Category: Class Blog (Page 5 of 6)

With President Trump’s recent pejorative comments against illegal immigrants and an executive order banning six countries (Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iran) that have a Muslim majority population from entering the United States, it becomes increasingly transparent of the xenophobic characteristics of policy makers in Washington and their supporters. Often not, these comments and orders are backed up with fallacious comments that the Trump Administration advances as the truth.

In class on Wednesday, we discussed the New York Times article “Here’s the Reality About Illegal Immigrants in the United States.” The article was an interesting read that shed light on the actual facts based on real statistics and data about the current situation with illegal immigrants in America, and not the one purported by the Trump administration.

For example, the article elucidates that only 2.7% of all illegal immigrants have been convicted of a felony. In comparison, based on a Princeton University study, “about 8.6% of the adult population has a felony conviction.” Trump uses phrases such as “rapists” and “murderers” to describe illegal immigrants, but this is clearly not the situation.  Furthermore, another interesting fact in the article explained the means of how most immigrants essentially became “illegal.” Rather than furtively crossing the Mexican-US border, most illegal immigrants are illegal due to just overstaying their visas.

The graph above shows that although crossing over the Mexican border may have been the largest cause of illegal immigration during the turn of the century, the most prevalent cause of illegal immigration today is overstaying one’s visa. I was personally most astonished by this fact because the Trump administration so vehemently asserts that a wall needs to be placed in the Mexico-US border to effectively stop illegal immigration. However, this graph shows that border security in the south has been improving and efforts should actually be placed in monitoring visa stays.

I think this article brings about many key points and it was great we got the chance to discuss its importance in class on Wednesday. Moving on, we should monitor more carefully what politicians and people with power say so that “alternative facts” are not accepted as the truth. I think social media sites such as Facebook allows for these “fake news” stories to be shared so frequently and then eventually be accepted as facts by the general population. Facebook has heard of these complaints and had created a new service which starts to flag fake news stories (http://wwlp.com/2017/03/10/facebook-taking-steps-to-stop-the-spread-of-fake-news/). Although this feature is too late because I think these fake news stories played a vital part in swinging the election, it will ultimately be very beneficial and eventually stop false facts from permeating social media.

In Monday’s class, we discussed how immigrants should assimilate into the American society and how immigrant children should learn English in school. I was able to relate to the topic with my own experiences. When I first began school as a sixth grader in America, I was somewhat directly thrown into the English learning environment. Although there was an ESL program in my middle school, I was able to pass the placement test and was not placed into the program. However, my English level was nowhere near that of the others in my classes. Before going to school, I had trouble understanding third grade English materials as I did not know most of the words in the passages. Therefore, although I passed the placement test, I still could not understand most of the things that the teacher was saying in class, and often need the help of a Chinese-English dictionary to know what to do for the assignments. And where there are other Chinese speakers in my class, I would choose to talk to them in Chinese instead of English because I couldn’t find the necessary words to express myself in the English language. Sometimes I was actually envious of the kids who were placed into the ESL program, as they seemed to form their own group, whereas I was neither in the group of ESL students nor had the English capabilities to speak with other students normally. But this experience of being thrown into the English environment actually helped me learn English faster than my peers in the ESL program, since I had to force myself to speak English and expand my vocabulary on a daily basis. In the meantime, my Chinese hadn’t deteriorated much because I also spoke Chinese daily with my friends in ESL program as well as in my family.

But in my cousins’ case, what I saw was completely different. Both of my cousins were born in America. When they were little, they learned how to speak Chinese first because that was the only language that was spoken at home. But as they grow up, they first began to learn English from watching television, and then they would communicate to each other with a mix of Chinese and English. When they started school, they began to communicate to each other exclusively in English, and they also began to communicate to their parents in English only. The only times that they would speak Chinese at home is when they are talking to the grandparents, who understand almost no English at all.

I think that although it is important to maintain someone’s native culture during the assimilation process, it is only a matter of time before the mark of a family’s native culture eventually disappears if they truly want to assimilate into the American society. If it does not happen in this generation, then it will happen in the next generation, or the one after that. In order to assimilate into a new culture, one is planting new roots in another land in the world, so it is inevitable that the person also have to eventually be disconnected from his/her original roots. It is not America that Americanize its immigrants who come to this land, it is the immigrants who want to Americanize themselves.

In class today, we discussed how immigrants are forced to assimilate into American society. One point that struck a chord with me, was that the English language is harshly imposed on immigrant children in school. I have experienced a similar situation since my parents are immigrants from Slovakia. When I was a child, they spoke both Slovak and English around the house. Thus, I sometimes spoke a mixture of the two languages when I was in school. One day, I told my kindergarten teacher, “Môj žalúdok bolí;” meaing that my stomach hurt. She understood what I was saying because I was rubbing my stomach while speaking. Despite this mutual understanding, she decided to hold a conference with my parents about my bilingual abilities. She recommended that they stop speaking Slovak around the house because it was harming my communication skills. They saw the practicality in this and complied with her request.

This decision came with an unintended cost. When I was in kindergarten, I had not only been the best English speaker in the class, but had also spoken fluent Slovak. Unfortunately, my fluency in the Slovak language depleted as the years went on due to a lack of practice. By the time that my younger sister was born, my parents had completely stopped speaking Slovak at home. Luckily, my early exposure to the language allowed me to comprehend it at family gatherings and church events. However, my sister was not able to say the same. To this day, she is unable to understand only a few Slovak phrases and has had a difficult time learning the language. This has hurt her ability to communicate with our grandparents who exclusively speak Slovak. Her ability to delve into her ethnicity has been shattered.

