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Author’s Note:

My goal for this essay is to help people realize how the angle you view culture through can change everything. In a world of opinions, perception can affect everything and immigrants a lot of the time are subdued to a negative portrayal. I am proud that this piece of writing leads readers to question if their own opinions on a culture that is not theirs are truly valid and whether or not there is something more they could do to become more educated on a variety of different cultures and not fall for the misconceptions and stereotypes set.

Perception:

In a Refugee camp in Greece, a baby boy smiles, chocolate splattered around his face like war paint. His pink gums show through, teeth not having yet emerged. Sparse brunette hair sprinkles his head, yet to have fully grown out. His eyes piercing green, reveal all he has seen but not understood. A thick worn-out blue and white striped onesie keeps him warm, so fuzzy it makes him look like a bear cub or caterpillar. The boy is held by a woman wearing a red sweater on top of a black jacket. She is looking the opposite way, facing the tents nearby. Red, grey, brown and camo scatter the dirt ground. In one of the tents, four children can be seen, looking shyly, scared but curious at the same time. Even further in the distance, three figures can be spotted wearing black, seemingly officers in discussion looking towards the camp, their facial expressions, and emotions a mystery.

Interpretations and opinions are created through one’s own experiences and personal exposure to information. From place to place, communities can vary, as they grow, they can become their own unique and independent cultures, holding different ideals and having particular cultural norms and traditions. Perspectives can be built on other cultures depending on the differing aspects of the culture and one’s own, spreading stereotypes. Most of the time, the lack of understanding and knowledge of another culture can cause ignorant opinions to be formed. With the widespread of media, it can become more prevalent what the impressions of different cultures are. Especially with developing countries, people from developed ones start to get a savior complex, feeling it is their moral duty to give people the ability to live as they do. With the development of opinions and biases, people can get lost in their preconceived notions of a culture, being blinded and not understanding the culture until they open themselves up and step out of their comfort zone to meet people they would not usually talk to.

In the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, a scene is portrayed where the Bathtub, their home is raided and they are taken to be assimilated into society. This scene is very powerful in that it shows the different perspectives people from distinct cultures can have. To the people who took them, the people in the Bathtub were not living a desirable, good lifestyle. This is why they felt a duty to bring them out of poverty, gaining a moral reward by assuming the people of the Bathtub would be grateful. Instead though, the people of the Bathtub are unhappy, wanting to return to their lifestyle that was familiar, safe, and their own, being acclimated into society not being something that attracted them. This shows how just because sometimes a given culture can be seen as not desirable for oneself does not mean that it should be seen as inferior to another culture. Another example of this in the film is when Hushpuppy, the main character mentions how in the “dry world” (society,) “Daddy always saying…they got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff.” This specific quote highlights how the “dry world” is viewed as a place that has limited freedom compared to the Bathtub. Thinking of the world today in these terms can really change your point of view and make you realize the importance of perspective and the risk of assuming without a better understanding.

The book Enrique’s Journey discusses a unique and under-told view of how Central American immigrants are perceived by Mexican locals during the dangerous trip to the United States. During the journey, when the 17-year-old boy named Enrique, the focus of the book, gets beat up and jumped, he goes around the town nearby asking for help. When the county seat Adan Ruiz passes by, and he is asked to help Enrique, he responds with “This is what they get for doing this journey.”(pg. 47) In the many of the nearby Mexican towns on the path taken to the United States, the local people do not help migrants passing through, mainly either for the fear of gang members or for the idea that Central America is sending them all of their problems. In this kind of situation, where getting help from someone can mean life or death, having a negative image portrayed and pushed onto immigrants can be dangerous. At the same time, this brings up the question of: Should the local people there have the obligation to help passing immigrants? As in that area, Central American immigrants are seen as inferior, they do not get much help or sympathy as they struggle to escape adversity and reach a place of opportunity. The strong negative perceptions of immigrants without documents clashes with the immigrant desire for a better life leaving them more vulnerable.

Humans naturally build opinions on topics. Becoming exposed to a culture that is different than yours either through talk, imaging, or experience can cause you to compare your culture to the other. A negative outlook can become especially problematic as anything different will appear as something bad, setting roots for stereotypes and discrimination. Staying open-minded can lead to a real understanding and helps form more educated opinions. In society, immigrants are viewed negatively a lot of the time, judged and not accepted for being different and having other traditions. All societies are built on traditions, which can be a key part of one’s identity. In the end, looking at something through another lens and perspective can help you better understand your own culture and others as well as, what a community’s role is in society.

Beasts Of the Southern Wild. Beverly Hills, Calif. :20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2012.

Nazario, Sonia. Enrique’s Journey. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014.

J, Peter. “16 Children – 16 Photos: Click the Black Background and Switch on Their Reality.” Politiken, Politiken, 28 Feb. 2017, https://politiken.dk/fotografier/art5849931/Click-the-black-background-and-switch-on-their-reality.

To the world, we are just Aliens with a serial number and a criminal record, but a Hushppi said: “We is who the earth is for.” Migration is not new to the world. It has been happening for a long time. Animals do it and we do it, the world is divided into seven continents. Seven continents with color, culture, and struggles. Struggles that affect more to some individuals than others. Imagine being at the top, just very close to making it to the other side, and looking down at the men looking at the intruder, the men looking at the criminal, the men looking at the alien, the men are looking at you and your difference. Indifferent because they do not like you, and you’ll be sent back, like a package all the way from across the world, that took over a month to get to you but it’s broken, you forget about it. Who owns the world? Why some have more than others?

I can’t help but laugh when people say “get in line.” Yeah, I take it personally, but the line was too long and my days were counted. The line that most people talk about is been long since the 1990s and it’s getting longer. Every day, immigrants migrate to visit, for work, for school. Every day, immigrants escape violence, looking for food and shelter, escape for medicine, we escape from our government too. It’s similar to love, we crave and need it because it’s part of being human, and when love is gone so does hope. In Enrique’s Journey, Rosa Amalia says “How can I be worth anything if my mom left me?” It’s about that feeling of losing what you loved most and having to grow without it. Some children make the trip and go look for their moms without knowing what is going to happen. Is it rape? Is it death? Will it be both? Am I next? Questions that will never be answered, until you tell the story. “How can I be worth anything if my mom left me?” When in third World countries, once there was a little girl like Hushpuppy that was recording her life for the scientists in the future. That little girl has dreams, she doesn’t know she’ll be in a boat for months and it’s not a deluxe cruise, she will not eat, she’ll be weak, and she might become a new number left out in the sea. The state officials failed their people, making many to leave and leaving others dead.

Not just American people, but people from higher developed countries, do not understand what it’s like to live in situations where if you are starving there is not a food bank available, where instead of getting real pills, you get flour pills. Sometimes we take for granted what is given to us, there is room for improvement, but no one’s human needs should be denied. In class, we watched a video of Refugees in Greece talking with tourists. A man mentioned how the trip wasn’t hard, he had escaped death three times already. This brings me back to conversations with my mom, both immigrants that live by “I’d rather die while trying, rather than dying with my arms crossed.”

