Category: Blog

“Subversive Consumption: Nineteenth Consumption Irish Immigrants in America”

The journal, “Subversive Consumption: Nineteenth Consumption Irish Immigrants in America,” by Linda Scott studies Irish immigrants during the nineteenth century in relation to religion, politics, gender norms, race, and labor. The Irish were the first group to immigrate to the United States after the American Revolution. With them, they brought different religious views, as they were Catholic, compared to the majority Puritan that currently lived in the United States. Specifically in New England, the rules and policies were strict because of their Puritan faith. This led to a hatred and opposition to the Irish Catholic faith, as well as the Irish immigrants themselves. They attempted to marginalize those who were Catholic, not only because these,  “new populations radically changed the numbers living in the eastern US, but because the religion and ethnicity of the immigrants were so different from those of the former American colonists: wave after wave of Irish, German,Italian, and Russian arrivals were distinctively Catholic and Jewish,” (Scott, 2009). The a huge reason for the Irish to immigrate was the potato famine in 1845. This rose the current immigration numbers from 10,000 to almost half a million each year. This changed the profile of America in several aspects, such as religious views and race. Irish were seen as “aliens,” and were often not allowed to apply for jobs because people refused to hire them. Catholics could not vote, hold office, own property, or allowed to educate their children (Scott, 2009). The Irish started to come together within their communities to fight back against this oppression. They often did not go farther than New York or Boston. A huge recognition  of the Irish assimilation came in 1999 with a postage stamp, which was created by the US and Ireland, remembering the immigrants who came because of the Famine (Scott, 2009).

Article: https://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&sid=49834cf4-37c5-4c7a-9b29-79324985ccbd%40sessionmgr4010

Mistrust, Anger, and Hostility in Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Immigrants: A Systematic Review

This article analyzes Western societies and their growing xenophobia, especially towards immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers. Though Western society has already been known to displace and fear minorities and developing countries, in our postmodern society western societies are starting to witness major demographic changes because of the human displacement that they as a whole continue to fuel through taking actions that are not only ineffective but harmful. These actions include closing borders, enacting laws that place immigrants and refugees in detention centers, and other unjust practices.

The terrorist attacks on September 11 in 2001 done by terrorist group Al-Quaeda and the multiple, expensive wars that have followed as a result have only increased Western societies’ feelings of hostility, anger, and mistrust toward refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, especially those from Middle Eastern countries. The constant mistrust of Western society has not only scared North America, where the attacks happened, but other countries as well such as Britain, Russia, and other Western countries that have increased border control. The stigma surrounding terrorism has been married to immigration and foreign insertion.

This article is a review of the overall system driven by the intent to gather additional sources and information to prove the presence of society’s hostile attitudes and feelings of anger and mistrust toward these refugees, as well as show that they may have a negative impact on their general well-being. It also aimed to identify whether society’s discrimination and negative feelings toward this population influence the refugees’ willingness to seek support from services
provided by the host society and, simultaneously, to trust the helping professionals who provide the services.

Academic Article: Polish Happiness

I am german and polish, but I like to relate more to my polish side, so I found an article about Polish migration that compared the happiness of those who migrated and those who stayed where they were. When people leave their home permanently, it is often for a better life, but is that what they are getting? Thing that is often looked at to mean more happiness and a better life, is money, health, social status, etc. There was a study showing that most people who migrated in the Eastern European countries were happier, with the exception those who migrated from Poland who were actually less happy than those who stayed. This article goes on to explain how the controlled experiment worked, the results, and the conclusions before continuing into discussions about the topic.

I found it interesting the results were so apparent that the others did feel happier, but the Polish migrants were basically unaffected. I was a bit confused by what exactly may be effecting them this way, they had charts showing “determinants of happiness” and how it effected them, but they were harder for me to understand. I also wonder how true this is for everyone and who exactly they talked to for the research. Especially after reading a book like Americanah where it was obvious the migrants in that book were not happy. This article also has no strong emotional words to sway perspective and opinions it was instead straight facts and evidence which was nice.

