With DACA’s future uncertain and Trump tightening his policies, many Americans are wondering what is to become of the immigrants in our nation. While some advocate for harsher patrol of the border and deportation, some espouse that focusing primarily on the safety of everyone in the proximity is of utmost importance. In The Devil’s Highway: A True Story (2004), Luis Alberto Urrea, poet and novelist, promotes the latter as he describes the journey of the Wellington 26, which is a group of Mexican immigrants attempting to cross the border. In an excerpt from the chapter “The Long Walk”, the walkers try to find their way out of the desert. As their situation worsens, the author creates a feeling of sorrow over the approaching deaths of more than…
Journeys take people on new and unfamiliar experiences. They can broaden one 's understanding of the world around them, lead to self-discovery and challenge thoughts and perceptions of everyday life. Through the study of three different texts, Migrant Hostel, Feliks Skrzynecki and Distant Lands, we are thrust into three individual and unique journeys. Throughout Immigrant Chronicle, a collection written by poet Peter Skrzynecki, the journey of immigration and the challenges it presents are explored. Skrzynecki elaborates on the challenges journeys can entail within his poem Migrant Hostel.…
For the duration of this paper, a “slave” is defined as one who is non-consensually subjected to work or to captivity with little to no pay, and “consensual agreement” is understood to not be coerced and to possess a reasonable degree of autonomy. By this standard, Abina is clearly distinguished as a slave, though it is not clear if she maintains this status for the entirety of her life. While she was bought and sold as property by her first husband Yaw Awoah, she…
The cute shirt in a favorite store could cost less than what the manufacturer made in a week. Sweatshop slave labor exists in America and is sold in our local mall, the Kirkwood mall. Sweatshop slave labor can be defined as inhumane conditions with unethical pay. This is widespread in developing countries, and fueled by fast-fashions trends Americans buy. Students at MHS contribute to fueling this unethical business.…
Seth Holmes does a wonderful job shining a light on the current problems that migrant agricultural workers have in the United States. His balance of personal experience with background research allows the audience to empathize with the migrant workers as well as understand some of the systematic problems. Our group seems to thoroughly enjoy reading this book and we have discussed a host of different topics brought up in the reading. The talking points which I have connected with were about the individual reasons why immigrants are coming to the United States and how they relate to the systematic problems. Holmes has given me new insight into the reason why many Hispanics are immigrating as well as disproving many of the myths.…
David Cole in “Five Myths about Immigration” simply takes about the five common myths of immigration in the United States. The five myths being that immigrants are overrunning the country, immigrants take jobs from natural born citizens, immigrants drain societies resources, aliens and immigrants don’t assimilate to our culture, and immigrants are not entitled to constitutional rights. All of these myths are displayed to be completely wrong and were created out of ignorance fueled by fear/lack of education on the many benefits immigrants have on United States society, economy, culture, and unity of our nation. Immigrants do not and are not overrunning the country in fact first-generation immigrants make up only had made up in 1990 only made…
Yesenia Granados As a Mexican American I have grown up in a family where working in the fields is very common. My parents have worked in seasonal jobs since a very young age when they arrived in the United States. Both of my parents first started working in Florida where they picked tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, tangerine, orange, grapefruit among many other types of fruits and vegetables. At very young age I remember my parents taking me to the fields with them to work.…
I witnessed many of the migrant workers praying for jobs. Work is nearly impossible to find. I talked to a man named Floyd Knowles and he informed me about how the workers were treated by the police at Hooverville. He said when he encounters police, he must act “bull-simple.” Floyd rambles to convince the police he is an unthreatening idiot.…
Many children of today start their day off with going to school and learning, however children didn’t always start off their day like this. Many children during the 1900s usually started off their day by working in factories, mills, mines or farms until it was late at night even though they were tired to the bone. They usually faced a day like this because they needed to support their families income, but were usually underpaid. Business owners ignored laws that prohibited child labor by continuing to hire children to pay lower wage and work long hours. People took notice of this which caused the start of the National Child Labor Committee, who refused to compromise with the way businesses were treating children.…
The Great Depression, drought, and dust storms each played a role in the westward move of migrant workers to the golden state of California following World War I. The trade of the migrants focused around farming and the state of California’s mild climate allowed for a longer season for crops, thus the opportunity for work was enticing. Most of the migrants were of Anglo-American descent and they were primarily from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri (Library of Congress, 1998). The migrants were known as “Okies”, along with Mexican workers they encountered discrimination and stereotyping.…
Many people think that America is the land of opportunity, but this was not always the case. Immigrants were treated badly when they came to America. For some immigrants coming to America, they had a lot of opportunity but not for all of them. Many immigration laws and policies have been less enforced throughout the years. Many of the millions of immigrants that came to America hoping for a better life were disappointed.…
I had barely finished transplanting the last of the day lily roots when I heard a vehicle pull up to the curb. I turned to find my husband and one of his coworkers getting out of the truck. "Look what we rescued in Wyoming," my husband announced as his employee winked at me. "Seriously?" I asked. "I thought we were getting a puppy in a few months."…
History II Unit II Essay Sheri Ahrendt Columbia Southern University Life was hard for me in my homeland in 1893. There was so much political unrest and poverty. It was so hard to find any work. My family and I dreamed of a future and a fortune that we heard could be made in America; a new life. We wanted out of our homeland and were willing to endure to reach our goal.…
The Journey Of An Immigrant We all have a common goal in life to better ourselves and progress not to stay stuck in the same place for the rest of your life to have a future. In Mexico is hard to progress when you come from a small house with 6 siblings and a poor upbringing with an alcoholic and abusive mom while dad does everything to feed 8 kids - this why I took to journey to America. He was the youngest out the six his older brother in America doing great his house and a car with money that is all he taught during his childhood. So right After high school with the money he had been saving he bought a coyote august 10 he had to say goodbye to the little ranch that shaped who he has and to his family and friends leaving everything behind…
The characters, namely Husyam, Layla, and Mahmud, repeatedly acknowledge the need to end imperialism, colonialism, and the power those influences have over Egyptian life. The fight against colonialism is exemplified physically by the activism of these characters - Mahmud and Husayn at the Canal, Layla’s participation in the demonstrations. However, the characters also fight colonialism in more subversive and personal ways. The young characters harbor extreme resentment for the idea of marrying into money and falling in line with the bourgeoisie, western-influenced Egyptian class. This not only further separates them ideologically from the older generation, but serves as a direct stand against colonialism.…