Illegal Immigrants : Illegal Chinese Immigrants

In the United States, there are roughly eleven million people who can be classified as illegal immigrants, which is by far way too many. When it comes to the history of illegal immigrants, most United States citizens could be considered as an illegal immigrant. In the early years of American history, our ancestors fled into this country for better life styles and to start their own families. During this time there were not laws dealing with who could and could not enter this country illegally, so we cannot be classified as illegal immigrants. The United States of America needs to place more rigid laws regarding immigration by enforcing stricter border control policies and place a greater emphasis on becoming a legal citizen.

In Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, she allows us to enter the everyday lives of ten undocumented Mexican workers all living in the Chicago area. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz refers to Chuy, Alejandro, Leonardo, Luis, Manuel, Omar, Rene, Roberto, Lalo, and Albert the ten undocumented Mexicans as the “Lions”. This book shares the Lions many stories from, their daily struggle of living as an undocumented immigrant in America, to some of them telling their stories about crossing the border and the effects of living in a different country than their family, and many other struggles and experiences they have encountered. Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s book delves into

Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s, Labor and Legality is a book written on the Mexican immigrant network in the U.S. She centers it on the Lions, a group of Mexican men from Leon, Mexico that all share their lives and help explain the many networks and strategies that are used in order to excel and gain happiness. There have been many different sorts of misconceptions about immigrants, and in recent years about undocumented immigrants from Mexico. The U.S. has made a sort of war on illegal immigrants and has made it a seemingly high priority in the media and in politics. Therefore, many Americans have been mislead and ill-informed about the history of immigrants/undocumented immigrants. Gomberg-Muñoz’s Labor and Legality helps set us straight. She unveils undocumented immigrants for the people that they are instead of the criminals that the media leads many to believe. Although she doesn’t have a wide range of participants for her study, I believe that she addresses many of the misconceptions and just plain ignorance that American people have of people that are undocumented; why stereotypes are supported by the people themselves, why politicians include stronger illegal immigration laws, and everything in between. Many of her topics reveal a sort of colonialism that the U.S. practices on Mexico; the exploitation of undocumented peoples to the benefit of the U.S. through economics, hypocritical laws and campaigns, and the racist and prejudice consequences.

“At a time like this, the retreat to one’s own kind is seen by more and more of my peers as an advance. And hat retreat has given rise again to the notion that there are essential and irreconcilable differences among the races” (413 Liu). Liu’s elaborate use of words are what really sway the people reading his argument. He describes the sociology of how people react to immigrants and how unjustified it is. By doing this, he portrays how similar everyone is to each other or how equal they are.

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, shares his life-long journey as an undocumented immigrant in his text, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” As the title suggests, Vargas attempts to convey to his audience, who likely never has and never will experience anything similar to what he has, what it is like to live as an immigrant in the United States of America. Skillfully, Vargas details the perfect number of personal stories to reach the emotional side of his audience, which is anyone who is not an immigrant. Through the use of his personal accounts Vargas is able to effectively communicate that immigrants are humans too while simultaneously proving his credibility, as he has experience and a vast amount of knowledge

Throughout the various books that we have read, one of the many concepts that stood out for me was the well-being and healthcare of undocumented workers. Due to the current criminalization of immigration, most undocumented workers live in a constant state of fear and anxiety. This really made me think about the psychological and somatic outcomes of fear, stigma, trauma, and prejudice for undocumented workers. This brought into question the structural and symbolic violence that causes undocumented workers to suffer from mental and physical illnesses and how the treatment, if any, is administered.

Immigrating to America is a process in which many people all across the world entrust as their one way ticket to a better life. Whether they do so legally or illegally, coming to the United States ensures better opportunities, economically, politically, and so on, to people who would have otherwise been worse off in their countries of origin. Even so, the common understanding of being “better off” can be considered a misconstrued concept when it comes to living in the states. Many families that choose to immigrate to the U.S. fail to realize the cultural hardships that newcomers tend to face once on American soil. Anything from racial discrimination or bias at work, in neighborhoods, at school, etc., can all be challenges that people encounter when making a move to the U.S. Such challenges are described by Richard Rodriquez in his autobiography Hunger of Memory. In this passage, he explains how cultural differences between Mexican and American ways of life have shaped him into the person that he is today. He also chooses to highlights the problems that he faces growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, while attending a predominantly white institution. Much of his writing consists of the cultural differences and pressures he feels to assimilate to Western culture and how this process, in turn, changes him into the person that some may find to be unethical, but nonetheless, someone he is proud of.