“Illegal”… “speak American”… “Show me your papers”…… “I’ll call ICE… you’ll go back.” Those are a few of the many statements an immigrant gets called, well at least that’s what I’ve heard. The role that people play in the immigrant society affects the way immigrants socialize within the community. It is normal to live in fear for many immigrants, it affects us psychologically, many commit suicide. It’s like being rejected by someone, but you know you won’t and don’t want to harm them. Getting detained by the authorities at the Southern U.S. border is like actually being treated and believing you are a criminal. Seeking for asylum should not be a crime, never knew that wanting to be alive could be a crime. A very well punished one, separated from the families, seeing the sunlight once a week if you are lucky, period leaks all over your pants, and no shoelaces; these facilities can’t run on such suicide drama. Handcuffed, from ankles to wrists, being reminded that you are a criminal because you didn’t “want to get in line”, there wasn’t time.

Not everything is sad. Along the way, the worst and best of the world is seen. Lawyers, unions, and people have made our lives easier. Employers, willing to give us jobs knowing that they get in trouble with the law. Americans looking after the safety of our children, looking after me by voting and protesting for me and creating laws to keep me here. I’ve made it to 17 years of my life, that is six more then what was intended. I love Honduras, I like to dance to the rhythm of los tambores and eat my baleadas but if I had kept my arms crossed, this story would be unknown and there is so much more to tell, but I still stick my head out of the door and triple check. Throughout this journey, many things have happened and will happen. As I heal from the past, I learn how to cope with the present, and understand that tomorrow is different and anything could happen. Tomorrow could be the day I go to school, but it could also be the day I am separated from you and my dreams.

Sources:

Beasts of the Southern Wilds

Enrique’s Journey

https://gpinvestigations.pri.org/the-crossing-eb527318eb76

Kyree Yates
         January 13, 2020
         English 3
         Mr. Block


                           Opportunity 

Our country was founded on the idea of discrimination based on race, social status, and social class. Social norms were highly valued and if someone did not fit those norms they were often mistreated and frowned upon. During the foundation period, rich white men were viewed as superior and they used their superiority to grow the slavery industry. As time progressed, the norms from the 16th century, reformulated into different states of aggression that we more commonly see today. In today’s society, muslim immigrants are becoming the main target of social injustice in the United States. Some Americans have become more patriotic and territorial which led to the exclusion of other cultures in our society. There is a famous saying-“One bad apple spoils the bunch.”- that explains the disconnect between American and Muslim cultures. Muslims started being viewed in a different light, especially after the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S, 9/11. After 9/11, many muslims felt that they were no longer welcomed and were harshly judged. Americans became more frightened and hate crimes against Muslims increased. Being Muslim in America became a struggle. Imagine not being able to walk into crowded spaces without the constant stares and aberration.Muslims became stereotyped not only by society but by the United States government. 16 years after 9/11/2001, President Donald Trump placed a “Muslim Ban” also known as the Executive Order 13769. The executive order interdicted entry of refugees from seven predominantly muslim countries such as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syrian, Sudan, and Yemen for 120 day (Syria was banned indefinitely). The order not only evoked fear into Muslims refugees but gave Americans another reason to be frightened by their Muslim neighbors. In the book, Exit West, a Muslim couple is faced with complications and hardship as they try to escape the awful reality that lies in their homeland. It might seem surprising that even in such circumstances Saeed’s and Nadia’s attitudes towards finding a way out were not entirely straightforward. Saeed desperately wanted to leave his city, in a sense he had, but in his imagination he had thought he would leave it only temporarily, never once and for all, and this looming potential departure was altogether different, for he doubted he would come back, and the scattering of his extended family and his circle of friends and acquaintances, forever, struck him as deeply sad, as amounting to the loss of a home, no less, of his home. ( Hamid, 94) Saeed and Nadia’s experiences shows how the “Muslim Ban” affected the lives of thousands innocently trying to create a better life for themselves. Governors came to a consensus that the Muslim Ban was beneficial for America but neglected the innocent lives of Muslim refugees. Refugees felt the burden of America’s fear and had no choice but to try to persevere in inhumane conditions. The Pew Research Center conducted a social test in America for the nine major religions. They used a feeling thermometer as a rating system from 0-100 on safety compared to America for each religion. Cold being the most negative and hot being the most positive. Overall Muslims were rated on the colder side of the thermometer at 48 degrees coming for the average American under. They then decided to take the test one step further and asked people who leaned towards either the democratic or republican parties to rate religions using the feeling thermometer as well. The Democratic party placed Muslims at 50 degrees while the Republican Party placed Muslims at 39 degrees. The partisan gap reaches to other questions that pertain to Muslims and Islam. Republicans as a whole will tend to agree on more of the same ideas in their group and the same for Democrats. During the research they took a survey and Republicans under 30 deemed the Islamic religion to be more likely than others to encourage violence among its believers while Democrats believed Islamics were not Anti-American. The government plays a significant role in the way Americans view Muslims. Throughout history, the government teaches people what to think about certain races, religions, and social statuses. Norms are influenced by superiors. Trepidation holds America in a tight clinch that can only be released if the ideas we are frightened about change. Whether that be from experience, persuasion or a sudden change of heart, Americans need to remove stereotypical boundaries to prevent history from mirroring itself. “ Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” - George Santayana

Muslims and Islam: Key Findings in the U.s. and Around the World Michael Lipka - https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin Books, 2018.

Mbue, Imbolo. Behold the Dreamers: a Novel. Random House Inc, 2017.

Political Values: Government Regulation, Environment, Immigration, Race, Views Of Islam https://www.people-press.org/2016/12/08/3-political-values-government-regulation-environment-immigration-race-views-of-islam/#perceptions-of-whether-islam-is-more-violent-than-other-religions

Introduction:

My goal for this essay was to explore the idea of moral obligation and where in American history we began neglecting that obligation towards immigrants, migrants, and refugees. I also wanted to think about what enabled people to be able to deny their obligation towards other human beings, specifically immigrants, migrants, and refugees.

