This image shows Asylum Seekers packed onto a pretty small boat, trying to reach asylum. This image is strong because it shows one of the many hardships refugees / asylum seekers have to face. Traveling with this many people on board a small ship like this is extremely dangerous. This is one of many dangerous things asylum seekers / refugees are willing to do for a better life.
I decided to do my last article on Central Americans trying to seek asylum. This peer reviewed article talks about people seeking asylum from El Salvador back in the late 1980’s when El Salvador was at war. They talk about the political policies in place that were in place between central american and the United States. Ultimately, 11,050 people were deported from the United States back to El Salvador back in 2006. This was during a time where El Salvador was ridden with gang violence and poverty, after the war. This article seems to be biased against the U.S. and their foreign policies. The article focuses on people that fall outside of the political requirements of being an Asylum seeker. The bias is that the article is made to exploit and criticize the political laws on asylum seeking in the United States. They mention the limitations that is present for people from El Salvador living in the United States.
Article: Coutin, Susan Bibler. “Falling Outside: Excavating the History of Central American Asylum Seekers.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 36, no. 3, 2011, pp. 569–596. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23011883.
The last article i looked at from NBC, explained the current position of law and gave insight on the amount of refugees and asylum seekers coming into the country. However, i found a New York Times article that states the Trump Administration is trying to make this process harder for asylum seekers. Ultimately, the Trump Administration wants to limit and decrease the amount of refugees / asylum seekers coming into the country. This article seems to be biased in the sense that they are kind of agreeing or giving information to make people agree with the Trump Administration. They give numbers on how many refugees / asylum seekers are coming into the country and why this is a concern for Trump. However, they don’t mention why these people are seeking asylum or are trying to leave their country. They mention how the Obama Administration made it easier for Refugees / Asylum Seekers to get into the country, now the Trump Administration wants to limit what the Obama Administration has done.
Here’s a link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/politics/asylum-seekers-trump-administration.html
The article i found on NBCs website explains the process of being an asylum seeker and the difference between asylum seekers and refugees. First off, the difference between refugees and asylum seekers is small but it does make a difference. Refugees are people that get approved by the United States to be refugees, they usually are facing or trying to escape persecution weather it be for skin color, race, political background, etc. Asylum Seekers are people that are moving locations in order to escape war, poverty, famine, etc. In order to be eligible, Asylum Seekers must apply for asylum in the U.S. a year before they plan on moving. This news article doesn’t seem to be biased. The content given in the article seems to be mostly informative. They give facts on what a refugee is, what an asylum seeker is, how many refugees are reported to come into the U.S., the most popular areas where they come from, and information on how an asylum seeker can become a citizen.
Here is a link to the article: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43442030/ns/us_news-life/t/us-system-refugee-asylum-seekers-explained/#.XLD0COhKjIU
At the entrepreneurship event I was able to hear advice and learn helpful tips from successful entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs that included in the panel were John Dinkel, Chris Daley, Elizabeth Trimm, Andy Brown, and Garrett Pfeifer. Some of these entrepreneurs are owners of well known businesses like Enterprise and EAT Pizza. Each panelist got to tell their story on how they got their businesses up and running. A common characteristic among all of the panelist was that they were willing to make a sacrifice to get what they wanted. Another key characteristic they mentioned was to network as much as possible. The more people you know and are friends with, the more opportunities you have for you and your business.
The panel related to our course in many different ways. Most of the panelist mentioned how people should use talents or things that they are good at and try to make some type of income from it. For example, learning how to use WordPress. Learning WordPress could be a form of income in many ways. You could use WordPress to develop websites for upcoming businesses, potentially create a popular blog, or even use it for your own business promotion.
Adonte Langston
Adonte Langston
Professor Licastro
ENG 256
2/11/19
The Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition is a non-profit organization that gives aid to refugees. They help create legislation and open new programs for refugees and give them a sense of community. They use their website to give information on current immigration policies and to try and get people to donate. The websites use of type and basic design helps the website get straight to the point and helps them achieve their goal of receiving donations / volunteers.
When you land on Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition’s homepage you are greeted with the “MIRC’s” logo. Underneath the logo is an image of people from multiple races putting their hands together symbolizing their unity. This is the first thing you see when landing on their website. Underneath of this, is the websites menu bar. The menu includes the “Home”, “Resource”, “Get involved”, “Join MIRC”, “Donate”, “Past Event’s” buttons and a search bar. Each of these buttons takes you to different locations on the websites in order to give you more information.
The primary audience are people that are willing to donate (doners) and also volunteer workers seeking to help refugees. The secondary audience are other refugees seeking information on the organization and the aid that might be available to them. The second button on the menu is the “resource button”. This button brings down a sub-menu that includes different resources that are useful for refugees. You can click on these to gain more information on the different resources. For example, if you click on the “Immigration 101” button it takes you to a page with a Youtube video of the MIRC president giving basics on immigration.
As you go across the menu bar, you get to the buttons “Get Involved”, “Join MIRC”, and “Donate”. This indicates that the purpose of this website is to raise money and awareness on refugees and this organization. Even though these buttons do not stand out much from the rest and the website does not follow tradition non-profit templates, their main goal is still to give users information to make them want to donate to this cause. The “Get Involved” page gives general information and locations of other organizations that need volunteers and interpreters in Maryland.
Overall, the website is pretty dull. It’s very basic and just seems to be delivering information. It doesn’t do anything inviting in terms of design, font, or color scheme. The most common modes on this website are the use of type to tell information and videos. There are also some images, but not many.
The information on the website is also biased. They only talk about and give information that supports their cause. You would never see anything on their website that goes against it. The organization also mentions how their beliefs go against those of Governor Hogan, using politics to support their cause. However, the website does do a good job at telling basic information on immigration and the current immigration policies in the US.
Underneath of the “Join MIRC” button is a drop menu that includes the board members of the organization. It lists the executive committee and all the board members. The executive committee consists of the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary of the organization. The authors seem pretty credible due to their activity in the community and aid from other organizations.
The Genre of this website is a non-profit. However, it does not look how other non-profit websites look. Most non-profit websites are very inviting and have very large call to action buttons to grab users attention. The MIRC website was very dull and focused on being informative.
This non-profit organization has a very dull and boring website. It does not have much color to it and is not very interactive. You can click around the website through the menu, but the website sticks to type and some images to give information. I think the website does a good job of relaying information but they need to add more design aspects to make the website more enjoyable and not as boring.
Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition, 2017, marylandimmigrantrightscoalition.org/