After 23 years of struggling in the U.S.,
Meiyi Peng dreams of a life that is 'free and unlimited'
"If you could be an animal, what would you be and why?"
During an English-language class hosted by Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles, the instructor posed the question as an ice-breaking game.
"Bird, I want to become a bird because it is free and unlimited," said Meiyi Peng, a Chinese immigrant struggling to live decently after 23 years in this country.
When she immigrated with her husband, their expectation was to achieve a more prosperous life here. As with many Chinese immigrants at that time, New York was their first choice, but it was difficult at first.
Working as a delivery person at a Chinese restaurant, Peng had to ride her bike to Chinatown before dawn every day for a shift that lasted more than 10 hours. On snowy or rainy days, she recalled, "it felt like riding on a slide."
Earning only $800 per month, she and her husband skipped many basics and didn't buy new clothes for a long time.
Still, with high expectations, Peng and her husband moved to Los Angeles a year later. After a few months, they found jobs in a factory putting labels on garments. One hundred labels earned them $20, she said.
Peng said she tried different jobs in the following years, such as school kitchen helper, yet she and her husband could not attain higher salaries and a more comfortable life, despite their hard work.
After having three children, Peng found that her schedule was too packed to allow her to make time to learn English, not to mention that she thinks she is too old to learn a new language.
"Because of our limited language skill, we can only work for Chinese, which means less chances of higher wages," she said. "So there is nothing we can do even though we know that we could earned more money with American employers. But the reality is I don't even dare to apply for a higher-paying job."
As she turns 60 this year, Peng's life has not become easier. Now employed as a home health worker, she has to support the family by herself because her husband died nine years ago. Her current monthly income from a combination of two jobs is $1,543.
Having two kids still in college, Peng has to find ways to make ends meet, including caring for two diabetic patients while also doing laundry, cooking and grocery shopping. Working two days a week, four hours each time, she makes $15 an hour.
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Rising rent is another difficulty Peng has to cope with.
After her monthly rent increased by $850 last year, she had to move out, because it was not affordable even with her whole month's salary.
So now Peng lives in her eldest son's house and pays rent to him to help him repay his house loan.
It's not hard to find out that the living environment is not that satisfied when stepping into her house: It's not spacious inside and crammed with different stuff such as various fast foods and sundries, which mostly belong to her son.
Planning to retire in seven years, if possible, Peng still focuses on her children. She wants to buy her daughter a car, she said, because "it will be more convenient to commute between school and the hospital where she works part time."