Illegal immigration has been a hot topic in the United States. For those who were born in the states, they are primed to see that most illegal immigrants are not welcome. Yet these immigrants see the United States as a land of opportunity. According to independent research by the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, there were 8.4 million unauthorized immigrants employed in the U.S.; representing 5.2 percent of the U.S. labor force (Goodman, 2014). We will examine the different sociological perspectives to understand this topic.

In her book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz describes the lives of ten busboys, she referrs to as the Lions, living and working in the Chicago area. Gomberg-Muñoz provides an insight into the lives of these undocumented Mexican workers. They share their stories of crossing the border, the affects of their absence on family back in Mexico, and the daily struggles of living in a country without the benefits of citizenship. The Lions, as well as other undocumented Mexicans, have to face Americans stereotypes every day. Probably the biggest stereotype the Lions contend with is the belief that all Mexicans are hard workers.

Immigration is both a domestic issue and global concern. It involves economics, politics, and culture. Unlike other current issues, it has been at the center of the American experience for hundreds of years (Tirman, John). Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from around the world, come to the United States. These immigrants have many different motivations as to why they leave their home country; but as currents events indicate, it is injustice, poverty, and violence in their own country that generally make people move to save themselves and to ensure a better future for their families. Many of these people believe the United States is the best place to go, because there is more freedom, protection, and benefits,

Illegal immigrants have been a hot topic lately due to the popularity of this topic amongst the Republican Presidential Nominees, especially Donald Trump. These illegal immigrants bring various things to this country when they come. Some things are positive, such as a family simply seeking to find a better life, while some things are harmful to the United States, such as the amount of crime among illegal immigrants. In July 2015, the most recent estimate of illegal immigrants was 11.2 million. This same data shoes that 56 percent of all deportations last year were convicted criminals, which accounted for 177,960 individuals (Shoichet, 2015). Crime among illegal immigrants is a problem, and sanctuary cities, which are supposed to be a solution, may be making this problem worse.

The opportunities of racial minorities such as the Chinese or African Americans different from those of European immigrants because diversity played a big role in the quality of urban setting. When the industrial revolution happen a lot of immigrant were in search for better economic opportunity, so as Chinese left their home countries due to poverty and famine, cities were the first place they settle down in, making their way to the US they had great opportunity, from owning their own business, opportunity to socialize, opportunity of establishing rotating lending pools, and one of the thing was that they were able to support one another. Moreover, like the Chinese immigrant, European immigrant were also in such for better economic opportunity and religious freedom. Compared to Chinese and African American immigrants, European immigrant had better opportunities for example, European immigrants were considerably older, had higher household incomes, and they were more educated though they were less likely to participate in the labor force. If they did participate in the labor force, they participate at a lower rate than the overall immigrants. A big difference in opportunities that European immigrant had from other immigrants was that you would see them take employment in management, business, science, and arts occupations and they would less likely be employed in occupation such as natural resources, construction, maintenance occupations, production, transportation, and

The book “Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal” by Aviva Chomsky describes what the process of immigration is actually like and how complicated and rough it truly is for an immigrant. Especially those who have crossed the border illegally and/or those who possess illegal documents. However this book questions what does it really mean to be illegal. As well as throughout the book it illustrates that immigrants are being treated rather closely to how slaves were treated. The work they do connects these ideas as well as other facts such as families being disconnected, immigrants being trapped in a certain part of the world, unable to travel far, and the tiny amount of rights they have compared to an average white american citizen.

Although racism in the United States is perceived as a “white people” versus “black people” construct, these two texts have helped me understand that racism occurs and has occurred in a multitude of different contexts. This is because the foundation of racism has nothing to do with a person’s physical features, but more to do with the systematic grouping of people in a tower of class. Chinese immigration was initially encouraged in the mid-1800s to help build the transcontinental railroad. However, along with the finishing of the railroad, a huge financial crisis hit, which eliminated jobs across the country. This caused for hardworking Chinese people, receiving low wages, to become a threat to “white” people. Multiple ordinances, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, was put in place. City authorities reported that “long as it is inhabited by people of the Mongolian race” (Shah, 42), Chinatown is dangerous due to its threat of disease and sanitation. It was never an issue of safety, but an issue of race and economic benefits favored to meet the needs and wants of the “white” population: for example, the Chinese medical practices and laundromats. Multiple laws were made and a bad reputation was placed on Chinese businesses and people to ensure that competition was not taken away and that economical opportunities stayed within the “white” population. Here, we see the

S. has built a policing regime that uses immigration status to segregate people, thereby scapegoating people of color such as Aaron in a new way for worsening fiscal crisis. The negative impact of a dominant culture on immigrant and refugees, such as Aaron include relentless criminalization of immigration status and the use of incarceration through U.S. laws, policies, measures and practices-weakening and eliminating constitutional rights, particularly due process rights, and labor protections for noncitizens (Adams et al.,