Matalai Lee

Block

English 3

14 January 2020

            Obligation as it Relates to Immigration

T.M. Scanlon, a Harvard professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity, wrote and published a book entitled What We Owe to Each Other. His novel grapples with the topic of morality, specifically “our obligations to other people in general”. As his writing explores this subject it also evokes the question of in what situations do we act on this obligation we feel? Or when should we act on this feeling? These questions are very much relevant today with the ongoing global refugee crisis and trends of immigration and migration to the United States, and other countries over the world. As different countries alter laws and their stances on these subject matters it forces people to consider whether or not countries have an obligation to immigrants, migrants, and refugees? Specifically, does America have this obligation? For almost as long as immigration to the United States has existed, so have restrictive immigration laws. Though immigrants were coming to America from all over, in 1790 the access to US citizenship was, unsurprisingly, restricted to “free white persons” who had lived in the country for two years. The Naturalization Act of 1790 was just one of the first of many racially motivated laws regarding immigration and citizenship in the United States. The country aided “white” immigrants on their road to obtaining United States Citizenship but created laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Immigration Acts of 1891, 1917, and 1924 that established which ethnic and racial groups the United States felt obligated to help where immigration was concerned. (1924 is also the year when the United States Border Patrol is established, as the number of people immigrating illegally into the United States increased). At multiple points throughout the history of the United States, these acts were repealed and replaced by ones that broadened the limitations put on different racial groups trying to enter the US. There were many acts, signed by various United States presidents as wars raged on in other countries and more people sought refuge from their homes. Despite how America has responded to different crises over time relating to immigrants and refugees, there are still many restrictive laws and institutions in place that make the lives of immigrants and refugees, both “legal” and “illegal”, difficult. The United States uses federal agencies and arms like ICE and Border Patrol to try and control the lives of immigrants in the country. The laws and agencies that have been put in place have the sole purpose of criminalizing immigrants. The criminalization of immigrants and refugees not only justifies the lack of obligation the United States government feels towards them but also fuels our current President to introduce laws that are specifically targeting immigrants. It allows people to feel ok about treating immigrants and refugees poorly, although their generalized views of them are oftentimes false. Regardless, a large number of Americans hold these beliefs about immigrants and refugees, leading to detrimental words and actions towards them. One of the most effective ways to inform people of the truths about immigrants is through writing. Novels, articles, poems, and other mediums of publications help to illustrate the truth about immigrants and tell individual stories that inform people. Books like Behold the Dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, provide readers with a new or different perspective on the lives of immigrants. Throughout each of these books, the main characters face the strifes of moving from their homes and living in another country. Mohsin Hamid writes about two characters, Saeed and Nadia, who’s home is torn apart by war, forcing them to become refugees and travel through different countries. Saeed and Nadia had to leave behind family, culture and sacrifice any sense of stability they once had in their home country. Behold the Dreamers tells the story about a family from Cameroon, living in New York and their journey in trying to obtain permanent US citizenship. The relationships within the family suffer as the stress of trying to become a citizen begin to affect them, and their lives back in Cameroon continue happening while they’re living in New York. These books give insights to the immigrant and refugee experience that help people begin to grasp what the lives of immigrants and refugees are like. Through having a better understanding of the experiences of immigrants and refugees, it’s possible that people will begin to acknowledge that as human beings we should feel obligated to help and accept immigrants and refugees from different countries.

Works Cited

History.com Editors. “U.S. Immigration Timeline.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 21 Dec. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/immigration-united-states-timeline.

Scanlon, Thomas. What We Owe to Each Other. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000, https://epdf.pub/what-we-owe-to-each-other.html.

Ellis, Maliya V, and Woojin Lim. “Asking Philosopher T. M. Scanlon ‘What We Owe to Each Other’.” Asking Philosopher T. M. Scanlon ‘What We Owe to Each Other’ | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson, Fifteen Minutes, 10 Oct. 2019, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/10/10/scanlon-and-the-good-place/.

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin Books, 2018.

Mbue, Imbolo. Behold the Dreamers: A Novel. Random House Inc, 2017.

I am writing about the nature of obligation and where it derives from. By reading this essay, I hope that it gives people a better understanding about what defines a person and the different principles that determine our decisions in life. Some will base their morals off of religion while others will be held to the comfort of their naivety. In my essay, my aim is to express the root of our obligation and how it is expressed in our interactions with people who are foreign to us.

No matter the status of our upbringings or the morals we are held to as children, we all come to an age of logic and reasoning. At this age, our cognitive decisions rest in the shadow of an influence, which is made through the teachings and biases of the ones we look up to the most. Some will learn to look at everything through a religious lens, resting every decision on the rules of God, others’ priorities will rest on the comfort of their privileges. At this age of reasoning, we are forced to apply our logic to the decisions we make and the people we meet. Sometimes, these interactions may be with people who are foreign to us and we must decide how we will accept them. With this in mind, the question is: how do these forms of logic respond to our obligation to others? And what is the reason for these responses?

Looking into the novel, Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid, it is apparent that one form of logic can develop through the nature of struggle. Although struggle is often a broad term, there is much evidence that reveals a genuine result of bonding. In this novel, the reader is introduced to Nadia and Saeed, a couple growing up in a middle eastern country, corrupted by regulation and war. As the war drags on and desperation grows exceedingly, the reader begins to notice a change in the logic of the young couple. Instead of choosing to fight back in greed and isolation from the rest, they expressed gratitude and selflessness for those around them. Several times throughout “Exit West,” the two characters experienced the loss of their family and friends. Through this loss, there held a strong sense of obligation and appreciation of the simpler things, understanding that one-day things might change for the better or the worst. “This loss unites humanity, unites every human being, the temporary nature of our being-ness, and our shared sorrow, the heartache we each carry and yet too often refuse to acknowledge in one another”. So if suffering breeds connection, what is the result of comfort? And how does this play out in our obligation to others?

Through interpreting the short story, “Return To Nigeria”, we can answer these questions. While reading this story, the author reveals the vast differences between two countries through the perspective of a Nigerian American woman named Enuma Okoro. One known for its habits of luxury and the other for its state of extreme poverty. These being America and Nigeria. Growing up in America, Okoro’s mother taught her to be ashamed of her home country and look at it as something less than her; a place dominated by the poor and riddled with violence and gangs. While living under this influence of bias, she eventually learned to hate her heritage and adapted to the American culture of her peers, accepting their ignorance. Enuma explained that Americans often didn't accept her culture and ethnic background, forcing her to adapt to theirs. Because of this, certain aspects of her life began to change; this even included her name, “We let teachers mangle our names, then adopted their mispronunciations — introducing ourselves with syllables our own relatives tripped over.” This inheritance of the American culture diluted hers. But after a short visit to her home country to honor one of her family member’s passings, everything changed. In the small town of Akunwanta, she felt a sense of belonging and reintroduction to the origin of her ancestors. Growing up in America, Okoro often felt isolated from the community she surrounded herself with. Being a Nigerian, she never truly felt accepted in the U.S. due to the differences she held from the rest. Reading Okoro’s story, the reader can notice a correlation between comfort and compulsion, seeming that it can create a sense of exclusion from those who are different from them. Being in America, people are often sheltered off from the rest of the world, therefore unable to cope with the diversity of other cultures. Through this, we can understand another form of logic constructed from the nature of ignorance.

