How is immigration a negative experience for the Jongas?

Behold the Dreamers follows the Jonga family as they try to adjust to life in America, and also explores how impossible that adjustment is. They experience documentation issues and eventual deportation, live in poverty because Jende cannot find a good job, and struggle with feeling out of place in America both as immigrants and as black people. Eventually they return to Cameroon, symbolizing that the immigrant experience is a difficult one that often ends in sadness.