Author: aziza

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First Draft

Aziza Benjamin

ENG 103.0905

Prof. Kitana Ananda

November 6th, 2017

Immigrants Impact on America

Intro

Immigrants are often accused of stealing jobs and money from hard-working Americans. Immigrants are accused of causing many issues in America. Even the President has many opinions regarding illegal immigrants and how they are causing problems, he accuses them of being rapists and many other things.

Immigrants are always accused of stealing jobs from Americans. Yet, the jobs that most immigrants do when they get here are jobs that Americans won’t do; for example, being maids, babysitters, live in nannies or maids.

Immigrants are accused of taking away money from Americans, because when they work they do not pay taxes; but the thing about this is though they do not pay taxes, they do not get the options legal residents and Americans receive. They also are not paid minimum wage because they are not working legally and has no one to go to about payment. They also cannot receive any benefits because they are not legal residents.

“…In 2006…” according to “…an Iowa congressman [who] claimed that 13 U.S. persons died every day as a result of undocumented drunk drivers…” (Light et. all, 1448).
Immigrants have talked about their experience being detained in a detention center, and the struggles they go through. In “Immigrant Families Behind Bars: Technology Setting Them Free” Blasco writes about immigrant mothers and their experiences behind bars with their children,

L., a Honduran woman seeking asylum, was detained with her young son at a family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico, for three months. They were forced to stay in a room with four other immigrant families, and the young son became very ill, eventually requiring hospitalization.

Yancy Mejia decided that enough was enough after she was kidnapped by a Salvadorian gang, had her fingers broken and wrist dislocated. She took a risk and escaped her home country with her children in search of a better, safer life in America. Little did she know that the United States would not welcome her with open arms. Instead, she and her children were detained at the South Texas Residential Center owned by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) located in Dilley, Texas. When she expressed the intense pain she was experiencing in her wrist and fingers to the detention center’s doctor, he recommended that she drink water. (698)

Both these women were just trying to make life better for themselves and their families. They were suffering and struggling, and thought coming to America would make their lives easier. Their living conditions in the detention centers are unconstitutional, and they are not given their rights and due process.

Con

America was built on the backs of slaves and immigrants. When Europeans first arrived in America, the ones who could not afford to pay for their tickets borrowed from people which then makes them owe others money. Those ones were called “indentured servants” (Foner, 60). In this letter by Gottlieb Mittelberger in 1750, he states that “The German man and woman he describes had borrowed money to pay their passage and had no choice but to sign long-term labor contracts in America to pay off their debts” (Foner, 60). These indentured servants must pay back their debts before they can go about their lives in America. “Although indentured servants were not held for life, as slaves were, they were brought and sold and their families could easily be broken up” (Foner, 60). One bad thing about having to pay off their debts, they are not guaranteed to be kept as a family; they can be separated based on how they are purchased. Though they were still luckier than slaves who were kept for a lifetime.

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Analysis Essay

Aziza Benjamin

ENG 103

Analysis Essay

In an address to The Council of the City of New York, January 2nd Coalition for the Defense of Haitian Refugees. This statement addresses many different important things that are happening in America and New York in general too. The first is asking for the 3,000 Haitian refugees to be released from the detention centers. They are being held without proper treatment of their rights to trial etc. Also, it talks about the Haitians who are being deported back to the oppression they are trying to escape. The statement talks about undocumented workers, who will be at the mercy of their employers; their rights will be violated. This is important because it goes back to the Haitians who cannot prove that they are being treated badly by the Haitian government and their workers. The most important point in this statement is about the Reagan administration to stop sending money to Duvalier. The money that they are sending to him is the number one reason why many Haitians are leaving Haiti. If the U.S. government stop supporting Duvalier, life may not be as difficult as it is. The statement addresses a few more things, but it did not go into many details, one of their concerns was the U.S. involvement in Central America and the Caribbean.

In another address to The Council of the City of New York, The Council Report of Legal Services Division, Committee on General Welfare. The council members talk about how the Haitians arrived in the U.S. since last year, and they are being held in 11 detention centers around the country. These Haitians are being held prisoners because they entered the U.S. illegally instead of the legal way. According to the statement, it would have taken a few years to happen; which would have resulted in many of their deaths. 53 of the prisoners are being held at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, federal District Court Judge Robert Carter has order these refugees be release; they are not being released because of the cases in Florida pending. The federal law would allow the attorney general Smith to release these people on parole with sponsors. Many people has come forward to be sponsors for the Haitian refugees. The council members are hoping that The Council of the City of New York will call on the attorney general.

The way that these two are related are both articles are about Haitians refugees being imprisoned without being able to exercise any of their rights or due process. These refugees are not being treated fairly by the U.S. government. There has been an order for the Haitian refugees in New York to be released from the detention center, but they are still imprisoned because of the cases that are still pending in Florida. It is not fair to these people, who has left a country where they are being ill treated to come to another country to be treated in a similar matter. Also the reason that they did not wait to come to this country legally is because the process takes years.