Other times, obligation can sprout through belief, such as religion. For example, in Enrique’s Journey, while leaving his home town in Honduras in an attempt to find his mother, Enrique passes through a town well known for its Christian based principles, this being “Veracruz”. Sonia Nazario talks of the culture of the people in this town expressing the fact that many of the residents living there are heavily religious and believe it is their duty to God to treat others with compassion and empathy. In this town; according to Nations Encyclopedia, the town maintains around 85% of a religious population. Some of those living in Veracruz choose to devote their lives to the welfare of the migrants passing through to get to the US. Possibly one of the most iconic laws of Christianity is to treat others how you would like to be treated. This idea is followed through acts of “gift-giving” where the community of Veracruz lines up to the train tracks that many immigrants take to travel to the U.S. It is here that they throw food to the hungry and desperate families passing through, supplying them with fruits and bread as well as drinks such as water and coffee to help them on their way. 

Furthermore, looking deeper into the roots of our principles, we can draw several differences. While some are bred through safety and comfort, others are produced through suffering and desperation. And sometimes, people will turn to religion to teach them the morals of life. Although these forms of logic provide an overall basis for the root of our decisions, it also shapes the morals of our obligations and how we associate with the people outside of our circle of affiliation. Some may feel inclined to look at them with ignorance and separate themselves from the things that are foreign to them while others would choose to offer aid to those they don’t know. Through these forms of logic, we can understand that obligation is founded through the character of our surroundings and the principles in which we have learned to pursue.

Introduction: This essay investigates the question are immigrants really that different? I use two of the book which I have read to answer this question. I also mention the medias role in influencing this question. I conclude that if we get rid of the labels, there are little to no differences.

Whenever most people hear the word immigrant their mind automatically thinks of people very different from them. The media can often create labels of immigrants as being dangerous, thief-like, label them as illegals. Americans don’t like to be called dangerous or thief-like and Americans often view them as the “other” people that are so different than us that they can’t even fit in the American-culture. As I have read the stories of immigrants throughout the last couple months is that there are a lot less differences than we might think. Not only are morals the same but also the everyday quirks are the same.

The book Behold the Dreamers 1 follows the story of Jende, a Cameroonian immigrant who becomes a driver for Clark, a partner at Lehman and brothers. From the beginning of the book, it seems like there are a lot of differences between them. Jende is of the lower class making only $35,000 from Clark a year. It never says Clark’s salary but he has both a house in the Hamptons as well as a huge apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Jende has an apartment which houses four people, but has only one bedroom. Clark has an apartment so big that he needs multiple cooks, housekeepers, and maids to keep it together. As the book goes on, Jende and Clark become quite friendly with one another. They often have conversations while traveling from one location to another. One conversation they had was about Clark’s son Vince. Vince is a twenty-two year old who recently graduated from Columbia. After graduating, Clark made Vince go to NYU law school. But this isn’t what Vince wants, and he decided to drop out of law school. Jende hears about this and become very interested in this decision. He decides to talk to Clark about it. Jende asks Clark about what he thinks about this decision, and Clark is extremely disappointed he says that going to Law School will make you successful. This is the exact same way Jende reacted when he heard that Vince wanted to drop out. Jane’s cousin is a lawyer on wall street and is very successful, his dream for his child Liomi is for him to become a successful lawyer.

Even though Clark and Jende come from two very different worlds they can agree on two things: that they both want success for their children, and that becoming a lawyer is the way to do it. In this book, you hear both Clark and Jende’s opinion on how to be successful in the United States but you never hear if this is something which their children want. They both would rather take success over the happiness of their children. You constantly see this theme recurring in the book, hard work and success. One day, Jende’s wife Neni is called into Liomi’s school due to an education problem with Liomi. The teacher says that Liomi is distracted in school and that he distracts other students in his class, and this makes Neni extremely upset. As soon as they leave, she starts scolding Liomi, asking if he wants to have money in the future, asking if he wants to be successful in the future, all she wants for Liomi is for him to have a good life and she thinks that asking these questions is the way to push him into the right path. Just over the river this is exactly what Clark wants for his kids. In the book he is constantly seen having arguments over the phone and in person with Vince, asking if he wants to be successful in the future, if he wants to make a name for himself, if he wants to have a good life. When Jende and Clark first meet you would never think that these people from two completely different parts are similar, just when they start having conversations do you see that they have very similar morals.

People always focus on the differences between people from different countries. They look at the language, the mannerisms, the religion, but if people look past those things, they will find people who are just like us. Not only do these people have the same values as us but they live a very similar day to day life like us. In the book Exit West 2 there are two main characters named Saeed and Nadia. The book follows their life falling in (and out) of love, having to flee their country together, and ultimately their lives in new countries. In the beginning of the book we are introduced to both characters, first telling the story of Nadia, a young woman who lives alone and works at a marketing company. We also learn about how she grew up. “She had gone to a school that emphasized rote memorization, for which she was by temperament particular ill-suited, and so she spent a great deal of time doodling in the margins of her textbooks and notebooks. Hunched over the hide curlicues and miniature woodland universes from the eyes of her teachers.” pg 21 This is a quote which showed how Nadia was as a student, when reading this quote I realized that I knew so many people like Nadia. That her personality was also present in people around me. This quote really shows that these “foreigners” these people which we often view as other, are just like us. Their schooling is all about memorization and taking notes. That when these “foreigners” get bored in class they also doodle.

When disregarding language, religion, and place of birth we can view many similarities. These constructed differences which are influenced by hate are to just target a group and tell no truth. Jende and Clark have the same values and want the same for their children, Nadia is just like the kid doodling in their notebooks in the back of the class. Immigrants are different simply because every person is different, but if we remove the titles of Immigrants, Undocumented, and Illegals then the differences start to fade.

1Mbue, Imbolo. Behold the Dreamers: a Novel. Random House Inc, 2017. 2Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin Random House, 2017.

Immigrants leaving their country are often misunderstood by people, especially in America. People often don’t understand immigrant stories due to lack of exposure to people from diverse backgrounds and they don’t believe that immigrants are in danger when they leave their own country. These perceptions lead to the belief that immigrants take jobs from locals and milk the system. Many believe that immigrants don’t work and just claim welfare checks and get SNAP benefits from the government.

We can further understand these misconceptions with the article, “Abandoned Vans of Atlanta” entire communities have been changed by the new Trump administration. The communities are being changed because there is no one to fill jobs that immigrants once took. More importantly immigrants are living in fear of being arrested by ICE. This fear does not only affect the parents but also their children who may be documented Americans. In the town of Atlanta, as the article states, “Once engines of economic opportunity, the vans are now tombstones for the disappeared. In the counties that make up metropolitan Atlanta, immigration-related arrests have spiked over the last two years, as ICE and local law enforcement agencies have moved to vigorously enforce immigration law at the behest of the Trump administration.” In essence the Trump administration has changed the whole make up of the town and with this how the people of Atlanta look at immigrants. The fear that immigrants feel is driven by the average American’s lack of understanding of the immigrant story.