Language is an important part of one’s culture. The ability to comprehend something that not everybody can make sense of, connects people, joining them in a secret society of mutual respect and cultural appreciation. Thus, losing the ability to speak one’s native language can truly disconnect oneself from one’s roots. The fact that some immigrants in New York City are frowned upon for retaining fluency in their native languages, is rather hypocritical. If New York City is supposed to be a place that celebrates diversity, then why is there an incessant desire to Americanize all immigrants who reach its shores? Where should we draw the line when it comes to cultural assimilation? When is an immigrant truly considered to be integrated into American life in every way? Is it when he or she has been absolved of all remnants of his or her past life in another country? I admit that it is important for immigrants to embrace American culture when they come to the United States, especially by learning the English language, but it is also crucial that they maintain ties to their ancestral practices. One’s background makes one unique. With uniqueness comes strength. This is what cultural assimilation destroys.

BY: Annmarie Gajdos

As a Jew, I spend my Friday nights with family sitting around the dinner table observing the Sabbath. Last night, my family was among one of the many invited to a family friend’s house to share this dinner together. Usually during Shabbat dinner, we talk about our past, tell stories of how we overcame hardships and how we got to where we are now.  There was a man sitting at the table who started talking about his “typical immigrant story.” His parents were immigrants from Poland who came here and began  working in the textile industry. Eventually after years of experience, the father decided to manufacture his own clothing and opened up a business. From this extremely bold and risky move, he provided the means of his four kids receiving the highest level of education. Three/four sons became doctors who went to only the most prestigious medical schools while the fourth son went to law school. My family had an awe-inspiring story as well although their coming here was by different means. My family came here as refugees from Uzbekistan. They brought their respective relatives along by chain migration. Over 10 people lived in one little apartment, a typical image one associates with immigration. My father and mother worked many different jobs to sustain the household. My grandmother, who was a doctor back in Uzbekistan, became a home-attend. My grandfather who was an engineer became a taxi driver.  After years of schooling, they dropped it all and took whatever job they were offered for any amount of money in order to put some food on the table.  We, as descendants of immigrants, very much undermine the bravery and selflessness of our parents and grandparents.  Just imagining dropping everything we ever worked for, moving to a completely different country and diving into the unknown; not knowing the language, the culture, or if a better life is even guaranteed is a scary thought and something that I assume most of us would never think of doing. After reflections like these, we realize how blessed we are to have such a strong backbone and how grateful we should be for everything that was invested in order to get US in the place that we are now.

In class, we discussed authentic Chinese food as compared to the American- styled Chinese food. Growing up in an immigrant family from China, I’ve experienced both sides. I’ve grown up eating General Tso’s Chicken, Sweet ’n’ Sour Chicken, Egg Rolls, and the famous fortune cookies, but I’ve also eating the real deal. To me, good food is good food and it doesn’t matter much if it’s labeled as “authentic” or not. However, I think there is nothing inauthentic about American-Chinese dishes. I think a lot of these restaurant were created by Chinese people for the Chinese people. During the 1840s Gold Rush in California, many Chinese immigrants began to flood the country but they had no or extremely limited access to traditional Chinese ingredients. Because of this lack in ingredients, it was impossible to recreate the exact same dish. So these Chinese immigrants used what they could find in their homes to create these new dishes, including chop sued, one of the first Chinese dishes invented in the United States.

During this time, white Americans wanted almost nothing to do with the social and culinary customs of Chinese immigrants. Chop sued and many of the other American-Chinese basics that we know today weren’t created to satisfy the the palates of white Americans but rather the cravings of real Chinese people.

According to CNN, it wasn’t until after World War II in 1945 that mainstream Americans began eating and appreciating Chinese food in large numbers. By this time, the American-Chinese menu was already well established.

It’s not a question that American Chinese food is not the same as authentic Chinese food, but you can’t call it inauthentic either.

Our brief discussion in class on Wednesday about the abuse of the immigration system reminded me of one of my personal favorite movies, which some of you may know as it was pretty popular when it came out. It’s called “The Proposal” and it stars famous actors Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The premise of the movie, for those who don’t know, is as follows: Margaret Tate, played by Sandra Bullock, is an executive editor at a book publishing company in New York City, who is only in the United States on a work visa, because she is natively from Canada. However, when she finds out that she is at risk of being deported due to a violation of said visa, she forces her assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), to marry her in order to keep her in the country, even though the two both hate each other. Of course, because this is how modern-day film always works, the pair end of actually falling in love with each other and actually wanting to get married, but that’s besides the point.

The real question here is not about their gradual transition from hate to love, but it is about whether or not their actions were ethical. We know that their actions are illegal, because marrying someone solely to keep them from being deported is considered fraud in the eyes of the U.S. justice system, but should this be the case? In my opinion, I believe that as long as the illegal party has grounds to be here and is not infringing on society in a negative way, then there’s nothing wrong with this concept. However, I am well aware that there are obviously people who think otherwise, and I’m curious to know what the rest of you think on this matter. Should Margaret be allowed to stay in the U.S.? Should Andrew be sent to prison for fraud? Are there other ways that this matter can be solved, in both Andrew and Margaret’s case and in similar cases in real life? Let me know your thoughts.