Immigration and Assimilation: Journey to America

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Throughout the semester we touched on several topics, but one topic that stood out for was immigration. We watched and discussed movies like “Sin Nombre” and “El Norte” which depicted the process of migrating and the risk factors associated with it. On a personally I more interested in it because been an immigrant myself I can relate to Sayra in “Sin Nombre” and Pedro and his sister in “El Norte” to some extent. Furthermore, adopting to a new way of life is another risk to be taken once the journey is made. One may have to forget about their morals and values to make it, especially if they are illegal. The case is not so different when it comes to Mexicans. Their economy is bad so therefor they embark on this migration in search of a better life in the Unites States of America. Until the 1900s, he Mexican-us border was open for migration. Mexicans were specifically excluded from the immigration quotas that was set on immigration from southern and Eastern Europe. This was due to cheap labor which couldn’t be overlooked. United States thought loosing up on Mexican immigration would be beneficial to their agricultural development. So basically all Mexican had to do was pay some form of tax to grant permission to enter the US. In 1929, US government require visas from Mexicans. Mexicans from the study of bean and Steven in 2003 constituted about a quarter of US population. This shows that most immigrants of the United States arrived from Mexico. Mexico and United States is separated by 200miles and they are also separated by their living standards. Unites states also share a partnership with Mexico as well. With his proximity, exchanges of goods and inequality it makes controlling migration difficult. As we witnessed in “Sin Nombre’ the border between Mexico and US are close but sometimes that’s the least of the problem faced on this journey. Katz and Fader

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