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Paper Sketch Assignment

Immigrants Impacting America

Question and Thesis

How it is adapting to a new culture and how the culture differs from theirs?

Immigrants are always accused of stealing American’s jobs, taking away money from Americans.

Introductory paragraph

Talk about the struggle & what they put up with

Immigrants are accused of causing many issues in America. Even the President has many opinions regarding illegal immigrants and how they are causing problems, he accuses them of being rapists and many other things. [Can I use a paper from another class that proves this point? Not sure whether it was from a scholarly source or not (will double check).]

Immigrants are accused of taking away money from Americans, because when they work they do not pay taxes; but the thing about this is though they do not pay taxes, they do not get the options legal residents and Americans receive. They also are not paid minimum wage because they are not working legally and has no one to go to about payment.

Planning your paper

Immigrants has helped build America into the country it is today. Many Mexicans are the ones who work on many of the buildings and constructions. They work faster and for cheaper.

Reflection

America was built on the backs of immigrants. It was slaves who were brought into America to do the labor and hard work that Americans did not want to do. Immigrants do many of the jobs that Americans do not want to do, for example being maids, babysitters, in live nannies or maids.

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My Research Topic

The first topic I am very interested in is how life changes for immigrants, how it is adapting to a new culture. Also how the culture differs from theirs. My interest in this topic is because I moved to New York from Saint Vincent, and it was a complete culture shock for me.

My second topic is how immigrants are treated. Immigrants are accused of taking away jobs from Americans. Though many of the jobs that immigrants do are jobs that Americans hate and complain about doing. (Jobs like babysitting, janitors, maids, live in jobs)

My third topic is how immigrants get involved in gangs. They become Americanized and do things that they would not do back in their country. (This can also go with the first topic). Many of them are just trying to survive their neighborhoods and fit in.

Most immigrants from the Caribbean when they come to America, they want to go to school and get an education; because that is one of the most important thing to Caribbean people. Sometimes many cannot afford to go to college because it is too much money and they cannot afford it.

Article 1: Light, M. T., Miller, T., & Kelly, B. C. (2017). Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990-2014. American Journal Of Public Health, 107(9), 1448-1454. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303884

Article 2: Ornori, M. (2016). Educated and Staying at Home: Asian Immigrant Wives’ Labor Force Participation in the U.S. Journal Of Comparative Family Studies, 47(4), 463-481.

Article 3: Blasco, J. (2017). Immigrant Families Behind Bars: Technology Setting Them Free. Vanderbilt Journal Of Entertainment & Technology Law, 19(3), 697-720.

Article 4: De La Rosa, M., Dillon, F. R., Sastre, F., & Babino, R. (2013). Alcohol Use among Recent Latino Immigrants Before and After Immigration to the United States. American Journal On Addictions, 22(2), 162-168. doi:10.1111/j.1521-0391.2013.00310.x

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My First Education Memory

My earliest childhood memory was going to Preschool in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with my two older cousins. My cousins and I were always in the same class, being that we were born the same month of the same year. I still remember our teacher name, Ms. Jill. She was an amazing teacher who loved what she did. I remember she moved to Canada a few years after we left there.

My cousins and I went to school together until Primary School (6th grade), and then you take this test called Common Entrance and base on your grade it determines what high school you go to. I scored higher than my cousins, so I went to a High School in town; while they went to a High School in the village. At first I was thinking about how the three of us won’t be together in school anymore for the first time in 10 years. But I was still excited that another cousin and my best friend (they are cousins also) were going to be in school with me. We also had a friend who was a form ahead of us. Then my best friend grandmother decided she did not want my best friend to go to school in town. I was so disappointed, because like my cousins; we have been in school together since Preschool also.

Education is very important in the Caribbean, because without it; you cannot get a good or decent job. You see your parents and older siblings and/or cousins struggling to make it, and how work they have to work and much much more time they have to put it. Once you are really good at something, you’re encourage to excel in that.

I remember when I moved from Saint Vincent and came to New York. I was in for a real surprise. I could not believe the way children spoke to adults, even to the teachers; all I kept thinking to myself was if this was Saint Vincent they would be getting lashes. In Caribbean, it really does take a village to raise a child; because everyone looks out for one another. You can get punished by a neighbor or an older family member, and if it gets back to your parents; you’ll be punished by them too. I learned from very valuable lessons that I still have instilled in me to this day. The only way it wouldn’t go that way is if I am being respectful and someone disrespects me.

High school was where I started writing poetry, and learning to use that to express my feelings and to speak to others in a different way. I was also able to take college courses, and even got to take a program at Columbia University for a week during the summer before my Senior year. I know this sounds cliche but high school was where I really learned a lot about myself, and really found and developed myself better. My high school always college prep us, so when we graduated it would not be a hard transition from high school to college. The only thing is no one warns about the transition back into college after you take time off.