Media Reflection: group 3

Uncategorized

In this video that I have shared, the speaker shares her experience as a South Indian child who moved from Los Angeles to Singapore at the age of seven.  The speaker, Smrithi, shares the impact of being a minority in a new place and the impact of the assimilation process in her life.  

In her story, she shares how her family made sure that she was immersed in her culture growing up.  Her family enrolled her in traditional dance lessons, music classes, language classes and provided her with role models from her South Indian culture.  She discussed how she felt secure in her South Indian culture, but also recognized that living in Los Angeles, she was a minority.  As a result of her parents immigrating to the United States, she would likely fit in the minority category of immigrant minority.  She would be considered an immigrant minority because she did experience language and cultural differences in her upbringing.  

At eleven years old, Smrithi and her family moved to Singapore.  Initially, she noticed the ethnic diversity and that Singapore is a nation made up of immigrants from South Asian countries, including South India.  She was surprised to be around people who looked more like  her and that her culture was more common in her new city.  In Singapore, she and her sister attended an American International school.  As Smrithi stated, “as I would soon find out, I was a majority in the city and a minority at school” (2:37).  At school, Smrithi began experiencing bullying. This caused her to begin to alter her appearance in an effort to assimilate with her peers.  She discusses straightening her curly hair and using lightening creams on her skin.  Her goal was to hide her physical South Indian traits and blend in with the Euro-centric appearance of her classmates.  Additionally, she stopped speaking her language, stopped bringing South Indian foods to school, and stopped watching South Indian movies.  At this point in her life, Smrithi still fits into the immigrant minority category, but now it is impacting her in a different way.  It is evident that she feels a significant amount of pressure to “blend in”, or assimilate, with the majority culture that existed in her school.   

References:

Ogbu, J. U. (1987) Variability in minority school performance: A problem in search of an explanation. In Anthropology & Education Quarterly Vol.18 No.4 [pp.312-334].

Module 5 Collective Takeaways

M5 Collective Takeaways

Anthropology of Transnationalism

Group 4 Synthesis Laura (Nicole), Elizabeth, Megan
  • How does transnationalism differ from assimilation theories you learned in the last week? Reflect on what it means for children to keep flexible identities as they enter schools in different countries. 

According to Louie, (2006), transnationalism refers to “immigrants maintaining connections to their country of origin and using a dual frame of reference to evaluate their experiences and outcomes in the country in which they have settled.” This is different from assimilation, which in the previous module was described by Greenman as the “process through which immigrants gradually shed the cultures and customs of their home countries and adopted the language, expressive habits, and eventually the spatial distribution and socioeconomic characteristics of ‘mainstream’ Americans – usually defined as white middle class Protestants” (Gordon, 1964, as cited in Greenman, 2011, p. 32). To break that down, transnationalism is different from assimilation because rather than assuming or even insisting that a person fully takes on the culture and language of the receiving country as in assimilation, it is the ideology that a person can maintain important aspects of the sending country while adopting aspects from the receiving country. The theory of transnationalism takes a broader perspective and considers a more complex and symbiotic look at cultural identity and family context.  However, both theories of transnationalism and assimilation highlight the many challenges immigrants face in moving to and settling in their new homes.

For children attending schools in different countries, it is important to have flexible identities as it allows those students to not only adapt to their school’s surroundings and expectations, but it may provide them the opportunity to use what they know from their own backgrounds to inform their learning. Children who are able to maintain a transnational identity can compare who they are in one school/place to who they are in another. However, in thinking about flexible identities, it seems that requiring a student to have a flexible identity highlights how schools may not be changing to support their students but are having students change to excel at the school. If schools are going to “nurture a growing number of complex skills, competencies, and sensibilities in students to equip them to engage in the globally linked economies and societies of our time,” then schools have to make sure they are flexible in working with students from all over the world. Schools and communities cannot operate in a monolithic society, and in a world that is continuously more interconnected, it is harmful to assume that people must assimilate to a single culture or language. 

One school in New Orleans, Louisiana has embraced the ideology of transnationalism, creating a newcomer academy that offers a year of intense immersion while also offering a significant amount of language support in Spanish. Las Sierras Academy currently works with 40 newcomers in high school in the New Orleans area; however it is assumed that there are currently over 700 newcomers in the area. This program welcomes students from Latin America and the culture, traditions and languages they already speak add value to the school, and it essentially functions similar to the dual language immersion schools (similar to the video on the blog) that are emerging across the country in elementary settings but is targeted for older students.