We learn more about the immigrant story in the article “What It is like to be a migrant in the age of Trump.” We can begin to see how the perception of others affect the immigrant experience. A quote from this article is “Rosa’s problem hadn’t started with the gangs, but with her husband. He drank, and when he was drunk enough he liked to beat up Rosa. One night, earlier in the summer, he came home and beat her up again. For Rosa, it was the last straw. She took her two kids and left. He begged her to come home, but she refused. Then, desperate, he swallowed poison, was taken to the hospital and died.” Her brother-in law, who was a gang member blamed her for his death and she had to escape. On the surface people would see this as a woman not leaving to save her life but leaving her husband for selfish reasons and possibly to come to America just for an easier life. What we see on the surface is not always the reality. However, it has become easier for people in America to just look at the surface. People only the headlines or small pieces of social media and don’t really process the real story. Another source called “A Migrant’s Story from a Greek island” verified this idea of people making assumptions about peoples’ stories. This documentary is set in Greece and it has interviews with tourists who visit the island who meet with Syrian refugees and talk about their stories. It is clear that the tourist’s initial ideas about the Syrian refugees is different then their reality. People’s misperception of the immigrant plight appears to not just happen in America.

 In the article “Feds detain nearly 600 in Mis. plant raid” we learn about the largest workplace immgration raid in US history. Over 600 workers who where undocumented were arrested. We see a picture of a crying eleven year old girl who is sobbing for her dad's release. Her hand is tilted she is wearing a pink and white shirt. She is sobbing into her hands and is clearly very distressed. More images in the article show parents being led away in handcuffs by ICE workers. The NPR article further discusses how the town has come together to support these workers and their children left behind, even though it is a town where 60% of the population voted for Trump. Even though many are supportive of the families, there is a divide and  many also believe that immigrants who are undocumented should not be given anything and should not be supported because they should not be in America in the first place. One person said, “There are a lot of people here needing help who are legal.” Those who think this way seem not to understand that these immigrants had jobs, paid bills and had kids being educated in the local schools. This event really shows the divide between what people believe about immigrants and how those beliefs can affect how immigrants are treated. 

A contrast to these stories is a video called “Migration is Beautiful.” We hear about immigrants who give back to their community, the power of activism, the power of art, and the power of media. This is often an overlooked aspect of the benefit of immigrants and what they can do to help this country. It is rare that we hear or read about this side of immigrant story. This leads you to wonder, why? Why don’t we hear about all the good immigrants bring? All the wonder and creativity? It also fails to recognise that America was built by immigrants.

 In conclusion, it is very clear that even though we can live, work and have our kids educated in schools next to immigrant families, we rarely understand the struggles that they have. We do not understand the fear of thinking you might be arrested or being returned to a country where you might have been afraid for your life. It is also clear that many believe that immigrants who come here, documented or not documented, just want to live off the government and not bother learning English, getting educated or working. These misperceptions can be fostered by government policy and these policies can create fear among the people who live in America. 

Citations

“Feds Detain Nearly 600 in Miss. Plant Raid.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 26 Aug. 2008, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26410407/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/feds-detain-nearly-miss-plant-raid/#.XhfOx0dKjD4.

“Migrants’ Stories From a Greek Island.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Feb. 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedia/100000004237409/migrants-stories-from-a-greek-island.html.

Moss, Jesse. “The Abandoned Vans of Atlanta.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 May 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/opinion/ice-immigration-atlanta.html.

Pulitzercenter. “This Is What It’s Like to Be a Migrant in the Age of Trump.” Pulitzer Center, 26 Oct. 2018, https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/what-its-be-migrant-age-trump?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=10302018.

Shapiro, Ari, et al. “Months After Massive ICE Raid, Residents Of A Mississippi Town Wait And Worry.” NPR, NPR, 17 Nov. 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/11/17/778611834/months-after-massive-ice-raid-residents-of-a-mississippi-town-wait-and-worry.

YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWE2T8Bx5d8.

On the US border in the South of California near Tijuana, you can see many immigrants crowding around the steel barriers to get into the United States. From the distance, you can see the steel beam fences standing 26 feet tall preventing immigrants from entering illegally into the United States. Barbed wires placed in front of the steel beam fences as reinforcement. On the United States side behind the steel beam fences, you can see the American flag tied to a pole flying in the wind. You can also see spotlights and surveillance cameras in the vicinity. Thousands of immigrants line up across the border near the steel fences and barbed wire. Then a can of tear gas was shot into the crowd near a mother and her two young girls. She helps pull them away from the tear gas as the girls, one without any proper footwear, and the other with sandals, started to run with their mother. This is just one of the many things that many nonimmigrant people don’t understand about the immigration process. They often don’t understand the things that immigrants experience as they travel to America and settle into American soil. Specifically, their thoughts and internal emotions are misinterpreted and/or not taken into consideration.

One thing that people do not understand is how much work immigrants have to do to come to America. Most Americans do not understand the struggles that immigrants have to go through as they make their way to the United States. We assume that immigrants and migrants just simply obtain their documentation, walk up to the border, get everything checked out and are then able to live in the United States. We fail to realize and ask ourselves what did it take for them to come to America and what drives them to come to America. Immigrants and foreigners coming to live in America all have different reasons why they came to America. Some came to America to start new lives, for educational opportunities, for family, or they are fleeing from violence. Americans only know the stories of immigrants coming in by boat or plane for a new life but the stories of the risky and dangerous journey to travel to America is not widely known. In Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, the author decides to take this journey with Enrique to find his mother in the United States. In the prologue, she explains how she will travel in Enrique’s footsteps and manage the constant fear of gangs and bandits on the train and at border checkpoints coming to beat, rob, and/or rape her. Not only gangs but environmental factors were also dangers as anything could cause her to fall off the train and run her over. Corrupt government officials can be spotted robbing migrants as well. After the journey, she goes home with trauma and suffers from intense internal emotions. This experience shows her a different side of what it is like to be an immigrant. It is not a simple one and done story but it a complexity of different stories that we need to view in multiple lense and not only through one lens. It is not a simple one answer question but a variety of different experiences that we have to take into consideration.

Although immigrants move to America for better opportunities and a better quality of life, most immigrants often think about home. Immigrants, especially those who are older, have a strong connection to their homes. They had established a life in their home country ever since they were a kid. They know their country better than anyone who hasn’t lived and experienced it for most of their childhood. Moving away to start life in a new environment and a different culture is intimidating. It takes a lot of time to adjust to that change, but what will not go away is the feeling of being far away from where they had grown up. An example of this nostalgic feeling of home can be found in Behold The Dreamers a novel by Imbolo Mbue. From pages 37-46, the main character, Jende is driving Clark, his boss, back to the office from DC when Clark asks Jende about what his home country, Limbe, was like. Jende delivers a rich description of Limbe with a nostalgic, reminiscent tone. He describes it as he misses his home. When Clark asks Jende why he moves back to America, he had a hard time answering the question and gave very vague and generic answers. The way he describes Limbe was heavily contrasted with his details about why Limbe is a bad place. Clark also talks about his past before he came to New York. He talked about his Illinois childhood home and talks about his childhood life in Illinois and the way in which he misses his home. As you can see, immigrants also have the same feelings and emotions like a normal person being away from home. People think that immigrants do not miss their homes at all. Those immigrants want to forget their home country and where they came from. As humans, we all have a strong connection to where we all once grew up from and immigrants have that same connection as well.

