your opinion
Read each paragraph and give me your opinion do you agree do you disagree with those 4 paragraphs one for each part and if you agree or disagree why or why not soc
1.After reading both articles, I can say they both are written quite convincingly. These articles are definitely written strong enough to convince someone, one way or the other. However, as well as Meissner’s article was,when you get down to it, it was mostly opinion with no cited facts or statistics. Camarota was able to provide several cited graphs and statistics, thus making his article the stronger of the two. I live in Central Florida, our county is covered in orange groves, so we have an overflow of illegal immigrants. From my personal experience ,taking into account what I’ve observed ,there is no interest in learning our language or assimilation of any kind by immigrants, legal or not. Again , living in Florida makes my view somewhat skewed, as I know we have a fairly high Hispanic population compared to Northern states. I have seen cities and parts of town where Spanish is the ONLY language spoken or acknowledged. Switzerland one of the worlds most progressive, successful and thriving countries in the world has told immigrants they will be kicked out if they reject the native culture. You would be hard pressed to find a country that would allow you or I to move in and start changing things and rejecting our new native land.There is huge value in maintaining a cultural identity. Unfortunately, though America has adopted this crazy mind frame that being patriotic equates to being a racist.These days if you speak out against foriegners , regardless of context, you are labeled xenophobic and bigotted.
References
http://cis.org/immigrant-gains-native-losses-in-th…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic…
2.Based on the evidence presented in this unit’s readings, Meissner has the stronger arguments involving the benefits and costs of immigration. She starts out by disproving several common statements made by opposing parties. First, immigrants do not take away jobs from American workers. She states that while sometimes the influx will sometimes cause wages be pushed down, at the same time it can also stimulated the economy by creating a growth with new consumers, entrepreneurs and investors. This in return then drives wages back up. In the United States, even with the increase of immigration, unemployment has been decreasing for the past six years, and projected to continue to fall. If we listened to the opposition, who believes that immigrants take away more jobs, then we would see an increase in unemployment rates, not a decrease. The second myth involves illegal immigrants. For just about any jobs, you must have proof of residence, and many business will get in serious trouble with the government if found to have illegal workers. Illegal immigrants themselves have lowered over the past decade, mostly due to the recession, and stepped-up border patrol. Another myth ‘debunked’ was about immigrants not integrating into American life like previous generations did. While it is slow going, it is happening. Many immigrants who move to our country, keep their traditions, and adapt ours too. English is a difficult language for foreign speakers to learn to start with, and when non-native speakers come to America and realize just about everything is in English, they learn quite quickly. We also have multiple forms of multi-language tools that help out in many different ways –like ATM’s that have several different language options, or schools that have second language classes. I used to live in New Mexico, and while I was in school, we were taught in English, but also had at least one Spanish class too. Native Spanish speakers were taught English in our schools so they would have a better understanding of the ‘American culture’, and received extra counseling if they needed more help –either by the school or outside help. My mother even tutored a couple kids who needed to learn English, and the school program wasn’t working for them. Our Spanish classes were held so we could better understand our classmates, and have a better understanding of what it was like to learn a second language. So, I think it’s a great idea to have a second language class for all schools, and I think our culture could put even more of a push towards bilingual children. It helps students broaden their minds, and connect with even more people than before. Multiple studies have been conducted that have even proven that bilingual children are smarter, and have better problem-solving skills and brain-power. Since the 9/11 attacks, America has cracked down on border patrol, and on strengthening our borders for legal immigration. One of the newest debates that have broken out in the last couple months, have dealt with the ‘open-border’ policy that many would like to put into effect. Politics is a tricky subject to navigate through in the first place, and immigration has always been a hot button topic for our country. America was founded on immigrants, and when our country started to grow, it needed a way to control, and take count of, the flow of people. The Naturalization Act in 1790 was one of the first immigration laws passed, with many more following behind it. Laws have been passed since then that have banned certain groups into our country, and then later repealed to let them back in. Political power and societies prejudices are major motivators for immigration reform, and is what holds the sway in any deciding factor.
References
Meissner, D. (2010, May 2). 5 Myths about immigration. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic…
3. When it comes to the Arab nation the nation looks at them a a bad nation as a whole. Since the attack I think we have an I’m even worse outlook on them which is a rough topic. Not all Arabs are radicals or terrorist. Most Arabs want a pleasefull way of life and do not want war. But the 10 percent that want war makes it horrible for everyone and continue to make it rough. The media is in the market of number and ratings and not the truth. If they can move the truth around to make something sound better they are going to do it. Unfortunately with the media and Arabs this issue is even worse and makes for a hostile movement of media. We need to get back to the truth of a subject and not worry about the way our ratings are. If we can get back to the basicshop of news media then maybe we can see the truth for what it is and not what the juiciest talk is going to be about. Not all Arabs are bad and many of them contribute to out society just like a native born citizen.
4. Since 9/11 the treatment and perception of Arab American immigrants has change for the worse. They are all looked at as terrorists and not to be trusted, even though there are a lot of them that are very kind, respectful citizens, the wars and attack on 9/11 has caused people to hate all Arabs. For years in their countries, they have been killing each other off without a conscience because it is innocent people that a make up the majority of those being killed. In a couple of cases complete genocide has happened and been tried. So, people here in the U.S. wonder when they are going to start the fighting here in the U.S.
Media does feed a lot of the fears by showing all the bad that they do and not any good deeds they perform. It brainwashes, so to speak, the viewer into being afraid of the Arabs. All we see is the terrorists acts and the fighting they do against each other and the prejudices they show against other religions and races. The press also shows how they treat women and children. Women are belittled and children are used as fighters not caring whether they die or not.
For the last 100 years, the Arab-American population is very large and continues to grow. They have several businesses in the U.S. With the new President and administration, Arabs are again being discriminated against since they want to stop all Arabs from coming into the country. They have families here and there. They are in a bad situation. I do understand the President wanting more security for our country but it needs to have a lot more thought into it.
Since they are being discriminated against, the Social distance theory applies here. Social distance refers to the degree of intimacy a person is willing to accept for members of other groups. Before 9/11 the U.S. had a good relationship with all Arabs but now, according to this scale U.S citizens “would exclude them from this country” (F. 79) and that is exactly what is being tried by the President.