  • What is the meaning behind the assumption that to assimilate is also to succeed? That assumption is not always the truth and can be problematic for teachers and educators in the global community.

Many people believe that assimilation leads to success for several reasons. They believe that not only understanding the dominant language and culture but fully operating in them will lead to greater success on standardized testing and give students a greater opportunity for post-secondary education and entrance into the job market. Also, the differences that students bring from other cultures are many times seen as a deficit rather than a wealth of knowledge and experience. To succeed, from this perspective, immigrants must assimilate, erase their original cultures, and adopt the culture of the new, receiving community.  This viewpoint does not honor the full dignity of the immigrant, and insists on a change in order to be accepted. Although the assumption that to assimilate is to succeed is not as widely held as it once was, there are a variety of ways in which our society functions that still require people to walk, talk, and look the part of what the dominant society sees as a successful person. Assimilation is to succeed is definitely a biased idea since no matter where you are, the dominant society that you are engaging with is going to see itself as having the most desirable qualities. For someone who wants to succeed in that society, it can be hard not to assimilate (at least to an extent) when that might be what is needed to achieve the goals one is aspiring toward. This is unfortunate, but it happens everyday. In America for example, learning English can be a big part of reaching success as it allows one to communicate using the dominant language, which may provide more opportunities compared to if one didn’t speak English. However despite all of this, it is important to keep in mind that everyone has a different idea of what success looks like. Educators should keep this in mind and encourage students to achieve whatever they set out to do

References

Greenman, E. (2011). Assimilation choices among immigrant families: Does school context matter?. International Migration Review, 45(1), 29-67.

Las Sierras Academy. G.W. Carver High School. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2022, from https://gwc.collegiateacademies.org/about/las-sierras-academy

Louie, V. (2006). Growing up ethnic in transnational worlds: Identities among second-generation Chinese and Dominicans. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 13(3), 363-394.

Media Reflection 5.3- Anthropology of Transnationalism

Uncategorized

Elizabeth Lake- Group 4

Video: Do you feel American? Immigrant Parents vs First Generation | Middle Ground– https://youtu.be/jZA34onP-ZA

In the video I shared, immigrant parents and first generation Americans come together to discuss their experiences with ties to cultural roots, speaking different languages, in how certain topics are viewed and openly discussed in one’s culture (e.g.mental health), and parenting. All of this connects to the several challenges and perspectives that having a transnational identity may hold. 

In Louie (2006), there is mention of how important it is to consider where the “old country” is situated in the lives of immigrants and their children; and the ways in which children of immigrants relate to their parents’ experiences and views on culture can vary greatly. For instance, some first generation Americans have a strong connection to their families’ background as they may have an open dialogue with their parents about culture as well as take it upon themselves to adopt/ continue cultural practices and traditions. For other first generation Americans, it can be very difficult to relate to or understand their immigrant parent’s experiences and culture, especially when the life they have created for themselves in America does not always coincide with the generational patterns and expectations of one’s familial culture.

When these divides occur, I think it makes it a lot more challenging to see exactly where assimilation lies because while it may seem like some children of immigrants have assimilated fully to the American ways, is it really assimilation if American practices are all those children have ever known? However, even first generation Americans sometimes struggle to feel American because their identity is pulled into different directions. For example, one of the participants in the video explained how they “don’t feel Asian enough or American enough” because depending on who they are engaging with–Asian friends or American friends–they get judged on how they present themselves in either culture. Immigrant parents also go through these transnational challenges. One parent in the video said that it is not so much about him accepting America and becoming American, but that it is more so about wanting America to accept him.

Louie, V. (2006) Growing up ethnic in transnational worlds: Identities among second-generation Chinese and Dominicans. In Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power Vol.13 No.3 [363-394]

Media Reflection 5.3

Media Reflections

The state of Latinx education: A fast-growing future workforce, systemic barriers, and la lucha by Rupen Fofaria

Media Reflection by Megan Gavrillen Group 4

This article by Fofaria discusses the state of education in my state of NC through the lens of Latinx immigrants.  

