Golden Venture

The history of immigration to the U.S. has been controversial and bias, as U.S. policy has varied throughout the years. This was not an exception during the late 20^th century with increasing terrorism and economic recession becoming major influences toward immigration policies. The film Golden Venture seeks to portray how desperate illegal aliens want to come to America in order to gain freedom and a better living standard. Consequently, this documentary will mainly revolve around the recounts of four survivors, their stay in the U.S, and their current lives.

Golden Venture for the most part sympathizes with the survivors after their life-threatening two year journey to America. However, what really captivates the viewer are the tragedies and heartbreaks that the survivors will continue to face during their tenure in America. None of the immigrants were expecting to be put in jail after being smuggled to the U.S. by snakeheads. What viewers can decide after watching is whether the U.S. government was justified in detaining the survivors in jail just to set an example toward future illegal aliens.

While the outside world was watching, the arts and crafts that the survivors would make in captivity cannot not go unnoticed. These sculptures were a message and symbolized hope and everyone’s desire for freedom. Now, what was really unfortunate were the two choices given to the survivors: either to choose asylum or to be deported. I was stricken by the fact that despair had led some to decide to go back to China only to see themselves in jail again, become sterilized, fall into debt, and attempt to come back to the U.S. years later. (such was the case for Yan Li and Kaiqu Zheng)

Fortunately, during President Clinton’s second term the remaining survivors were freed after four years of being detained. Being separated from their families, needing to learn different customs, and having the start anew, the newly freed captives exemplify persevering characters for all Americans to acknowledge. Therefore, another message that the directors were aiming to convey is for the people to appreciate and to not take for granted their current status as legal American citizens.

Sentenced Home

All citizens and their past ancestors immigrated to this country at one point in time or another in this country’s history unless they are Native Americans. Nevertheless, there are visible signs of bias and prejudice that the U.S. government displays toward aliens when enacting laws during times of crisis.

In the film Sentenced Home, the injustices that the 1996 Immigration Acts has brought upon to American’s non-citizens are clearly portrayed through the lives of three Cambodians. The directors produced an emotional video conveying the message that these three men have to be deported just because they have committed a past crime. Viewers will have a hard time not feeling any sympathy toward the deportees as these assimilated men currently have stable lives and families only to be forced by this immigration law to move back to their home country.

The movie revolves around three Cambodians: Kim Ho Ma, Loeun Lun, and Many Uch who have all committed a crime but have served their sentences. Now, the conflict that is emphasized throughout the movie is that there is no discretion in choosing who gets deported. I felt the producers successfully described the cruel measures of the law in not allowing the court to review any of these deportee’s histories before they sent back to a third world country. What’s really controversial is that even minor criminal offenses are subject to automatic deportation. As a result, there is an obvious lack of representation for legal non-residents, as Kim Ho Ma and Loeun Lun have to now integrate back into their native country and start anew. Likewise, it is difficult for the viewer to fathom the fear that Many Uch has to constantly live through, as he is a phone call away from being on the deportation list. Therefore, the theme that is expressed through Many Uch and potential deportees is that all must appreciate and make the most of their lives with the available freedom that America provides.

Now, the movie can be considered slightly one-sided in its negative portrayal of Congress and its legislative acts. One scene I believe that could have been further addressed is the severity of the crimes committed by Kim Ho Ma and his fellow deportees. Even though Kim Ho Ma did state he was involved in violent gangs as a teenager, the makers should have instead left it to the viewers themselves to contemplate and determine whether or not he deserves to be sent back to Cambodia. In the end, Sentence Home deeply displays that while the American government has been strictly controlling the immigration laws, it has also in the process undermined fundamental American principles which are suppose to protect all U.S. residents.

Midtown Manhattan, including neighborhoods Chelsea and Clinton, has some interesting housing trends.  About 60% of all property is worth over half a million dollars.  Although most housing units are rented, an overwhelming majority of residents pay over $1500 per month.  Interestingly, over 70% of Chelsea/Clinton’s residents live in a housing unit that includes 3 rooms or less.  In general, about 47% of all “houses” consist of only 1 bedroom and 20% consist of 2 bedrooms while 25% consist of “no bedrooms”, also known as studio apartments.      In other words, it is more common to live in an apartment with no bedrooms than one with 2 bedrooms in this neighborhood.  This came as a surprise as Chelsea is not a college neighborhood where it would be typical to have very little families and more people living alone.  To find out what kind of people live there, we decided to take a look at the social aspect of the neighborhood.

Though a majority of Chelsea residents are native to the U.S., 26% (over a quarter) are foreign born and of these foreigners, only 45% are naturalized citizens.  In addition, 11% of the population (both native and foreign) was living in another country 1 year ago.  From this, it seems that though diverse, a significant part of Chelsea/Clinton residents are people working and/or constantly moving around.  Using Social Explorer’s map, we found that unlike nearby neighborhoods, such as the Upper West Side, which are 60-80% white, Chelsea consists of a much more diverse population, about 60-30% white.  This led us to conclude that the non-white population in Chelsea is primarily non-married and contributes greatly to the neighborhoods non-married population.  Basically, a major reason for Chelsea/Clinton’s lack of families is the working, white-collar immigrant population living there.

As mentioned before, the white population is the dominant group to compose Chelsea/Clinton. Currently, however, there has been a heavy influx of Asian population immigrating into the community, according to the New York Times Census.  A distinct social element of both these ethnic groups is that those who live with another person almost always live with a non-relative (not including a non-married partner).  In other words, a person is more likely to be living with a roomate than with a spouse or child. Again, nonfamily households outnumber family households by more than a two to one ratio, as more than a majority of the residents are unmarried. This further explains why 1-bedroom/no bedroom apartments are the most common units since the number of married couples living in this neighborhood is sparse.

