How Two Midwestern Towns Respond to Immigration
The phrase, "small Midwestern towns," often brings to mind an unfortunate stereotype in the minds of big-city urbanites: mundane, backward people in a socially unappealing and legally archaic setting. Small Midwestern towns, however, are not all the hovels of provincial intellect that they are so frequently made out to be. The idiosyncrasies each of them possesses are lost on those who have never taken more than a passing glance at them.
After living in two small towns, I have developed an appreciation for their unique respective qualities. Wausau, Wisconsin and Goshen, Indiana are no exception to this rule of singularity. In addition to their specific identities, these towns have the added variable of two distinct and sizable immigrant populations, Wausau's immigrants being largely Ming, Goshen's immigrants being largely Mexican. While Wausau and Goshen may seem similar on a map of size, population, and non-immigrant demographics, they share little in their economic makeup, positional character, or active response to immigration. These differences of identity shape their attitudes towards immigration. Wausau's identity is supple and accommodates the redefinition that immigration demands. Goshen's identity is taut and rejects the redefinition.
One reason for Goshen's comparatively negative attitude towards immigration is the perceived threat to job security. There is a large population of blue-collar factory workers and there are numerous factories in the Goshen area. Indeed, one can hardly go anywhere within the Goshen municipality and be out of eyesight of some factory or industry-related structure. (My personal favorite o...
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...ograms in place to protect immigrants are more effective and broadly supported. The political identities of these two towns shape their ability to respond effectively to immigration.
Restricted by employment fears, a sense of urban expendability and relative political conservativism, Goshen's identity has little room for the challenge of immigration. Wausau's less industrial economy, stronger sense of urban importance and comparatively liberal politics create a more flexible and malleable identity. Once examined beyond the traditional barometers of population, region and size, Wausau, Wisconsin and Goshen, Indiana actually have little in common. Certainly neither town is in any way definable as, "mundane, backward or legally archaic," but rather each is striving, in their own singular ways, to achieve a balance between stable identity and unavoidable change.
Several works we have read thus far have criticized the prosperity of American suburbia. Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, and an excerpt from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "A Coney Island of the Mind" all pass judgement on the denizens of the middle-class and the materialism in which they surround themselves. However, each work does not make the same analysis, as the stories are told from different viewpoints.
The only thing the new immigrants had in common with each other was the dream of becoming rich and the poverty of their current state. Unfortunately, so many different people with so little in common often left tension between different groups on the edge of becoming violent outbreaks. The famous Tammany set the example early on of how to broaden it's ow...
In the passage “The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus”, the authors Carr and Kefalas both describe the different changes that happen to the youth. They depict the issues that arise when the youth leaves in search of bigger things that are outside of the small towns. Throughout the article, the issues of change in small towns is addressed and emphasized as a catastrophe for the future of these towns. The talk about the youth and towns fading away is not the only thing one thinks about when reading this article. The youth are not the only people being affected; the older generation parents of the youth are having to face the biggest change because they have the option of leaving or staying. This change can
Another principle characteristic of Joplin’s rags is his use of chromaticism within melodies, giving it the feeling associated with a carnival or State Fair. This is especially prominent in Joplin’s other most famous work, The Entertainer. According to many critics, The Entertainer was the turning point at which ragtime music was no longer simply considered leisurely saloon music and reached a whole new level of sophistication, that comparable to the classical works of the time period. These chromatic harmonies can be seen in Example b1.
The Western portion of the United States includes thirteen states that are home to around 80,000,000 Americans, yet it remains one of the most sparsely settled regions in the country (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). In a sense, the American West is the closest thing left to a “frontier” in the modernized United States. One can travel to Montana and become immersed in a world not dissimilar to that of their forefathers, just as easily as one could travel to California, widely considered to be the epicenter of growth and modernization in the States. With Silicon Valley and Yellowstone all in one region, there is a unique sense of space presented within the West that is unattainable from the American North, East, or South. For instance, a trip to New York City may be fairly comparable to a trip to Pittsburgh, but a trip to San Francisco as opposed to Rapid City provides an entirely different cultural experience. If the West was just a replica of the American East, Kerouac’s On the Road would have never come to be. The wide disparity among spaces in the New West is a main reason behind the effectiveness of Coupland’s Generation X. Without the spaces of the American West the comedic genius of Portlandia would be nonexistent!