Currently in her senior year at UNCG, Celeste Cervantes shares her experiences as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in the US.  Citing factors such as vast differences between the schools in Mexico and in the United States, the language barrier, and the lack of communication between her parents and her school, she says she was lucky to achieve her goals because caring adults and teachers were able to guide her.  She acknowledges that other classmates were not as lucky.  In particular, she recounts a young man who pretended to struggle with English so that he could be assigned “easier” curriculum through ESL status.

According to the article, one in six children through age 17 in North Carolina is Hispanic, and while “more than half of all North Carolina high school graduates enroll in postsecondary….less than 40% among our Hispanic graduates.” 

This module’s readings highlight patterns of marginalization among immigrants in the education system.  The focus on high-stakes testing, which requires academic language proficiency, and reform initiatives which often “ignore and avoid engaging new immigrant students” are some of the obstacles outlined (Suarez-Orozco, 2011, p. 313).  The separation “experienced by immigrant-origin language learners… results in unequal resources, lowered expectations, and insufficient exposure to high-level academic content and critical-thinking skills” (Suarez-Orozco, 2011, p. 317). 

Another interviewee in the article, Carlos Ramirez, shares that as a student in California, he felt like “ my language … was erased and … we were taught to be less than.”  The perspectives in this article correlate with the “othered” position outlined in our reading (Vigil, 2002, as cited in Suarez-Orozco, 2011, p. 317).  This “erasing” also connects to the exploration of transnational identities in the module.

Suárez-Orozco, M. M., Darbes, T., Dias, S. I., & Sutin, M. (2011). Migrations and schooling. Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, 311-328.

Transnationalism and Dual-language Immersion

Uncategorized

In the United States, dual-language immersion is becoming more popular. This is different than a bilingual education because in most bilingual education programs, children come from similar backgrounds and speak the same home language. In school, they are learning a second language and enhancing their skills in the home language. Conversely, in a dual-language immersion program, the student body is split evenly of what home language is spoken, and students spend half the day focusing equally on both languages. Students in both groups are engaged in learning the cultures of both languages, and students are not set apart for not being able to speak the principal language of the school. Many times, students who have immigrated or students who are born to immigrants are set apart and placed in ESL programs until they attain a level of proficiency. It is difficult for students to learn when all of the teaching happens in a language they are not familiar with, causing students to struggle. When students are able to engage in learning in the same language they speak at home, even when paired with a second language, they are more likely to embrace aspects of both the sending and receiving cultures. Additionally, dual-language immersion programs promote biliteracy, meaning that students have the ability to read and write adequately in both languages. Many students that are put into ESOL programs, especially at a young age are never given the opportunity to learn to read and write in their first language. Therefore, they may grow up to be bilingual, but cannot read and write well in their home language.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1UlcByWXNQ

Refugees from Afganistan seek community in Utah.

Uncategorized

As December 2021, 440 Afgani refugees arrived in Utah with the expectation of at least that many more by February. 2022. Many of these families have had extended stays in hotels and when available are able to receive apartments or homes with the assistance of basic needs in the form of food stamps. This is normally how refugees are housed, but given the significant increase the effective solutions have left many new immigrants extremely isolated and unsure how to begin living and working. However what has made a different is people in the community reaching out to welcome newcomers. Stories of people donating afgan rice, oil, and sharing meals as well as inviting some to a Persian New year had made huge differences. Often it is easy to assume the most important part of the immigration narrative is economic factors. There is also a need for social nourishment. Community organized food and other needs help connect these people to their local area. What they need beyond food and shelter is to learn how to survive in the United States, public transport, getting jobs, education ect. Part of the migration narrative that draws from the leaders is realizing that it takes a social network for people to make their journey to the destination and a social network to help them integrate. It very difficult to just drop into a new location and so friendship and connection is critical.

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/12/18/22840178/how-utahns-are-filling-the-gaps-supporting-afghan-refugees

3.4 Collective Takeaways for Group 1

M3 Collective Takeaways

Colleen Burke & Oressa Gray-Mullen

  • Reflect on how people in countries may have such vast distinct experiences, but they also share similar hardships and benefits. What are these features?

