Ben Hamilton Week Nine: Rethinking Immigration

The United States is a country formed largely by the inflow of outcasts. The colonization process began when people were not satisfied with the lives they were being forced to lead elsewhere. These dissatisfied groups realized that there was a fresh start awaiting them in the Americas. They abandoned what was at home and started new lives, requiring that they struggle almost constantly before they became successful. This tradition has continued during the following four centuries.  People come here to find better lives. They work hard to succeed, and add a great deal to our society.

My father explores the streets of
Ecuador alone. He gets a sense of the
alienation immigrants must feel when
they leave what is familiar and enter
the unknown.

            Considering our nation’s past, I find our attitudes towards new waves of immigrants very strange. The Suarez-Orozcos explain that our country generally regards immigrants of the past more favorably than those of the current era. This is evident when the Irish immigrants of the 1840’s and 50’s are considered. These new citizens were never regarded as valuable members of society. The “No Irish Need Apply” signs illustrate this clearly. Currently, however, the Irish are not stigmatized at all. I am sure that one day Mexican immigrants will not be seen in such an unfavorable light as they are today, but why is the hatred required in the first place?

            Jose does not seem to express any feelings of discrimination, but I do sense a feeling of inferiority in him. This is sad because he is an amazing young boy who relates to adults extremely well and receives great grades. His grades actually earned him a trip to King’s Island this year. Despite all of this, he tells me that he does not like to learn English. If he were from the United States, he explains, he would like to read and write and speak the language; he is from Mexico, however, and therefore does not like English. This feeling of separation is unfortunate and is no doubt an affect of the anti-immigration sentiments and alienated feeling he experiences in the states.

            The Suarez-Orozco text also speaks about the duality of immigration views held in America. One such view expresses our belief that people come here to work hard, gain a better life, and eventually become one of us, assimilated completely and losing all traces of their former identity. The other views them as s problematic, lazy, crime ridden group that only depreciates our national value. These views are sad, because they either deny immigrants their previous identities or deny them a place in our society.

Week 9 -- Rethinking Immigration -- Sarah Arriola

Growing up, my only real experience with immigration was listening to the adults in my town complaining about the immigrants that were coming over and stealing their jobs. My hometown obviously wasn't alone in this thinking. As it says in Children of Immigration, "A 1993 New York Times survey indicated that nearly 50 percent of all respondents believed that new immigrants are 'taking jobs from citizens'" (Suarez-Orozco x2 p. 37). At the time, I didn't know any differently, but now I realize that what so many people believe doesn't seem to be true. 

People claim that immigrants, usually referring to those who they believe to be illegal, are taking all of their jobs. This issue with this claim is that most of the jobs that immigrants are doing are the ones that many Americans, especially the ones that I would hear complaining, would never dream of doing.

View from the top of Monk's Mound in Collinsville, IL, a predominantly Hispanic town where many people are probably presumed to be immigrants.

Another issue with the people complaining about immigrants is that they seem to believe that all people who are of a different race, lately Hispanics in particular, are illegal immigrants. Many Americans fail to realize that just because someone is of  a different race, doesn't mean they didn't come to be in this country completely legally. This thinking is so backward to me, and something said in Children of Immigration explains why: "The United States was founded on the travails of immigrants" (Suarez-Orozco x2 p.36). Had it not been for immigrants, many who traveled to the U.S. illegally, this country would not be what it is today.

There are some people who are more accepting of immigrants...sort of. They see immigrants as people with potential, as long as they work hard and become true Americans, separating themselves from their old cultures and old lives. Suarez-Orozco x2 said it well: "They require...that immigrants become just like us. True differences must be erased, and cultural diversity must only be celebrated in superficial, 'folkloristic' forms" (Suarez-Orozco x2 p.37). So, although they aren't as negative about immigrants as the people I mentioned earlier, the way they act isn't really the right way to handle immigration issues either. There needs to be a third option.

My high school band in front of the Capitol building in D.C.

Instead of people either despising immigrants or demanding that they change who they are, they need to be more accepting of immigrants and realize that those immigrants, if given the opportunity, can make this county better than it has ever been. This idea needs to start with the people and spread all the way to Washington, D.C. where a stop can be put to all the anti-immigration laws and instead, new laws can be written that will help immigrants be treated more fairly when they come to the United States.