Finally, people have misconceptions about the countries that immigrants have come from. We see it in the media all the time where third-world countries are in constant conflict and turmoil. When we hear and see video clips about this, we build up this stereotype that these places that people are immigrating from are just terrible places. What we fail to understand is how once these places were actually lively. In the Sea Prayer: a 360 degree illustrated film by award-winning novelist Khaled Hosseini; it shows a 360 video of a father narrating to his son on their life in Syria before the war and then to the unknown future. In the 360 films, you can see the illustrations of their farmhouse on the riverside, the beautiful old city with a mosque and a church, and the city center. Then it went into ruins and chaos where they finally ended up on a beach with a father carrying a son about to board a boat to embark on their journey to escape the violence. In the video, the narrator describes life before the war and the violence was peaceful. Olive trees blowing in the wind, the cool air and the sun in the morning at their farmhouse surrounded by livestock grazing in the fields with wildflowers. The crowded lively city with a mosque and a church where they would walk to the clock tower. The quote that stuck with me was when the narrator said: “But that life, that time, seems like a sham now, even to me, like some long dissolved rumor” (time maker 1:55). He means that those peaceful times and the beautiful landscape is hard for people to believe now when all they hear about now is war and bombings happening in their own city. Hardly anyone will believe that these places once had a beautiful thriving environment. From an external point of view, we only see one side of the story. We fail to see the other side of it.

People tend to misunderstand the experiences of immigrants. An American typically only looks at an immigrant’s situation externally rather than diving deeper to try and understand what goes on internally. We create a lot of assumptions about immigration based on one general story. We need to start thinking about immigration not as a simple topic, but as a complex of ideas and emotions. We have to learn from different people’s perspectives. By learning from the perspective of an immigrant, we can come together as people and understand how we can improve our system by learning about the experiences of immigrants.

Works Cited: Nazario, Sonia. Enrique’s Journey. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014.

Mbue, Imbolo. Behold the Dreamers: a Novel. Random House Inc, 2017.

Hosseini, Khaled, director. Sea Prayer: a 360 Illustrated Film by Award-Winning Novelist Khaled Hosseini. YouTube, YouTube, 31 Aug. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKBNEEY-c3s.

Introduction to my advanced essay:

My goal for this essay is to highlight how foreigners have to adapt to their new lives when they migrate. While doing this they often sacrifice aspects of their old lives so they can make the most of their new lives. This shouldn’t be the case. They should be able to come to new places and not have to change their identity. I’m proud of my analysis because I feel like they turned out strong and supported my thesis.

                    Advanced Essay #3: Adaption

An image shows two little boys riding tricycles in a refugee camp. The refugee camp is located in southern Athens at the old international airport. The boy in the back is wearing white shoes that are too big for him. He’s walking while holding an orange and black tricycle carefully through the road. The boy in front of him is riding a pink and purple tricycle that was meant for a girl. He has no shoes on but is focused on riding the tricycle. The boys are riding the tricycles in what looks to be the parking lot of the airport. In the background, there are two tents. This image, like many others, shows how refugees have to adapt to their circumstances. Refugees leave their lives and are required to start over. Even though the refugees are at a camp they are trying to make the best of the situation and form a functioning way of living. The kids are adapting to their circumstances just by the fact that they are trying to have fun even though they are at an unfamiliar place. As mentioned before, one kid has shoes that are too big for him and another has no shoes on at all. If you ever rode a bike before you know those small things are not the conditions in which you should be riding a bike in, yet the kids are trying to make the most of what they have and still find a way to have fun at a place like a refugee came. What most people don’t understand about this is refugees have to get rid of aspects of their old life to adapt to their new lives. circumstances.

Another example is in the article A Return to Nigeria. The author describes her personal experience of living in Nigeria, moving back to the United States, and then going back to Nigeria. The author describes how moving back to the United States made her change things about her identity. The article says, “Coming of age in foreign classrooms, my sister and I slowly shed our native skins. We let teachers mangle our names then adopted their mispronunciations- introducing ourselves with syllables our own relatives tripped over.” This evidence shows how the author and her sister adjusted to American culture. Instead of correcting the teachers they allowed them to mess up their names and they even accepted the mispronunciations. The girls were trying to adapt to their new culture so they get rid of certain aspects of their identity to fit into American culture. Examples of foreigners changing their names or adopting an Americanized name is common when foreigners migrate to America. The author even points out that their relatives tripped over the new syllables but that didn’t make her change her name back due to the fact that she wanted to adjust to American culture, so life could be easier and they could fit in. The reality of this is if someone wants to make it in America they have to have an Americanized name. Someone’s success shouldn’t be based on how their name sounds.

In the book Behold the Dreamers, we are introduced to a family that is from Cameroon and move to New York for better opportunities. The family is then challenged when their source of income is affected by the financial crisis. Neni enjoyed the New York life. She easily adapted to life in New York. She and her friend Fatou went shopping in Chinatown for designer bags like Gucci (even though they were fakes) so she could fit the new status quo. On Page 11 “Neni said to Fatou as they walked through Chinatown looking for make-believe Gucci and Versace bags.” This shows how Neni adapted to life in New York by trying to look the part. She tried to look the part by getting designer bags because most people who live in America have some type of designer items. Even though the bags weren’t real she still got it to look the part, hence her trying to be like an American. This highlights how Neni wanted to get rid of her old appearance to fit an American’s appearance.

Another example from Behold the Dreamers is when times started getting rough for the Jongas, Jende started taking his anger out on Neni. They would argue more, but Neni didn’t allow him to talk to her how he wanted. Neni and one of her friends talked about it and said how Neni just had to accept things. On page 311 “No matter what women in this country do, she went on we African woman must stand behind the husband and be following them and say yes, yes. That we African women must do. We no gunno say to husband no, I no gunno do it.” This evidence shows how Neni was starting to adapt to American culture. Nani started to stand up for herself against Jende which isn’t something common that African women did. When Jende tries to order Neni around she starts to act like an “American Woman” by challenging what he says, which is something that Africana women weren’t supposed to do. She adapts by adjusting to how America’s family dynamics are and not following how Africans are. She sacrifices her obeying attitude and starts to stand up for herself. This leads to their family dynamic changing.

