Our Fear Of Immigrants Analysis

Rodrigo Guzman, a fourth grader, will never to go to Jefferson Elementary School again. While trying to come home from the Guzman’s family Christmas in Mexico, the family was stopped and sent back to Mexico. Their travel visas had expired. At the time of the writing, thee had been over double of the pior of minors trying to cross the border. Jeremy Adam Smith, the author of Our Fear of Immigrants, writes about why do American’s fear immigrants. The author goes into depth of how the way people act towards immigrants is an evolutionary advantage (752). People fear for their health, as many believe immigrants will carry over pathogens and viruses. Another reason why Americans have a fear of immigrants, is that they can be perceived as a threat …show more content…
He uses writing techniques to convey his ideas. By using facts and ideas from other phycologists, like “By the end of the day, we’re motivated by resource-distribution.”, he provides the reader with a more structural statement (Smith 752 Our Fear of Immigrants). The author, however, had not provided the reader with a strong emotional appeal, within this section. If the writer had included this writing technique, then the section would be improved. Throughout this section of the article, the author uses an outside source, Susan Fiske. Fiske is a psychologist from Princeton. Although the author uses both facts and emotion in this section, he could have provided more emotion. There is an abundance of facts and ideas; however, there is no emotional text. This could be improved by inserting more visual text to help the reader understand what happens to the children and families who get sent back to their home …show more content…
He provides the reader with research about why the children from Rodrigo Guzman’s class were not fearful of him. On page 735, the author states “From a very young age, children start sorting themselves into groups and out-groups, so the potential for prejudice is there before social conditioning takes hold…” (Smith Our Fear of Immigrants). Another study that was provided in the text was “…the Brian stops going into high alert when exposed to out-group faces if steps are taken to make the faces familiar.” (Smith 755 Our Fear of Immigrants). Studies like these allow for the reader to understand why the children acted the way that they did. His classmates have become friends with Rodrigo over the years, and they had allowed themselves to make him apart of their group. When Rodrigo was sent back to Mexico, his classmates had thoughts about him and not about themselves. The author then uses this information to conclude his article with emotion. He uses a quote from one of Rodrigo’s classmates, “It isn’t fair, all of his classmates and all of his friends miss him, and he misses Berkeley.” (Smith 756 Our Fear of Immigrants) Smith uses his last few paragraphs to make the reader have the same emotions that the families and friends of the immigrants have when they were torn apart. By using this writing tool, he makes the reader feel connected to the article. The author had provided the reader with a lot of facts and