Bartram, David. “Happiness and ‘Economic Migration’: A Comparison of Eastern European Migrants and Stayers.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 24 June 2013, academic.oup.com/migration/article/1/2/156/991931?searchresult=1.

Greece: immigration and right-wing extremism

My articles is based on my ancestral background, Greece. This article mainly discusses the association of immigration, and the evolutions of the right-wing organization, Golden Dawn. This article also discusses the immigration issues within Greece, the political structure of right-wing extremism, the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, and the existence of the populist radical right party, Popular Orthodox Rally.

One piece of this peer reviewed article that really intrigued me was the section about the refugee crisis that happened within Greece in 2015-2016. In this time period, hundreds of thousands of refugees were coming into Greece to seek asylum. After the “implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement on returnees in March 2016, there was a sudden and significant drop in the flow of refugees to Greece” (Vandoros 62). What was the EU-Turkey deal? Essentially Turkey agreed to take back refugees that entered Greece, and then send legal refugees to EU. In exchange, EU gave Turkey six billion euros, and allow visa-free travel for Turkish citizens for a short time period. All though this seems like an immediate solution to the refugee crisis within Greece, but in reality it posed it’s issues. At the time, many refugees were still stranded in Greece. This posed a large issue because Greek government did not have the means to take care of these refugees because of its economy and the relative magnitude of the crisis itself.

The Golden Dawn organization then took this opportunity to exploit these issues and the refugees to help push their political agenda. Golden Dawn regularly demonized the refugees stating that “immigrants and refugees as intruders and violent criminals who will ruin Greece, even in biological terms, as carriers of contagious diseases” (Vandoros 63).

 

I generally thought this article was very interesting. It didn’t have that many emotional key words that indicated a specific political bias, and seemed relatively balanced.

 

Vandoros, Sotiris G. “Immigration and Political Opportunities for Right-Wing Extremism.” Mediterranean Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 1, 2018, pp. 48–69., doi:10.1215/10474552-4397336.

Ancestral Home Immigration/Refugee Article

My article is focused on my ancestral home, Scotland’s, immigrants. More specifically, the article focuses on Scottish immigrants in Australian cities from 1880-1933, and how, “this article demonstrates that Scottish migrants in Australia at the turn of the twentieth century largely belonged to an urban industrial working class, and provides a useful correction to the traditional images of Scots in Australia as mostly rural, well-off, and conservative migrants,” (Wilkie 81).

 

Over time, it’s been argued that settlement patterns of Scots in Australia has been associated with employment opportunities, housing, lifestyle, and religious preferences. But their experiences entering Australia were not always good to start off with and wanting some wishing they could go back home to Scotland. But there were areas in Australia where family houses had been deserted and left open for the taking. It was minimal but enough to satisfy what the immigrants wanted: a portion of land to themselves. They were leaving behind cramped houses where families were living on top of each other, almost literally, to survive in the crowded country, making the change to Australia very different. The choice of housing does not seem to affect what church Scots went to for the main draw seems to be to head towards Presbyterian churches such as Dorcas Street Presbyterian Church and Sunday School. Scottish immigrants tend to work primarily in jobs they were familiar with like manufacturing and shipping and would get jobs by ports.

 

All in all, I found this article academic journal interesting because it gives a different look at immigration within another country at a different point in history.

 

Wilkie, Ben. “Lairds of Suburbia: Scottish Migrant Settlement and Housing in .                   Australian Cities, 1880-1930.” Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 2016,                 81-104.

Infusing sociocultural perspectives into capacity building activities to meet the needs of refugees and asylum seekers.

