The United States was founded through means of immigration; immigrants from everywhere and anywhere around the world. Who are they? How did they get here? Why did they come? Many of these questions can be answered when considering how race, gender, and sexuality affect immigration. Immigration means something to different to everyone and for some it forced, while for others, it is a choice. For some it means pursuing the “American Dream,” for others it may be breaking away from political and religious persecution, but nonetheless, it is always a test. Gender roles, relations and inequalities affect who migrates and why, how the decision is made, the impacts on migrants themselves, on sending areas and on receiving areas. While focusing on immigrant women, Erica Rand’s “Breeders on a Golf Ball: Normalizing Sex at Ellis Island,” Susan Pierce’s “Immigration and Women: Understanding the American Experience,” and Robert Foster’s “The warmth of Other Suns,” will verify that race, gender and sexuality, as well as gender and social norms, have shaped the ideas of citizenship and immigration.
When typed into one of the world’s largest Internet search engines, “sexuality” comes up with many results. However, no true definition of the word ‘sexuality’ is returned. Results include definitions for human sexuality, sex, and gender. So therefore, one can believe that they are all somewhat synonymous to each other, and can mean many things to many people. Overall, the collective definition of sexuality is “the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also refer to the way someone is sexually attracted to another person.” Sexuality affects how migrants adapt to the new coun...
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... he would be more accepted. “People who live in this country (United States) should feel that constantly: this country survives on the fact that strangers are constantly coming to this place, stretching it a little bit, adding to it, changing it, and making it their home.(248)” While these immigrants may be seen as outcasts in their group, they are the kind of people who make the United States unique.
If immigrants are to benefit from the empowering and development potential of migration, a shift to a gendered human rights approach to migration from a development perspective is needed. One’s ideas of immigration are shaped by factors including race, sexuality and gender, and gender norms. Citizenship should be open to those immigrants who work hard to obtain it and deserve it, rather than those who differ in physical appearances or have different beliefs.
America is a land filled with immigrants coming from different corners of the worlds, all in hopes of finding a better life in the country. However, No one had an easy transition from his or her home country to this foreign land. Not every race thrived the same way—some were luckier than others, while some have faced enormous obstacles in settling down and being part of the American society. Many people have suffered
America is undergoing significant social change. While in 1960, white people made up 85 percent of the population, in the latest census it was projected that by 2043, the United States would “be the first post-industrial society in the world where minorities will be the majority” (Deasy, 2012). The 1965 Immigration Act is said to have opened the door to waves of new immigration from Mexico, Latin America and Asia, and the cumulative social impacts have been far reaching. The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to critically review a handful of research papers that explore some of the impacts that immigration has had on the United States, with a particular focus on the research methodologies adopted. It finds that while many papers focus on the use of quantitative research methodologies to measure
Between the years of 1840 and 1914, about forty million people immigrated to the United States from foreign countries. Many of them came to find work and earn money to have a better life for their families. Others immigrated because they wanted to escape the corrupt political power of their homelands, such as the revolution in Mexico after 1911. Whatever the case, many found it difficult to begin again in a new country. Most immigrants lived in slums with very poor living conditions. They had a hard time finding work that paid enough to support a family. Not only was it difficult for immigrant men, but for women as well. Immigrant women faced many challenges including lack of education and social life as well as low wages and poor working conditions.
Following the 1890’s, the world began to undergo the first stages of globalization. Countries and peoples, who, until now, were barely connected, now found themselves neighbors in a planet vastly resembling a global village. Despite the idealized image of camaraderie and brotherhood this may seem to suggest, the reality was only discrimination and distrust. Immigration to new lands became a far more difficult affair, as emigrants from different nations came to be viewed as increasingly foreign. In the white-dominated society of the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the only way to truly count oneself as American was to become “white”. For this reason, the idea of race, a socially constructed issue with no real physical basis, has become one of the most defining factors which shape immigration and assimilation in the United States.
Marianismo and machismo are the traditional gender roles in Latin America. Marianismo is the aspect of female gender roles while machismo is the aspect of male gender roles. The key belief of machismo is that men hold supremacy over women. For the most part these gender roles conform to traditional understanding of sexuality, masculinity, and femininity. There is only one key contradiction I found when it came to traditional understandings of sexuality, masculinity and femininity. Some people may confuse the meanings of gender, sex, and sexuality. Gender is what a person chooses to define themselves as: masculine or feminine. Sex is biological: male or female. Sexuality is then defined as the expression of sexual interest. These three words connect to one another.