People tend to overlook the fact that migrants have to adapt. When they do adapt it causes them to have to get rid of aspects from their old lives. Which is wrong because no one should have to sacrifice aspects of their identity to fit in somewhere

Work Cited:

16 Children – 16 Photos: Click the Black Background and Switch on Their Reality. Politiken, 28 Feb. 2017, politiken.dk/fotografier/art5849931/Click-the-black-background-and-switch-on-their-reality. Accessed 13 Jan. 2020.

Okoro, Enuma. “A Return to Nigeria.” Opinionator, //opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/a-return-to-nigeria/. Accessed 14 Jan. 2020.

Mbue, Imbolo. Behold the Dreamers: a Novel. Random House Inc, 2017.

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin Random House, 2017.

Author’s Note/Intro: I want you to think about where you came from. Where did your life begin? What is the earliest memory of your origin or home? What was it like? How did it look, how did it smell, how did it taste? How did you feel there? Could you ever replace that? Your origin is not replaceable.

The definition of origin is the point or place where something begins, arises, or is derived. Some may say they don’t truly know where their life began, where they came from or what it even means to have an origin. Your origin can be something you know little of, something you’re proud of, something you want to know more about or something you don’t know at all. An origin could be your birthplace, a certain group or culture, or something you remember from growing up. When thinking about the origin, many people ask, can people ever replace their home? There can be many different opinions on that, but it could also lead to other questions. It could lead to asking, could you adopt other origins? It’s a good question to ask if you can have more than one origin, but people also have different opinions on it. Since your origin is unique to you, whatever you think about these questions is true to you!

Can you ever replace your home? What do you think? Well, my opinion is no, you can not. Your home is your origin. Wherever you come from, that sticks with you. The culture, the language, the music, the clothing. Nobody can ever take that away from you. There will always be a sense of comfort because that is all you know. It’s been with you since you were born or since you can remember. You grew up in the culture, the people, the food, the clothing, and the homey feeling. You cannot just get up and move somewhere else and expect it to have the same feeling or ultimately replace your birthplace/home. Nobody should feel like they can tell someone to get used to their new home and let it replace your actual home. Even when you think you want to leave everything behind, you still get homesick or want to fill that void. This was evident in a book I read called Behold the Dreamers. The main character, Jende left his home in Africa to have a better life in America. He thought everything was going good for him until he started running into problems and started to get homesick. “ Neni, …. I’m ready to go back home… I want to go back to Limbe”(Behold the dreamers- Imbolo Mbue p 305) These are words I would have never thought I would hear from Jende at the beginning of the book until now. Jende and Neni just loved America so much when they first came and to think of everything that they’ve been through so far, I just would have never imagined hearing those words. Another example of loving your origin is found in a movie called Beast of the Southern Wild. A young girl named Hushpuppy who lives in a poorer part of New Orleans feels like her home and origin is special, even compared to the richer side of New Orleans. She thought that since it was her home, it was very special and that it offered more than what the people on the rich side of New Orleans could get. She said, “They ain’t got what we got.” Even though they didn’t have much, they made things work and made the things they do into the rich culture while having fun. That was much better to Hushpuppy than living large and having money. She loved where she came from and she truly valued her origin. Staying true to where you came from is a great feeling of comfort and pride. Someone’s home is something very personal, special, unique, and dear to that individual’s heart. I don’t think you can ever replace that special place called home. Your family, origin, and the way you were raised can combine different cultures and I feel like many people in our societies now are the way they are because of being exposed to different people, cultures, societies, religion, clothing, literature, food, values, arts, activities and more. Everything that we have in our lives now is because we adopted and combined things from other cultures into ours. For example, my family is black and makes soul and Caribbean food, but since Chinese food is something that has been put into the mixing pot of America, we’re not afraid to try it and add it to the foods we already like. A lot of things here were integrated to make one big culture or society of many different puzzle pieces of smaller societies, cultures, and practices. I don’t think we would have made it this far in the world without the combining and adopting of different cultures, origins, and societies to make it fit in all one.

My origin is Philadelphia and being raised in a black household. My origin was very special to me. Just like many people feel, where they come from, they’ll never forget. Your origin can be influenced by other cultures you grew up around. Those cultures may have rounded you well and have made you the person you are today. So my feeling is that your origin can be influenced but you can truly only have one origin. Your origin is your beginning. It’s where you started—where your seed blossomed and where you started to become YOU. Now, YOU choose to discover, take your origin, treasure it, hold it dear, or let it go to start a new life. There is always a beginning to every story though. It can always be tracked down and revisited. Your origin is what makes the world as diverse and special as it is. As a young girl once said, “The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right.” Everyone’s origin is unique. Those are the different puzzle pieces that make the universe fit together just right.

“ Neni, …. I’m ready to go back home… I want to go back to Limbe”-Behold the dreamers “They ain’t got what we got.”- Beast of the Southern Wild “The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right.”-Beast of the Southern Wild

Introduction: In this essay, I focused on the importance of understanding the connection between immigrants and the modern world. Throughout the process of writing this essay, I tried to make it engaging and informational to the reader so that they can leave knowing something new. This essay is a bit more heartly written because it personally relates to me and I thought that the bais aspect makes it more entertaining.

The idea that the story of immigrants is the story of modern times is often used in debates as a rebuttal when arguing against someone anti-immigration. The argument usually brings up the fact that the U.S was founded by immigrants who were seeking a better tomorrow. Despite this knowledge being present in our everyday society, our culture refuses to fully accept that the story of the immigrant is very similar to the story of the modern world. To understand how both stories relate to each other at all, we must first acknowledge that modern society has come a long way from what it was, even if we are not living in the best version of society, it is considerably better than what it used to be 50 or 100 years ago.

The immigrant person, just like society, is on a similar path. Immigrants seek a better future for themselves, however, this hopefulness for a better future is cut short by a misunderstanding on what a citizen believes the immigrant is truly seeking. In the U.S, many people believe that the agenda of immigrant people is to take jobs or live off the taxes of U.S citizens, this belief along with the assistance of others led to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Immigrants, much like the rest of the world, look forward to progress and prospering even if that means enduring temporary hardships and accepting a society that is in need of many improvements. While conducting some research on the refugee crisis I came across a picture. The picture was of a beach at dawn, the beach was clear and on the sand of the beach laid the body of a little boy, unconscious and slightly blue. Over the dead body of the boy stood an officer with a red vest looking longly at the washed-up body of the little boy. Situations like these are not uncommon in history.