Andy Warhol, born as Andrew Warhola, is famously known as the leader of the pop art movement back in the 1950’s. One of Warhol’s most famous prints is Campbell’s Soup Cans consists of thirty two canvases lined up in a row of eight and columns of four; another of artwork of Warhol similar to this is Green Coca-Cola Bottles which consisted of 210 Coca-Cola bottles. Many of Warhol’s artwork consisted of a subject repeated and cloned multiple times. Many would say it was because Warhol was raised during the time period where factories began the mass produce, which does contribute to his artwork. But, Andy Warhol was also an incurable hoarder. Warhol wrote in his autobiography that his conscience wouldn’t let him throw anything away, even when
Perea, Juan. Immigrants Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States. New York or London: New York University Press, 1997. Print.
The music created by the legendary Scott Joplin can be heard everywhere around the world even to this day. Many of his works are immediately recognizable to millions of people, including myself. I was not even aware that I knew any of Scott Joplin’s masterpieces but I certainly did. The composition entitled The Entertainer has been featured countless times in movies and games that I have experienced and its catchy beat was cemented in my mind (IMDb). Joplin was the king of the ragtime musical genre, and his name is synonymous with that period of music.
The new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe experienced a great deal of prejudice simply because they were different. The earlier settlers also felt resentment because they thought that the new immigrants were taking away all of the jobs. There were also fears that the poverty of the new immigrants would cause most of them to turn to crime. Many people at the time argued that the new immigrants “threatened to overwhelm American culture” (Anderson
First, we will look at the image information. In 1962, Andy Warhol painted Campbell’s Soup Cans. The soup cans were painted using synthetic polymer paint and mimicked silk-screened images. The painting is a collection of thirty-two canvases, each containing a depiction of different
Since the creation of the United States of America, immigrants from all backgrounds have sought refuge, a home and a life in this country of prosperity and opportunity. The opportunity of freedom to exercise natural rights is a large pull factor that causes many people to come to America. Others come because it is a country where one can prosper. Prosperity of people in a country, however, is a more challenging phenomenon to explain than opportunity. Immigrants seek economic, social and educational as well as cultural prosperity. The question of how to gain such prosperity is a difficult one to answer. Some immigrants come to America, cast off their past identity and attempt to find a new, less foreign one. By assimilating to American culture with this new identity, they start a long and treacherous journey to seek prosperity in a land vastly different from the one they once called home. Many will gain educational, economic and social prosperity, but never gain cultural prosperity. Assimilating to American culture so hastily, some immigrants are never able to explore and keep up with their cultural backgrounds. Their families grow up and became Americans, never cognizant of their given up ethnic identities. Those immigrants, however, who are able to gain cultural prosperity through the help of other immigrants of their respective background, become integrated into American society while keeping their ethnic identity. This is the sort of opportunity that the United States of America has provided new arrivals since its founding. Although many immigrants become overwhelmed with American culture and assimilate into it, those who contribute to a working ethnic society are able to dela...
[7] Weber, M. (1958). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Scribner
...in European countries and countries. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 52, 115-131. http://cos.sagepub.com/libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/content/52/1-2/114. Desmond, S. A., & Kubrin, C. E. (2009). THE POWER OF PLACE: Immigrants.
Waller, William H. The Milky Way: An Insider's Guide. Princeton, N.J: Princeton UP, 2013. 42+. Print.
Perhaps one of the most interesting features of our fathomless universe are the planets that are classified as gas giants. Huge, turbulent, and distant, the gas giants are some of the most enigmatic features in our Solar System. I have a personal interest to the gas giants and celestial bodies in general. When I was a child, I was fascinated by our Solar System. I read innumerable books about space, and my interests of outer space had been piqued further by other forms of media. Although I held this interest of space, growing up left me with little time to learn about space, and I lost interest for a while. Taking Earth Science in Milpitas High re-invigorated my interests in the celestial bodies. Using this class, I’m now able to focus on learning more about our colossal universe, in particular, the outer planets.