This United States of America is not fond of undocumented immigrants, especially women. Cruel anti-immigrant laws, policies, and practices have had especially dramatic impact on immigrant women and their families. These measures force immigrant women to choose between the threat of an abusive husband and the threat of deportation if they call the police. Immigration policies can also make women sit in detention, thus leaving their children. During this time, some of the women might be raped by officers. This is because detention lacks sexual abuse prevention policies. These women who are in the detention centers are not dangerous, instead they are placed behind bars because of small crimes such as driving without a license or they are charged the civil crime for violating immigration laws.Women are faced with the emotional burden of separation from their families.
America is a nation consisting of many immigrants: it has its gates opened to the world. These immigrants transition smoothly and slowly from settlement, to assimilation then citizenship. These immigrants are first admitted lawfully as permanent residents before they naturalize to become full citizens. In her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”, the historian Mae Ngai draws our attention to the history of immigration and citizenship in America. Her book examines an understudied period of immigration regulation between 1924 and 1965.
Kessner, Thomas and Betty Boyd Caroli, “Today’s Immigrants, Their Stories.” Kiniry and Rose 343-346. Print.
The United States has often been referred to as a global “melting pot” due to its assimilation of diverse cultures, nationalities, and ethnicities. In today’s society, this metaphor may be an understatement. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of foreign born United States residents nearly doubled from 20 million to 40 million, increasing the U.S. population from almost 250 million to 350 million people. With U.S. born children and grandchildren of immigrants, immigration contributed to half of this population growth. These immigrants, consisting of mostly Asian and Hispanic backgrounds, have drastically changed the composition of the U.S. population. In 2010, Asians and Hispanics made up 20 percent of the U.S. population, in contrast to a 6 percent share of Asians and Hispanics in 1970. It is predicted that by 2050, the share of immigrants in the United States will increase to one half of the entire population. With this rapid increase in diversity, many citizens have opposing views on its impact on the United States. In my opinion, an increase in immigration does contain both positive and negatives effects, but in general it provides an overriding positive influence on America’s society (“Population”).
International migration in the development context relates both to people that have chosen to move of their own accord , and forced migrants that can ultimately end up contributing to both their country of resettlement and possibly their country of origins if it is ever safe to return . Development meanwhile , is a dynamic process implying growth , advancement , empowerment and progress with the goal of increasing human capabilities . Contemplating for a change the large community of immigrants hopes for immigration laws to be permanently reformed for better opportunities , growth as a nation , and development in modern day American society . The ultimate goal is to enlarge the scope of human choices and creating a safe and secure environment where citizens can live with dignity and equality . We are able to identify the development immigrants have had and can see how highly entrepreneurial they become . Research from the Small Business Administration suggests that immigrants are more likely to start a business than are non-immigrants
In the article “An Anthropological Look at Human Sexuality” the authors, Patrick Gray and Linda Wolfe speak about how societies look at human sexuality. The core concept of anthology is the idea of culture, the systems of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors people acquire as a member of society. The authors give an in depth analysis on how human sexuality is looked at in all different situations.
Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
While people immigrating to the United States are often searching for better economic situations or to be reunited with family members, they are instead thrown into a system that has had a history of retaliating against them for searching for a better life. The United States has always had a difficult relationship with immigration, both needing it to promote growth in economic and demographic spheres while also using it as an easy scapegoat for many of the country’s problems. Once within the U.S. borders, immigrants are expected to conform, or assimilate, to the country’s standards and ideals, which also includes adapting to the racialized system that controls much of the politics and day to day life of American citizens. Suddenly, immigrants
In order to discuss the biology of gender identity and sexual orientation, it is necessary to first examine the differences between multiple definitions that are often mistakenly interchanged: sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Sexual orientation is defined by LeVay (2011) as “the trait that predisposes us to experience sexual attraction to people of the same sex as ourselves, to persons of the other sex, or to both sexes” (p. 1). The typical categories of sexual orientation are homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. Vrangalova and Savin-Williams (2012) found that most people identify as heterosexual, but there are also groups of people that identify as mostly heterosexual and mostly gay within the three traditional categories (p. 89). This is to say that there are not three concrete groups, but sexual orientation is a continuum and one can even fluctuate on it over time. LeVay (2011) also defines gender as “the ...
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...