Another important social aspect to note is that more than 2/3 of Chelsea/Clinton’s inhabitants have an undergraduate degree or higher and a staggering 93% of all citizens have a high school education as well.

It is therefore reasonable to understand that the majority of Chelsea’s residents have white-collar jobs such as management, business, and science occupations. These statistics can now explain why residents are able to afford such high valued real estate along with the fact that most do not have to divert their resources to raising a family. Consequently, this predominantly educated district displays an assimilated and well-backgrounded body of workers.

Seeing housing from a social perspective helps us paint a picture of the people who live in Manhattan’s neighborhood of Chelsea/Clinton.  Like the rest of New York City, this neighborhood houses a unique and diverse population.  However, Chelsea is also shown to have a particular group of people making up a large part of its community: A well-educated, working, and non-married population (composed of both native and foreign).

During the mid-1800 to the early 20^th century, waves of immigrants flooded into the urban areas of New York City. One of the most popular of these areas was Manhattan’s lower east side, where the Tenement Museum now stands.  Last week, we were able to visit this historic neighborhood site to witness the wretched living conditions that European immigrants had to survive through.

Modern-day observers associate tenements with slums or ghettos. While not as bad as living on the streets, we saw that the earliest tenements were far from the standards of apartments today. As visitors, we saw the cramped hallways while maneuvering around the museum, the constant creaking of the staircase, the lighting and ventilation system, and the fear of an imminent fire. The New York State Assembly Tenement House Committee report in 1894 found New York to be the most densely populated city in the world, at an average of 143 people per acre.  Considering what we saw at the museum, this was not too hard to believe.  The first tenement we saw was made up of 2 very small bedrooms, which was a textile “factory” by day and a home by night.  Compared to the standards we have become used to today, imagining such a small and worn apartment housing so many people seemed almost impossible.  Fortunately, laws and reforms were under way by the time the Civil War was over. One of the first legislative actions taken was The Tenement House Act of 1867.  This act defined and set construction regulations on tenements. Of these requirements, it was especially important that there be at least one toilet (or privy) per 20 people.  One of the things that stood out to us was the lack of running water in the tenements.  Even with the Tenement House Act of 1867, having to share a single toilet with 20 other people seems as hygienic as using a public bathroom today (which is, in fact, not very hygienic).  Moreover, legislation was not enforced and conditions would have remained the same had it not been for the muckrakers.  Muckraker Jacob Riis would photograph what he saw in the tenements and have these emotional photos accompany his novel “How the Other Half Lives” which distinctly depicted the living conditions of the urban immigrant population to the rest of the world, especially the rest of America.

Finally, under implementation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the lower east side would begin its final transformation. Many of the low-income housing tenements would be cleared for the building of public housing. We found that it was because of Roosevelt’s New Deal that the tenement at 97 Orchard Street was boarded up in 1935 causing it to remain the same, as if in a time capsule, for the modern world to see.  Although, as our guide Jess told us, the furniture and decorations are not the originals, all of the things we saw in the museum are based on actual tenements through old records and recollections.  Unlike other museums, which allow you to see everything through a glass wall and prevent you from touching the artifacts (though we still do it anyway), the Tenement Museum is a doorway to the 19^th and 20^th centuries where we can walk around and get a taste of actual living conditions of past immigrants.  The museum, which could be described as New York City’s very own Pompeii, gave us the opportunity to visit the past and experience history firsthand.

One of the largest groups of immigrants that have come to the United States was from Germany.  In fact, up until the 20^th century, German immigration was increasing, albeit slightly.  A majority of these immigrants had always been poor farmers who would eventually settle in the south. However, as seen using the immigration explorer tool, much of this changed in the 20th century as immigration from Germany started to decline slowly.  This decline continued for the next few decades as political tensions in Europe, especially in Germany, rose.

Pre-WWII Germany became a very oppressive environment for the Jewish population.  Under the Nazi Party’s 25 Point Program, Jews were segregated from the “Aryan” population and could not participate in the simplest of tasks, such as going to schools or universities.   This, in turn, had a direct effect on German immigration to the U.S.  During the 1930’s and early 1940’s, a new group of immigrants started coming to America.  About 80% of these immigrants were Jewish.  Furthermore, a significant percentage of the immigrants (both Jews and non-Jews) were intellectuals, a group that had never before come to the U.S. in such large numbers.  In addition, these immigrants, unlike their predecessors, came to the U.S. and settled in cities, further emphasizing the deviation from earlier immigration patterns.

The intellectuals who settled in cities played significant roles in the U.S. during the World War II.  One of the most famous of these figures, perhaps, was Albert Einstein, a German-Jew who, at the time of the war, worked on the Manhattan Project (which allowed the U.S. to develop the first Atomic Bomb).  Similarly, Marlene Dietrich, a German-American actress, toured the states raising war bonds, being one of the first celebrities ever to do so.

During the war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt would also appoint two prominent Americans of German descent to top commands in the Army and Navy, General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Europe and Admiral Chester Nimitz in the Pacific. In fact, General Eisenhower would later become the 34^th president of the U.S.  Clearly, the influx of German immigrants not only affected American society, but also the outcome of the war.  Despite the slow rate of immigration during WWII, German influence in America remained strong.

German immigration may be on a slight decline for now, but past immigrants have fused well with countless other ethnic groups in modern day America.  Influences such as German pubs, Catholics, Lutherans, and craftsmen have all been incorporated into American society.  All in all, German immigrants remain the largest ethnic group in the United States, with over 45 million having made their way to the U.S. in the past couple of centuries.  As a result of this, German-Americans, comprising more than a fourth of the white population, have effectively assimilated into American culture all the while preserving their traditions while adapting to new ones to this very day.