It’s estimated that 1 out of every 230 persons is or was a child or adolescent who has been forced to his or her home. According to the United Nations there are currently close to 55.2 million forced migrants globally, the majority of victims being woman and children with half of those displaced are children and adolescents. By mid-2015, the number of new refugees and asylum seekers had reach an estimated 15.1 million globally; For the purpose of the review, the POI (population of interest) comprised of refugees affected by conflict and violence. One immediate consequence of forced migration is the effect it has on the family, who has no choice but to leave behind everything and be separated from loved ones. These are not voluntary migrations; they’re force to leave due to extreme conditions. In 2016, the Thai gov’t began providing educational materials to improve the experience of refugees, in order to provide a successful integration. Some of the challenges of social integration are the linguistic barriers and cultural incongruences, school-age children face adaptation to school-life that affect their academic achievement. Another challenge is mobility, due to the frequent moves from place to place, migrant families have problems forming relationships with their peers.

In order to deliver effective services to them, the review details different elements needed. Capacity Building Activities, Promoting Multiculturalism, Leadership development in the community, and youth-development programs are elements that would greatly improve the social integration of migrant families. Successful integration and functioning within each refugee community cannot be achieved without sociocultural congruent practices that lead to meaningful teaching and activities

 

Rivera, Hector, et al. “Infusing Sociocultural Perspectives into Capacity Building Activities to Meet the Needs of Refugees and Asylum Seekers.” Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, vol. 57, no. 4, Nov. 2016, pp. 320–329. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/cap0000076.

Immigrant Rights Groups Targeted by ICE

Currently immigration is a well debated topic around the United States because of the President’s choice to intensify immigration policies. Many individuals who take the opposing stance of which the nation’s leader does gathered together to form the movement “abolish ICE”. This movement has rapidly grown since the summer of 2018 especially in New York City. The speed of which the operation has intensified, gained the attention of many, including public figure and Congressman Adriano Espaillat. Espaillat, so moved by the cause, decided to hold his own protest, which also disputed the group of white supremists, Identity Evropa.

In Espaillat’s eyes the event was a success. They were able to gather the support of 300 fellow New York City inhabitants to support the cause. Not only did the event advance the awareness of the fellow residents but from the federal government as well. On the same evening as Espaillat’s rally was held, the Department of Homeland Security issued an “AntiTrump Protest Spreadsheet”. This spreadsheet included details of dozens of demonstrations, including representative Espaillat’s rally, across the nation all which shared views of the left.

The most striking information recovered was other protests such as identity Evropa which arguably would be considered hateful were not included on the email list. Espaillat and some question the motive of why the federal government’s email would only consist of immigrant-rights protest groups. Others believe it is the result of immigrant-rights group filing a lawsuit on ICE for constantly monitoring the activities and involvement of individuals which are similar in nature.

Ancestral Immigration Academic Research

The article I found about immigration was titled “Physician emigration from Germany: insights from a survey in Saxony, Germany”. This article is a study based on the observation of physicians immigrating out of Germany to work elsewhere. Germany is facing a shortage of physicians, not due to a lack of people working to become physicians, but because these workers leave. The purpose of this research was to find what was pushing these physicians to leave.

In 2014 alone, 2364 physicians immigrated out of Germany to work in other countries like Austria, Switzerland, and the USA. This study surveyed over 2000 physicians and found that 29.5% wished to immigrate due to one or several factors. The most common reasons for wishing to leave were their overall satisfaction with their work situation, heavy work load, and lack of leisure time. Being female, in a relationship, or having children were common factors seen in those that did not wish to leave. This study also found that most of those interested in immigrating had already looked at options or taken steps to do so. Almost a third of those studied were unsure if they wanted to leave, which is a rather large amount of physicians unsure of wanting to stay. It was found that patient interactions were not a factor in the physicians wanting to leave, therefore leading to the possibly that the issue physicians are facing is with the structure of the medical system for which they are working. These physicians are wanting to leave not to flee anything horrendous, but instead to make a happier and better living for themselves, as we see with immigrant populations. Germany is my ancestral home, and though it was challenging to find information about immigration from this country in current times, this article stood out as an extremely thought provoking and important piece about the immigration possibilities faced in professional careers.

