Chapter 17: Immigration in an Age of Globalization

Chapter 17: Immigration in an Age of Globalization

All the Chapters in this book have been very interesting. Chapter 17 centers about America’s Immigrants. There are a lot of key/main points in this chapter. I took notes as I was reading to the parts that I thought were interesting.  I found immigrants and education an important topic.  One of the facts that really grabbed my attention was when the book stated; “some 2/3 of those twenty-five years of age and older are at least high school graduates as opposed to almost seven-eights of the native born.” (412)  This was the educational achievement for “contemporary immigrants.”  Another fact the book mentioned, “large numbers of foreign born have little or no formal education: 22% of them had less than a ninth-grade education, as opposed to only 4.7% of the natives.” (412) These are facts that I thought were important, but nobody really pays attention to. I wasn’t surprised when I read “23% of the science and engineering Ph.D.s and 12% of the non-science and engineering Ph.D.s were foreign born.” (412) I found that to be an amazing and cool fact.  The bigger picture here is mankind. it doesn’t really matter where you are from, what  matters is what you bring to the table.  Charles Darwin is mentioned in the next page and the book quotes him “there are no species, only individuals.” (413) I don’t know why but reading that and blogging about it now, it really makes sense to me.  In 1998, the number of legal immigrants decreased rapidly.

“Nonimmigrant” Immigrants

                “Nonimmigrant” Immigrants also known as “temporary immigrants.” (according to the book)  A person who is “temporary immigrants” is someone who comes to the United States on various kinds of visas, but they don’t apply for permanent resident status. Basically they let their visa expire. We all know someone who at some point might have been or is a temporary immigrant. I knew “family members” who would be considered temporary immigrants except they weren’t really family members we just called them family out of respect. Tourists were also thrown into the category of being “temporary immigrants.” Another group mentioned in the book was “visitors for business.” This includes students and temporary employees. The books states that “it is visa overstayers—that is persons who entered legally as non immigrants who compromise the major portion of what are called illegal immigrants….” (420)

                Immigration is such a controversial topic. I think we as Americans need to take in account to why people migrate. There is always a push, pull factor. I know I’ve mentioned that before but I think its really important to remember that. There are many reasons why people would migrate to America. If I was in the Islands I too would want to migrate here. We have opportunities here. We are lucky to have simple things like clean water. I’m so glad that I live in America!

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

My family doesn’t really have a Thanksgiving tradition. We celebrate Thanksgiving, but there really is no tradition. I remember when I was about 13 years old, every Thursday morning on Thanksgiving my dad would wake up my sister and ask her to turn on the oven. This is funny because my dad refers to the oven as the microwave. So every morning he would come in the room and say “Josh, microwave on kero.” In translation, it means turn on the microwave, lol. What he really means is turn on the oven. I remember waking up and the whole house would smell like turkey. He would make his world famous mash potatoes. Now those mash potatoes are my sisters famous mash potatoes. She took his recipe and doctored it. Her mash potatoes are better, but I don’t tell my dad that, lol. Along the years, I don’t know what happened but we just stopped that tradition.  My dad has always worked on Thanksgiving and I have a pretty small family, so it’s just me and my sister home for Thanksgiving. Sometimes we go over to other peoples house whether its friends or relative. So every year is different in our house hold. In 2010, my uncle invited us over to his house and last year we invited them over to our house. This year is still to be decided. Since my dad is working, we haven’t really decided on what we want to do yet. Maybe this year we will stay in and get a deep fried turkey from Popeye’s. 

Even though, my family doesn’t really have a big tradition for Thanksgiving. I still enjoy the holiday. I like the spirit of Thanksgiving. It really makes you appreciate what you have. Sometimes, we get so caught up in life that we don’t appreciate the simple things in life like having good health, drinking clean water, or having a place to live. Those are just simple things we take for granted. I try to remember when things get bad there is someone out there who has it worse then you, so count your blessings. When I realize how lucky I am all the bad stuff doesn’t seem to matter anymore.   Try to appreciate the simple things in life is what I tell everyone.  Also try to give back to the less fortunate. Simple things like donating your time or participating in the canned food drives can help the less fortunate, giving away clothes you don’t wear anymore to organizations like Salvation Army. Especially during the holidays, you realize how lucky someone is to have these things. Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday and I’m so glad that we celebrate it.  Another bright side about Thanksgiving is I get a 4 day weekend! A break from school is always a good thing, but only to catch up on more homework. I’m sure others feel the same way.

