In Christina Baker Kline’s novel The Orphan Train, one specific critical concern of the Sister’s of Mercy is immigration. Out of the four critical concerns, I feel as if immigration stands out the most throughout the novel. The novel was based on the time period where immigration was extremely popular in America. The orphan train transported children around the country and made certain stops where the children would be put into foster homes. The challenges and traumatic experiences the children endured were devastating and effected their future lives.
The children who experienced great trauma in their short lives had no idea where they were going. When the train would pull into a station, citizens gathered to examine them. They would analyze …show more content…
She stated, “No one feels sorry for me because I’ve lost my family. Each of us has a sad tale; we wouldn’t be here otherwise. The general feeling is that it’s best to not talk about the past that the quickest relief will come in forgetting” (Kline, 2013, pg. 28). I cannot even fathom the pain and agony one could have gone through and then no one feel pity for them. Although every child on the train had a sad tale to tell, they’re all still difficult to cope with at such a young age in life.
Enthusiasts of today 's mass immigration like to claim that we should not be concerned about it, because it is no worse than the Great Wave of immigration since the turn of the last century. But in fact, because times have changed immensely in the last one hundred years, immigration now is much different with our country 's needs than it was at the turn of the last century (FAIR, 2015, para. …show more content…
In 2010, there were 39.9 million foreign-born citizens in the United States (CAP, 2015, para. 1). 44 percent were adopted citizens, 24 percent were legal permanent residents, and 29 percent were illegal migrants. “The short-term legal residents who took up three percent of the population were students” (CAP, 2015, para. 4). About half of our nation’s imported are women and a little more than half of adopted foreign-born persons are women. “The current foreign-born portion of the overall U.S. population is 12.9 percent, which is lower than 1890’s highest percentage of 14.8 percent” (CAP, 2015, para. 1).
Even though many immigrants are legal, a lot are also imported illegally. “In January 2011, 11.5 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States, which was an increase since 2000 when there were 8.5 million illegal immigrants” (CAP, 2015, para. 2). The percentage of unauthorized immigrant households consisting of couples with children is 45 percent. “16.6 million people are in families with at least one illegal immigrant and 4.5 million U.S.-born children had at least one illegal immigrant parent in 2010” (CAP, 2015, para.
The children who experienced great trauma in their short lives had no idea where they were going. When the train would pull into a station, citizens gathered to examine them. They would analyze …show more content…
She stated, “No one feels sorry for me because I’ve lost my family. Each of us has a sad tale; we wouldn’t be here otherwise. The general feeling is that it’s best to not talk about the past that the quickest relief will come in forgetting” (Kline, 2013, pg. 28). I cannot even fathom the pain and agony one could have gone through and then no one feel pity for them. Although every child on the train had a sad tale to tell, they’re all still difficult to cope with at such a young age in life.
Enthusiasts of today 's mass immigration like to claim that we should not be concerned about it, because it is no worse than the Great Wave of immigration since the turn of the last century. But in fact, because times have changed immensely in the last one hundred years, immigration now is much different with our country 's needs than it was at the turn of the last century (FAIR, 2015, para. …show more content…
In 2010, there were 39.9 million foreign-born citizens in the United States (CAP, 2015, para. 1). 44 percent were adopted citizens, 24 percent were legal permanent residents, and 29 percent were illegal migrants. “The short-term legal residents who took up three percent of the population were students” (CAP, 2015, para. 4). About half of our nation’s imported are women and a little more than half of adopted foreign-born persons are women. “The current foreign-born portion of the overall U.S. population is 12.9 percent, which is lower than 1890’s highest percentage of 14.8 percent” (CAP, 2015, para. 1).
Even though many immigrants are legal, a lot are also imported illegally. “In January 2011, 11.5 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States, which was an increase since 2000 when there were 8.5 million illegal immigrants” (CAP, 2015, para. 2). The percentage of unauthorized immigrant households consisting of couples with children is 45 percent. “16.6 million people are in families with at least one illegal immigrant and 4.5 million U.S.-born children had at least one illegal immigrant parent in 2010” (CAP, 2015, para.