 

Citation:

Pantenburg, Birte, et al. “Physician Emigration from Germany: Insights from a Survey in Saxony, Germany.” BMC Health Services Research, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, doi:10.1186/s12913-018-3142-6.

Academic Source on Immigrants

The peer-reviewed source I found on the Stevenson Library database is called “Immigrants from Mexico experience serious behavioral and psychiatric problems at far lower rates than US-born Americans”. I chose to focus on immigrants and refugees from Mexico because that is where my grandparents are from and I also tend to align myself with being Mexican American.

This source focuses on a study that was done to gain an insight into the criminal and violent behavior, substance use disorders, and mental disorders among Mexican immigrants in relation to US-born individuals. This study is based on the NESARC-III, a national survey of over 36,000 non-institutionalized adults ages 18+ in the US. By using this survey style, they determined immigration status by purely just asking, “Were you born in the US?”.

This study showed one table that was provided with statistics from the study and is well-formulated to show the differences between the immigrants and the US-born. The table breaks down crime to shoplifting, property damage, breaking into a house, building/car, and making money illegally. Then, violence is broken down into starting a lot of fights, physically hurting someone, using a weapon in a fight, and injuring someone in a fight. substance abuse disorders were separated by alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, and opioids. lastly, mental disorders. These were broken down into depression, dysthymia, generalized anxiety, and post traumatic stress. This study used good information to show the statistics from what they found, however, the information to back up the statistics is lacking some. The results did show that Mexican immigrants were about 4-10X less likely to be involved in criminal or violent behavior, and 3X less likely to be abusing alcohol. however, when it came to the harder substances, like cannabis or cocaine were right around 8X less than those who were born in the US.

Salas-Wright, Christopher P., et al. “Immigrants from Mexico Experience Serious Behavioral and Psychiatric Problems at Far Lower Rates than US-Born Americans.” Social Psychiatry And Psychiatric Epidemiology, vol. 52, no. 10, Oct. 2017, pp. 1325–1328. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00127-017-1425-6.

Adult Education Services For Immigrants

The scholarly article I found was titled “Immigrants to the United States and Adult Education Services.” The work was done because there aren’t enough adult education courses, like English as a second language (ESL), provided to immigrants. The work was done by evaluating and researching issues and statistics related to immigration in the United States and adult education classes as well as using personal experiences from immigrants themselves. A result that was found was that undocumented immigrants have a harder time taking advantage of the few courses that are available because they need proof of citizenship to attend these classes. It was also found that classes, especially ESL, are extremely important for immigrants because if they are not proficient in English, they end up with low-wage jobs, unable to acquire new skills and new jobs, and denied equal access to health and other services. The work also portrays how organizations like social service agencies, community centers, and especially churches and libraries are the places that support and provide resources, like adult education services, to immigrants.

Since this was a scholarly article there wasn’t much bias present. The main bias I saw in the article that makes me think it is left-center is the fact that it brings up the Trump administration in a negative connotation, without facts. One line that stuck out to me for this was “Unfortunately, under the Trump administration, the conditions for undocumented immigrants are rapidly changing for the worse; they are likely to experience increasing persecution and discrimination” (Larrotta). Since this article was written in 2017 and cites most of its information from 2015 and some from 2016, I felt like this was more of an opinion addition to the article, rather than facts. It doesn’t use any evidence to back up the claim and the Trump administration had only been in the white house for a year before it was published. Other than this bias, I thought it used a lot of evidence and research, rather than interviews, and they cited a lot of references to back up their background information.

 

Works Cited: Larrotta, Clarena. “Immigrants to the United States and Adult Education Services.” New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, vol. 2017, no. 155, Fall 2017, pp. 61–69. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/ace.20241.