Chapter 16-The 1980s & Beyond

Chapter 16-The 1980s & Beyond

                When I read the title: The 1980s & Beyond. I thought yes, finally we are getting closer to when I was born, lol. One of the main topics in this chapter was The Immigration Reform Act of 1986. The Immigration Reform Act of 1986 had 

“4 major provisions: amnesty; requirements that employers verify the eligibility of all newly hired employees – whether resident aliens, naturalized citizens, or native –born Americans – to work in the United States; provision of seemingly tough sanctions, including prison sentences, for employers who hire aliens; and special provisions to make it easier for growers, mainly in Texas and California, to import foreign agricultural workers.  The last provision was clearly antithetical to the trust of the act—which was to cut down on immigration from Mexico—but it was necessary to secure the votes of congresspersons representing those interests.”(392)  

I found the Immigration Reform Act of 1986 to be a little complex. In my case, a little bit of a head scratcher, lol.  I guess depending on the person it can either work in your favor or against you.  The amnesty had strict rules. According to the book, “the general amnesty provisions affected only illegal aliens who could approve that they had been in the United States continuously since December 31, 1981. To be considered for amnesty, an illegal alien had to apply formally to the Immigration and Naturalization Service and be able to document continuous residence.” (392) I don’t know why but as I was reading this, I kept thinking about the Dream Act. I think the Dream Act is pretty reasonable. I know a lot of people have different feelings about it. Also, I felt a resemblance with The Immigration Reform Act of 1986 and the Dream Act. Both are arguing on Immigration reform and a part of it is granting amnesty.

The Newest Nativism

                On (397) there’s a quote that really made me shake my head in disbelief like I can’t believe that was just said. I’m not going to quote it, because it just makes me upset. People in that time and even now didn’t want nativism to be on the rise. That’s why they came up with the Immigration Reform Act and according to the book; “regain control over American borders.” (397) But I just think that people leave their countries for a reason, there’s always a push factor whether it is because of jobs, trouble in homeland, save money and send it home etc. People need to realize that. I think in terms of immigration reform, we have come a long way. I believe that one day we won’t have to be facing issues of nativism, one day it won’t be an issue anymore. It will be something amazing for our great grandchildren to see.

Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I really enjoyed reading about Cesar Chavez. After the reading, I felt inspired. Both Dr. King and Chavez words have power, and they made perfect sense to me. It made me feel like I can make a difference. Out of the two readings, I enjoyed reading about his thoughts on Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King and Chavez have something in common and that was fighting for rights. There was this one quote in the article that stated “My friends, as we enter a new decade, it should be clear to all of us that there is an unfinished agenda, that we have miles to go before we reach the promised land.” I think we all know what that promise land is, but I also think there is another meaning behind the text. I personally think that we have come a long way in coming towards that promise land.  Chavez was inspired by Dr. King and I think he felt understood by Dr. King especially when he states “Dr. King reminded me that our struggle was his struggle too. He sent me a telegram which said Our separate struggles are really one. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity." I thought Chavez's article on Dr. King was an amazing piece that should be read more often in classes.

Chapter 12 Mexicans & Puerto Ricans

Chapter 12 Mexicans & Puerto Ricans

Just from reading the title you already know what chapter 12 was mostly about. Chapter 12 held a lot of important facts about both Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. One of the most important things that we learned in this chapter was that there was a lot of migration taking place. One of the first things I read in this chapter was “The bulk of Mexican immigration, 720, 000 persons, had come in the years after the Mexican Revolution that began in the 1909…” (307) These people had to migrate because there was danger back in their country and the pull factor was the booming economy in California and Southwest. There was a lot of little but impacting events that took place. For example, there was an employment situation because of the Great Depression Mexico now had a stable government and people weren’t migrating as much. The pull factor for migrants was gone during the Great Depression. This led the United States to the “a repatriation program, supposedly voluntary, under which as many as 500 thousand Mexican Americans-some of them citizens- were sent south across the border, many of the on special trains chartered by the federal and local governments.” (307) I thought this whole section was important, because its the first time that I remember reading about the migrants being repelled from migrating into another country.

20^th Century Migration from Mexico

                During this part of the chapter, I thought the Bracero Program was something that was one of the main points in this section. The Bracero Program was supposed to guarantee the Mexican American workers would receive specified minimum wages and certain living and working conditions. According to the book, most of the complaints were filed against the employers who didn’t provide minimum standards for working conditions. The Bracero Program only took place because during WW2 there were labor shortages. “The World War II program had as many as 200 thousand braceros in the United States, about half in California, the rest in twenty other states.” (310) Another important fact was that during “1960 census reported that braceros accounted for just over a quarter of the nation’s seasonal agricultural workers.” (311) The Bracero Program had a huge impact in Mexican American migration history.

Puerto Rico & The Federal Government

                Originally Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States after the Spanish-American War in 1898, so I wasn’t that surprised when I read about there not being as many Puerto Ricans migrating to the United States. To be able to migrate to the U.S. for Puerto Ricans was hard. Transportation was not cheap for the migration. For Puerto Ricans, they were the opposites of the Mexican Americans. The Mexicans Americans had it a little easier if they wanted to migrate. Last important fact I wanted to point out was “The Census Bureau estimated in 1987 that 12% of the Hispanic population was Puerto Rican.” This points out that migration was incredibly hard for them.