow up in America as an Korean immigrant. The Essay is of course from Suki Kim’s perspective and she describes what she went through when she first arrived at Queens’ harbour to what is was like being a teenager as a Korean immigrant. In the 1980’s, many immigrants, like Suki Kim and her family, came from Europe and Asia to New York, because they knew they could get a job there. Many of these immigrants moved in where ever, they could find a cheap household. Queens was and is a big borough in New York, where immigrants back then, could live for very cheap. Therefore, it quickly became an immigrant Mecca, where many immigrants lived and worked. Some of the immigrants from Queens are today very famous people, who make a lot of money, like the rapper Jay Z. Nevertheless, there were also a lot of immigrants who couldn’t get a job and had to live on the streets. Suki Kim however, doesn’t describe that her family struggled or that they were rich, so her parents most had gotten a decent job. Besides she doesn’t described that she later in her life became rich. So kind of the normal story for an immigrant. Fresh off the boat was/is an expression used for immigrants referring to the immigrants, which came in boats to Ellis Island in the late 18 hundreds. Because they came right off the boat when arriving to New York.

New York and America was very open towards immigration in the late 18 hundreds, but when it comes to the Europe and America today, the situation is very different. Many immigrants from Africa and the Middle East are moving away from their country because of war and seeking a place to live, particularly in Europe. However, Europe and especially Denmark and aren’t too glad about that. Our system today in Denmark, is running very well and we don’t want any immigrants to interfere with that. We think that the immigrants will ruin our system. But in the late 18 hundreds, America was a relatively new country and they needed people to cheaply fulfil the work that was needed at the time. Like building houses, opening shops and so on. However, now when most of that work is done, the world don’t necessarily need more immigrants. So now, the immigrants are really just a cost to the system. That why the world sees immigration as a bad thing. Even in the 1980’s, some of the students, influenced by their parents, didn’t like the immigrants so they called immigrants like Suki Kim, a FOB. Which stands for fresh off the boat. The term is kind of condescending and biased against immigrants. However, people has always been afraid of the unknown and people from a different culture but when people get integrated in the culture and society, it tends to go quite smoothly. Take a look at New York City today for an example. NYC is one of the most richest and well-functioning cities in the world even though the population consists mainly of immigrants. Suki Kim’s story could have been a lot worse but fortunately, it didn’t do to somewhat luck and somewhat hard work.