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.

Chapter 9

Chinese

Chapter 9 reminded me a lot of an ethic studies class I took in fall 2010. We talked about Asian American immigrants and their push pull factors. Chapter 9 talks about Chinese Exclusion Act of suspended Chinese immigrants from coming into the U.S.  Before the exclusion act about 300,000 Chinese immigrants entered the U.S.  Just to come over here, Chinese immigrants who didn’t have enough money would borrow money and then have to pay 2x more repayment then the original payment. “Chinese were borrowing seventy dollars and obligating themselves to pay back two hundred dollars.” (241) According to the book their ticket was $50 and $20 for their expenses.  San Francisco was the “port” of entry for them.  Parts of San Francisco became Chinatowns.  The Chinatowns are where most of the immigrants lived, worked and socialized. Chinese immigrants born in U.S. were automatically a citizen.

Japanese

-Early years of Japanese Immigrants were mainly men

-worked as agricultural laborers

-Gentleman’s Agreement: according to wikipedia.org "an informal agreement between two or more parties. The essence of a gentlemen's agreement is that it relies upon the honor of the parties for its fulfillment, rather than being in any way enforceable. It is, therefore, distinct from a legal agreement or contract, which can be enforced if necessary."

·         Provided family unification, passports were only issued to people who has already been to America and to “parents, wives, and children of laborers resident there.” (255)

- After Gentleman’s agreement, about 20,000 adult Japanese women. Some were married, but other’s came as picture brides. This reminded me of the movie we saw called “Picture Bride” In that movie, the girl comes over as a bride as well. The only thing she has a picture of her husband.  She migrates over and her husband is a 40 yr old man. She gets mad, because she is a girl who’s probably no more than 16 thinking that the husband would be young too. This was what was happening. The men migrated first and were lonely so they would pay for a picture bride to come over. It’s a great movie that points out what it would like for lives of immigrants who worked in the fields. They worked pretty much all day and lived in tiny shacks and they had terrible wages in my opinion. I’m not sure in the movie if she migrated to Hawaii but it was definitely a similar situation.

-Other Japanese American were in wholesale, retail trade or personal services.

French Canadians

-“only ethnic group whose migration was chiefly accomplished by rail.”(258)

-French speaking population was in Quebec

- From what I understand mostly mill workers

            After doing the readings for each chapter, I keep seeing one thing they all have in common. I think I’ve mentioned this before too. Every ethnic group has suffered. But I think no matter what there will always be suffering.

Chapter 8

Basics of Chapter 8

Around 26 European ethnic groups emigrated to the U.S. from the area north of Greece and east of Germany. 
žBetween 1812-1924, more than 3 million immigrants arrived. Most members of these groups arrived in the last of the 19th century. 

ž“They settled predominantly in the cities of the north-eastern & north-central states, cities known today as the “rust belt” for the demolished or obsolete and rusting factories that once made the region the greatest manufacturing center in the world.” (pg.213) 

Poles

“The creation of a new Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, no Polish state existed. Interwar Poland lasted just twenty yrs. A new one was created by the victorious allies after WW2.” (pg. 215)

-Poles who came to America lived in one of 3 main European empires- German, the Austro-Hungarian, & the Russian. Other Poles came from France.

-Ethnic Poles who came to America shared 2 characteristics: spoke Polish as mother tongue, they were roman Catholics.

-Poles followed their clergy.

-Poles that settled in American cities were driven by economic motives.

-Poles were influenced to come to America by other Poles such as Priests, relatives & friends.

  Eastern European Jews 
-250,ooo Jews in U.S. in 1880.   
-Migrated b/c they wanted to improve their standard living. 
-Migration was difficult for Eastern European Jews; they came from poor backgrounds.
-Had Religion & determination to stay in U.S.
-“The generation of eastern Europe Jews lived in a Jewish world in which Yiddish was the medium of communication….” (pg. 227)
-Biggest tragedy- Triangle Shirt Waist Fire of 1911. Other types of work was with retail trade. 

 Hungarians
 ž-Most representative of emigration from the other groups. 
ž-Magyar migration was short.
ž-Over 450,000 Hungarians came. 
ž-Most were under the age 30, 88% were literate
-Worked dangerous jobs with long hrs. at low wages.

Questions for exam

1. What were 1 of the characteristics that Poles shared?

spoke Polish as mother tongue, they were roman Catholics.

2.What was the main reason for Eastern European Jews migrating?

 they wanted to improved their living conditions.   

3. What were the primary language that the Eastern European Jews spoke?

Yiddish