Many immigrants have migrated due to the conditions of their home country. Regardless of where they might be from, they may have moved for similar reasons such as war, persecution, the pursuit of “better” education or finances, more job opportunities, freedom of speech, and other difficulties that may motivate someone to leave their known culture and life. Unfortunately, many migrants are “de-skilled” as their education and professional knowledge are not recognized as they migrate or after migration (Velasco, n.d.). In her media reflection, Jill Clark urges that immigrants should not be seen as a threat but “as an opportunity to generate innovation and growth.” Fears perpetuated by the media and politicians are unsupported, as “at the national level, immigrants contribute more to the generation of wealth in the host country than they may consume in public service” (Cortina & Ochoa-Reza, 2013, p.159). With such stigmas, the receiving nation misses out on the benefits of the human capital and the useful, cyclical knowledge of migrants that could be utilized to better manage migration.

Additionally, the demographics of migrants have shifted. According to the New Economics of Labor Migration theory, migration decisions are made within families or communities to maximize future expectations for migrants. Experiences can differ based on age and gender. Women traditionally prioritize family needs, while men often use resources for saving and investments to prepare for their planned return home. Women migrate primarily for employment reasons and secondarily for family reunification reasons. This was poorly studied until the 1980s as women were understood as accompanying dependents.

The migration journey may have similar challenges and experiences comparatively, such as shared resources, being scammed out of money, or ending up in a cycle of entering a new country and being sent back. One example of this is the story Velasco (n.d.) tells of Joseph from Zimbabwe. On his migration journey to the USA, Joseph was conned out of money and was stuck in Brazil then Ecuador, where he had to remain for years before he could afford to complete his goal of reaching the United States (Velasco, n.d.). Joseph did not give up because he was not welcome in Ecuador and because he was driven by a vision of journalistic freedom in America. Migrants accumulate knowledge in a cycle of movement and learning, which is shared in the digital safe spaces that connect them to other migrants and their home country (Velasco, n.d.). This contrasts with migrants’ potential experiences in their target country or a transit country like Ecuador, where there is a hostile environment for immigrants (Velasco, n.d.) or a stigma on discussions of documentation and migration (Gallo, n.d.).

Disruptions in a family can be experienced by any migrant and are impactful in complex ways resulting in varied motivations depending on the migrant’s physical and emotional relationship to their family. If they are deported like Princess’ father or migrated with the hopes to bring their family to them or to return home to them, this will affect their financial and physical movement. Velasco (n.d.) explains that movement is a story of power because movement indicates a desire for difference in circumstance. 

  • Since we will read a chapter that discusses schooling specifically, reflect on how the other contexts could potentially be different for students. What does it mean for a discussion of culture?

Throughout Sarah Gallo’s (n.d.) interview, she touches on how migration and immigration status have a significant impact on the students and how they can learn. Some may have a different level of academic English (or another language), making it difficult to “keep up.” Classroom, school, and community culture also dictate how and if difficult conversations are breached. Gallo (n.d.) pointed out that schools in Mexico talk about undocumented statuses with ease, but it is taboo to discuss this within the American school system. There was a large difference between Princess’ second and third-grade teacher’s support offerings. Her third-grade teacher paid attention to her needs and also created opportunities for many students to come together with different but related troubles. If students come from vastly different backgrounds, it produces an opportunity for them to learn from each other and be supported. It can also lead people to feel othered or lead an unsupported educator to be unsure how to make the curriculum culturally appropriate. Educators must receive professional development to be aware of and ready for the challenges of students who are immigrants or children of immigrants.

Considering family dynamics, if someone within the family or family member is deported, that disruption can cause a great deal of difficulty for a student, both in their personal lives and classroom performance. Gender inequalities are a “powerful factor in precipitating migration, particularly when women have economic, political and social expectations” that they cannot fulfill under those unequal conditions (Cortina & Ochoa-Reza, 2013, p.159). This friction causes the movement, but is not necessarily resolved by movement. Host country family gender roles such as mothers being expected to communicate with the teacher or being the one to provide their child tutelage can create friction between the school culture and the family’s culture or ability to deliver. The father’s role in a student’s life can at times be overlooked, and men are more likely to be detained and deported (Gallo, n.d.). It is essential to understand family perspectives on good parent involvement as a teacher with a vulnerable student. Change in the students’ life (environment, risk, family support, finances) and challenges to meeting expectations as a family can lead to trouble in academic performance. 