Rethinking Immigration- Nish Thiyagarajah

Being an American born child of immigrant parents, with an entire family in our home country, I have a fair amount of personal experience involved with the subject when it comes to immigration. My father and mother traveled here through Canada in the late 70s through asylum due to violence that was happening in their country, as well as my father’s attainment of a scholarship from no other than the University of Cincinnati. They had a relatively hard time adjusting, and early on it caused our family a lot of problems which created unnecessary stress. I think one of the biggest problems for a lot of immigrants is accepting a role of lower distinction in this country when compared with their home country, most likely because of the ability to communicate effectively. This became such a problem for my mom that she was pretty much desperate to leave, which she did.


In terms of legislation, I personally have a lot of problems with our current regulations. When she left, it voided their request for asylum and so my dad, who was basically working his ass off and just beginning becoming successful in his place of work, was forced to toss everything aside and care for my sister and I above anything and everything else. I was four years old back then, and my sister was 12. My mother has tried, repeatedly, for the past 14 years, to regain citizenship and travel back here to be with us again. But so much money thrown at lawyers, court proceedings, and failed musings simply on how to reunite a mother with her children, has forced us to move on with our lives, because with all that time grew a large distance, and I don’t mean the 10,000 mile distance from here to Sri Lanka, but an emotional one. It’s sad, but it happens. All the time, immigrants without valid visas are swooped up with no warning, leaving children and families behind with no warning or sign of their disappearance. Personally, my experience with it has left me no belief whatsoever in the status quo and completely detached emotionally in terms of everything that’s happened.


My personal vision of immigration is simply people just looking to get a better life for themselves and perhaps remove themselves from a despondent situation. Really its just laughable to me, that immigration can be such a controversial topic considering it’s the foundation of this country and we’re all technically immigrants, stupid as that might sound. The government, at the same time, is doing what they need to in order to properly deal with people who are breaking the law. I’ve just never understood the lack of empathy actively displayed by the institution.


In terms of rethinking cultural identity, while my answer might not be all that satisfying, it’s simply what you make of it. That is to say, one’s cultural identity is, to me, an encompassment of who they are, what they’ve experienced and the people they surround themselves with. It’s a really broad topic, and to be honest I am not a fan of these types of questions at all. I think there’s so many different ways to think about something like cultural identity, and the best approach in my mind is to simply have respect for culture in general but not to treat others any differently than you’d approach a random person who looks “perfectly normal.” Cliched, yes. But the golden rule has that moniker for a reason.

Week 8, Rethinking Immigration--Allison Miller

On my trip to San Diego, I noticed a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment.

 

 

In the small town that I grew up in, when I was younger I would always hear my friends’ parents complaining about how immigrants would come here illegally for the sole purpose of “stealing our jobs.”  Suarez-Orozco (x’s 2) summarizes this idea well:  “In recent years, the dominant anti-immigration narrative has ignited fears that immigrants are flooding our shores, taking our jobs, overwhelming our social services, and inflating our crime rate” (p. 38).  Since I was only in elementary school when exposed to these ideas, I didn’t really understand what they meant.  As I have gotten older, however, I realize how ridiculous this viewpoint really is.  As Suarez-Orozco (x’s 2) claims about immigration:  “the preponderance of evidence from the most reliable sources points to a relative economic benefit at the national level and modest economic costs at the local level” (p. 45). 

Contrary to the opinions I grew up hearing in my hometown, immigration actually benefits the economy, and many immigrants who are supposedly “stealing our jobs” are actually doing jobs that many Americans don’t like to do. 

            I think that since there are so many Americans who are all for this anti-immigrant sentiment, that the government needs to address this issue head-on by exposing the truth about immigration.  Americans should know that immigrants are helping our economy, not stealing jobs.  In addition, since so many people are under the impression that most immigrants illegally living in the United States, they should be publicly informed that this number is actually significantly smaller than they think.  I also believe that the American public should be taught more about the psychological stressors that immigrants face in the hopes that maybe our entire viewpoint will shift and we will see immigrants as equals.  The first step to acceptance is empathy, and many people do not partake in this empathetic attitude because they are ignorant to the facts.