Category Archives: Reading Responses

Judging from today’s wave of immigration, it seems as if the entire United States is gradually shifting towards a “majority minority” population. Gone with the last great wave is the large influx of white immigrants of European-ancestry. Now more than … Continue reading →

While reading these pieces, I cannot help but reminisce over Zohar’s comment during our class discussion a few weeks ago.  Although I do not remember her words verbatim, she shared that a well-known figure once stated that racism would be … Continue reading →

Immigrants come to America wanting to live out the “American Dream”–getting a good job, getting married, having children, and living out their lives with no worries.  This task is not as easy as it seems, and I feel that the … Continue reading →

What surprised me while I was reading Kwon’s passage, Forbidden Workers, was that the voyage of the Golden Venture occurred relatively recently. When I think of immigrants being smuggled into the United States via long boat trips at sea amongst … Continue reading →

Immigrants for a long time have come to America with the dream of becoming successful; working their way up from the bottom and eventually securing a comfortable position within American’s society for the future of their family. Doing so seems … Continue reading →

Fuzhou City is an interesting city in China in that most of the smuggled aliens have been recruited from Fuzhou.  This seems strange that many of the smuggled immigrants have come from a relatively unheard of city in China. Why … Continue reading →

It’s the classic American dream: Come to the US, get a job, work your way up the ranks, and become a great success story—all very rapidly. For some immigrants, this works out just fine. For others, however, it seems that … Continue reading →

With each weekly set of readings, my eyes open a little wider to the big picture of immigration. Instead of just regarding immigration for its face value, I am beginning to piece together all the reasons behind their flights from … Continue reading →

While both articles and the chapters in Foner gave insight into surprising (to me) but uncommon phenomena found in the relationship between culture, class, and the workplace, I found Kwong’s article to be a real eye-opener. His frank description of … Continue reading →

Aside from tensions and racism that exists, I believe the idea of two enclaves, which are described as beneficial systems for immigrants to use for upward mobility and assimilation to mainstream culture, living in one area could assist such mobility … Continue reading →