Media Reflection Group 2-Jill Clark

“In the mid-1980s, the number of immigrants living in Italy began to steadily increase. Initially, the flow of immigrants was moderate and consisted mostly of movement from North Africa, several Sub-Saharan countries, and the Philippines(Barban & White, 2011).”  

I must admit that I was unaware of the pattern of migration that exists between Africa and Italy. This video titled  Italy Discouraging Flow of Migrants from North Africa exposes the cruel optimism Afirican migrants face upon arrival in Italy. When migrants and refugees travel from Northern Africa to Southern Italy and make it to Italy, they have few places to stay. Many end up in parking lots or on the streets (Drost, 2017). Others are forced into modern-day slavery, working on tomato farms and living in slums. The living conditions of the farmworkers lack plumbing or electricity and can be described as deplorable. Not to mention the dangerous track they must make across the Mediterranean, where the statistics show that only ninety percent survive(Drost, 2017). 

The video does mention children or schooling, nor does the video mention whether children live in these conditions. However, tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrants have arrived in Italy without their parents or family in recent years. These children and teenagers represent a particularly vulnerable category of immigrants. The Italian State welcomes these migrant children and provides them with food, shelter, clothing, and education. Their living arrangements and education are organized around a system that helps develop a personalized approach, including a legal guardian. Part of the local population also helps these youngsters integrate into Italian society (France 24, 2020).

References 

Barban, N., & White, M. J. (2011). Immigrants’ children’s transition to secondary school in Italy. International Migration Review, 45(3), 702–726. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2011.00863.x 

 Drost, Naja. (2017, December 9). Italy discouraging flow of migrants from North Africa. PBS. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/italy-discouraging-flow-of-migrants-from-north-africa#:~:text=Italy%20has%20received%20500%2C000%20migrants,to%20discourage%20the%20migrant%20flow. France 24. (2020). The challenges of integration for unaccompanied migrants in Italy. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFCbbsk7P14.

Jill Clark Group 2

This Youtube video is titled Interviews from Quito: The Flow of Migrants in Ecuador. This interview takes a look at the flow of migrants arriving in Ecuador from neighboring countries. This video reiterates and clarifies some of the main points made by Slodidad Alverez Velazco in her videos: Migrant Flows and Migrant Stories: Racism and Transferable Education. 

The videos discussed the flow of migration to Ecuador from neighboring countries and from countries around the world. The videos discuss the arduous routes that immigrants must take and how a migratory journey can change one’s perception of the world.

What I found most interesting, but not surprising is that the media contributes to misinformation and stereotypes that people may have about immigrants. Consequently, immigrants face descrimination and prejudice and are unable to earn livable wages. The videos noted that immigrants generally are often not looked at for what value they can bring to a county. When in fact, many immigrants come with education and are highly skilled. They should not be looked at as a threat but as an opportunity to generate innovation and growth. 

I was having trouble keeping up with the subtitles, so I asked my friend who is from Ecuador to translate to make sure that I did not miss any important points. After she watched the video’s she told me that her parents migrated to the United States from Ecuador in the 1960s. She said that in Ecuador her father held a degree in engineering. However, because of the language barrier, and racism, he was never able to work as an engineer in the United States. 

Refrences 

telesur. (2019). Interviews from quito: flow of migration from ecuador. Retrieved February 3, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz7AC1wI0UQ. 

After reading about the theories, I became interested in learning more about how the Dependency Theory affects educational systems in periphery countries like Nepal. Periphery countries are those that are less developed than the semi-periphery and core countries. The country of Nepal fits this definition. It is politically unstable, it has a corrupt bureaucracy, there is a lack of industry, and Its political situations have always been compromised because of interference from China, India (Kalam, 2020).

In this very interesting documentary The Most Dangerous Ways to School, the children of Nepal have to travel for more than two hours to get to school. In their travels, they must cross a dangerous river on a cable in a basket. This video also brings to light the economic and social disparities between the rich and the poor.

It is possible for an underdeveloped county to become developed? According to Keynes’ economic approach, in order for a country to become developed it must improve the following: 1.) develop an important internal effective demand in terms of domestic markets; 2)  recognize that the industrial sector is crucial to achieving better levels of national development, especially due to the fact that this sector, in comparison with the agricultural sector, can contribute more value-added to products; 3)  increase worker’s income as a means of generating more aggregate demand in national market conditions. 4. To promote a more effective government role in order to reinforce national development conditions and to increase national standards of living (Reyes, 2020) However, is this possible when the Dependency Theory is designed to benefit core countries?

Jill Clark

Although Haiti has had many tragedies and is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, It is has a rich history and the Island full of vivid beauty. I chose this video because fifty percent of my students are from Haiti. In fact, I have one student that just came to the United States about two months ago. Am also intrigued by how they have endured so much, but yet remain strong.