"The Other Side of Immigration" Reflection

Watching the film, "The Other Side of Immigration", I was very interested in the stories of the immigrants and non-immigrants. It was my second time watching it because i watched before in my freshman FYE class. I didn't really pay attention when we had to watch in class but, when i watched it this time i did pay attention. It was really interesting to watch and to hear what they think. The main thing that got me was the fact that they said when people come back that they don't tell them the whole story and that they don't they don't tell them about how hard it is and the struggles they go through to achieve their new found wealth. I just find that a little bit odd in a sense but, a little bit understandable because they probably just don't want to scare them.

oral history project

For our oral history projects I didn't think that I would find anyone to interview until i asked my friend and she told me that they were immigrants from Samoa. I was very interested in their story so I interviewed her oldest sister who is also the oldest out of all the siblings. I loved doing this project. Hearing the other stories in class I was very intrigued by the way some people got here and how they remember it happening. I really liked the story about the little Tongan boy at the school and how he explained everything that he remembered happening. I loved how everyone's story was different but, yet similar at the same time.

Turkified Article

The article was very interesting. I don't know she lived all those years going through the same thing over and over again. The questions she was asked on  a daily basis was more than enough for me. They were so personal yet so rude and I just can't believe how much one person can be judged because of something form two generations ago. If i was in her shoes I wouldn't have been able to take it and being asked that inappropriate questions at 14 really I just don't know how she had the strength to endure all of that ignorance.

Ancestry Project

This project seemed like it was going to be really interesting because I really wanted to find out things about my family and where they came from. When I went to look on ancestry.com I found little to no information on my family. There was not enough evidence on the site for me to actually do a report on my family. I would have liked to do my own family, but I decided to do one of the students in our class whom is Patrick Balderamos. I chose to do his Great-Grandfather for research since he is Irish and because his family immigrated here.

Also listening to everyone's story I was intrigued by all the stuff they found. How they actually were able to find their family and where they came from and even how they got here. I would I have loved to had my family.

Chapter 17

Ending our book i was perplexed by all of the information that i had i received from it. From learning about Eastern Europeans to Soviet Jews to French Canadians and Mexicans I know have full understanding of what went on all the years of immigration by not just one group of people but, multiple groups of people. In this last chapter I believe that Daniels sums it up well. To read that most immigrants who are here are on some type of visas and they usually over stay them is something I didn't know before. Also the fact that its basically impossible to estimate the number of immigrants in the U.S. is crazy. I didn't know that I actually thought they did some type of research or something for it. Overall this chapter ended with some really interesting facts that make me somewhat second guess our government.

Chapter 13

In chapter i found that it was interesting to see how immigration laws and rules were changed.The fact that the U.S. only wanted to start changing the policy because it excluded so many is ridiculous. I feel that all these rules and regulations were wrong from the beginning even if they excluded one group of people.It was also funny to read that the Latin Americans and the Asians were the great gainers out of this whole experience. The asylee stuff was new to me i had never heard anything about it and it was interesting to find that out.

States back off from enacting Immigration Laws :O

This article stood out to me because it talks about how states are giving up on coming up with laws against or for immigration. They just want the government to take over and come up with a solution. It also interested me because of the lack of revenue that the farmers got in this past harvest because they didn't have enough men to pick it. It just all seems to much for me because some people want them here and then some people don't want them here and I just think they need to make up their minds.

                                        Immigration Law article