Throughout history, we can see how people of different cultures are treated when they first arrive at a new home. When the Italians, Irish, Jews, and Polish first came to the U.S they faced prejudice and discrimination, however, a century and a half later these groups have somewhat become the backbone of this country. The 116th class of congress, according to the Pew Research Center, is 13 percent composed of immigrants or children of immigrants parents. Given the basic understanding of immigration and how it relates to history and current systems, it must be concluded that the immigration story and the story of modern times are the same. Both stories are fixated on progress; the hope of a better tomorrow. The refugee crisis due to conflict in the middle east is the latest great form of history repeating itself. When the holocaust was happening the U.S among other nations refused to take in refugees, the same celebration of isolationism is occurring only this time it’s meant for the Muslim refugees. In our time in class we read a magical realism novel, Exit West, that focuses on the refugee crisis and the effect it has on those enduring it, I gathered a couple of quotes that somewhat further help us understand the possible emotional and mental headspace of an immigrant or refugee person. The first quote is a short excerpt from Exit West:

“ It was an easy promise to make because she had at that time no thoughts of leaving Saeed, but it was also a difficult one because in making it she felt she was abandoning the old man, and even if he did have his siblings and his cousins, and might now go live with them or have them come live with him, they could not protect him as Saeed and Nadia could, and so by making the promise he demanded she make, she was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.”

This quote gives us an understanding as to what is happening in the mind of a migrant who is seeking a better future for themself. Filled with the deep-aching feeling of neglecting something dear to you, a close companion of guilt. When Nadia and Saeed flee from their home, they leave behind everything they knew, loved and owned. The author does a great job of illustrating this by making Nadia and Saeed frightened hopefuls as they arrive in a new home filled with trials of great magnitude. This is an example of the mental state of a migrant individual, messy and hopeful. As a world filled with democratic institutions, we must start to be more empathetic towards people of different backgrounds. With empathy comes understanding and with understanding comes results. We are trained in this modern society to look for issues and criticize, and rarely ever create change. To stop history from repeating itself and to fulfill our duty as humans we must first learn to be empathetic for those who are not like us. To accept and create change and the first step would be to accept that progress is the greatest connection between the story of the immigrant and the modern world. The will to never stop improving.

Work Cited:

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin Random House, 2017.

Smith, Helena. “Shocking Images of Drowned Syrian Boy Show Tragic Plight of Refugees.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Sept. 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image-of-drowned-syrian-boy-shows-tragic-plight-of-refugees.

Introduction: We had several topics to choose from in writing our project. I wanted to write something personal, and something I think is incredibly important. My essay deals mainly with the issue of immigration in America. Specifically, how we are dealing with it. I wanted to answer the question by highlighting America’s need for a change of ideals before they can change their actions.

I have a habit of compulsively reading the news. Whenever I’m on the bus or in the middle of something I’ll scroll through my news feed. Recently I came across an image of an immigration detention facility in the United States. The image showed dozens, maybe hundreds of people packed in by a fence. In a small space, in an unfurnished, beigie room. Towards the fence were children, some toddlers if you looked closely, were laying on the ground, tired, aching. As the sea of people reached the other side of the room I began to notice that there were so many people that I couldn’t see the floor. Looking at the picture, even looking at it as I write this makes me feel claustrophobic, nauseous, and angry. Is this the fate of those striving for a better life? My questions grew. How can America, one of the richest countries on the planet, treat these people so mercilessly? I settled on a final question, what should America’s role be in an immigration crisis? The answer lies in the stories of immigrants.

America, a land of immigrants striving for something greater, has never really been all too kind to immigrants striving for something greater. And with all our wealth, all our capacity to be generous, we stay stagnant in our selfishness, our ignorance. I can imagine you’ve seen the televised political discussions and debates concerning immigration. Old white men, who’ve never had to work a day in their lives, speaking of the lives of people they can’t begin to understand. The point is best conveyed through a quote from the book We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, a book about immigrating and trying to assimilate into America. “When they debated what to do with illegals, we stopped breathing, stopped laughing, stopped everything, and listened. We heard: exporting America, broken borders, war on the middle class, invasion, deportation, illegals, illegas, illegals. We bite our tongues till we tasted blood, sat tensely on one butt cheek, afraid to sit on both because how can you sit properly when you don’t know about your tomorrow?” This quote does a lot to highlight the treatment of immigrants, but illuminates particularly how little control or voice immigrants have over their lives. This is a point America should take into account if we want to play a better, more helpful role globally and in the lives of immigrants. Does this mean we have to make immigrants dictate exactly how we should be treating them and do things? No. It means America can listen to the specific issues of those being displaced or having to move and working with those people to help them join our country, and live comfortable lives.

The issue of American involvement in immigration goes farther. America would rather kick undocumented immigrants out then keep them in the lives they built, letting them get their citizenship with their homes and families intact. We see this manifest in the ICE raids happening across our country. If we should be taking a more humanitarian approach, then the raids are the antithesis. The New York Times reported in an article (Miriam Jordan, Aug 7, 2019) that, “The raids were by far the largest to occur since Mr. Trump took office, and the biggest since December 2006, when more than 1,200 people were swept up in a raid at several units of a meat processing company.” The same New York Times article interviews Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, who said the following, “The American economy loses a workforce that is contributing in more ways than we can imagine. And, along the way, we are no safer as immigrant communities are pushed further from law enforcement.” The article goes on to confirm that both companies involved with the raids (the poultry raids predominantly featured in the article) made sure that the workers were able to work in the United States using E-card verification. Not only are the raids brutal, ripping people from their children and their livelihood. But they are hurting our economy. These are not the actions of a developed society.

So once again we are brought to our question: What should America’s role be in a immigration crisis? The answer is not in specific actions this time, but in values. We should approach our immigration problems and any immigration crisis we see with Egalitarian values. These immigrants are people and their lives should be treated with this in mind. As a nation, we should strive to understand the problems these people are facing, to see what we can do to help, to accommodate them into our society. Because in the end, anything we do to help them, will, in some way, be returned back to us. Not by karma or in any spiritual sense for that matter. Just the simple logic that helping people makes people want to help you. Something our country has clearly forgotten.

Bibliography

-We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo -https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/us/ice-raids-mississippi.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/19/opinion/opdocs-immigration.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/29/opinion/migrant-crisis.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/what-do-we-owe-each-other/?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

Welcome back from winter break and happy 2020! With the juniors returning to 440 full-time, we are making the following changes to room assignments:

• All classes with Mr. Enzweiler will be held in Auxiliary room A (including Astronomy and Advisory)

• All classes with Mr. Block will be held in Auxiliary room B (Advisory will still meet in the cafe)

• All classes with Mr. Clapper will be held in Auxiliary room C (Advisory will still meet in the cafe)

• All classes with Ms. Martin will be held in Auxiliary room D (including Advisory)

• Mr. Grzywinski’s senior English classes will relocate as follows: B band to Auxiliary room D & C band to Auxiliary room A (all others remain the same)

• Mr. Symonds’ C, E and X bands will relocate as follows: C band to Auxiliary room B, E band to room 1078 & X band to Auxiliary room B (all others remain the same)

• Mr. Hernández’s Advisory will be held in Auxiliary room B