  • As you watch Sarah Gallo and Soledad Alvarez videos you should consider how migration changes and shapes people’s lives in relation to the theories that we learned in our previous module.

Velasco (n.d.) elaborates on Ecuador’s part in the pipeline between the south and north Americas. In Joseph’s story, his determination pushes him along a transnational journey, one that is bound by geographical lines despite globalization and the world system’s emphasis on movement away from nation-state boundaries. Economic opportunities are bound by residing in a nation’s boundaries. The US-Mexican Bracero program created new aspirations for migration to American, chasing a more permanent dream of financial opportunity (Cortina & Ochoa-Reza, 2013, p.154). Ease of entry and potential for opportunity determine migration patterns. For example, in the case of Poland becoming part of the EU, fears that migrants would move to the better welfare opportunities in Germany did not come to fruition due to bureaucratic hurdles and satisfactory existing opportunities in Poland (Cortina & Ochoa-Reza, 2013, p.153). 

A visible area of deterritorialization is the digital space, where these non-citizens can exchange knowledge and seek support to reach better economic opportunities or safety unbound by national allegiance. In these social relations the stretching emphasized in the globalization theory is facilitated by communications, media, and transportation. If you consider the impact of media and categorize migrant motivation as the ethnocentric seeking of the modern, industrialized condition of core, first-world nations, such as in modernization or dependency theory- then there should be more migrants flocking to the first world, whereas Gallo (n.d.) shares that more people are currently moving north from the USA to Mexico despite previous trends. This means third world countries’ culture and migrant motivation must be destigmatized and more accurately examined through data. 

In relation to the theories we have learned about recently, women are unconsidered despite the impact of gender on migration patterns. Traditional immigration theories are largely “gender blind” in their descriptions and focus on the labor aspect of the phenomenon (Cortina & Ochoa-Reza, 2013, p.143). However, it is also known that research on female migrants was lacking until the 1980s and so theories were not blind but male-focused. Piore (1979) attempted to revise this by illustrating a gendered transnationalism perspective on migration in his book “Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor and Industrial Societies” (Cortina & Ochoa-Reza, 2013, p.143). Gender in migration research has grown and developed in the last 40 years, after those major theories were established, but now better fitting theories can be established through micro accounts of female migration and macro data with a lens for gendered considerations.

References:

Cortina, J., & Ochoa-Reza, E. (2013). Women, Children, and Migration: DEVELOPMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS. In J. Cortina & E. Ochoa-Reza (Eds.), New Perspectives on International Migration and Development (pp. 139–163). Columbia University Press.

Gallo, S. (n.d.). Comparative International Education: Understanding the Different Stories of Children (G. Oliveira, Interviewer) [Interview]. In Boston College Canvas.

Gallo, S. (n.d.). Home and School Connections in Immigrant Communities (G. Oliveira, Interviewer) [Interview]. In Boston College Canvas.

Gallo, S. (n.d.). Princess’s Story (G. Oliveira, Interviewer) [Interview]. In Boston College Canvas.

Velasco, S. A. (n.d.). Migration Flows (G. Oliveira, Interviewer) [Interview]. In Boston College Canvas.

Velasco, S. A. (n.d.). Migrant stories, racism and non-transferable education (G. Oliveira, Interviewer) [Interview]. In Boston College Canvas.

Media Reflection 3.3

Media Reflections

Group 2- Yan Li

This is a sticker or bookmark I created after my Arrupe trip to Guatemala. During the trip, we stayed in a village with different families and saw a glimpse into their everyday lives. My host family was Gonzolo (on the right in the photo), Teresa (on the left in the photo), and their children.

The videos and readings from this module reminded me a bit of the trip, because the module highlighted the importance of understanding stories. Dr. Alvarez and Sarah Gallo are inspiring because they do not try to make assumptions. They go into the everyday lives of migrants and try to understand them. Before the trip to Guatemala, I was completely unaware of the personal and collective struggles of Guatemalan people.

During my stay with Gonzolo’s family, we had many conversations around the dinner table. The other Boston College girl that was with me spoke fluent Spanish, so she translated every sentence for me. When talking about the Mexican-American border, Gonzolo said that “We are treated like less than animals. Even animals could eat the grass from the other side of the wall”. They are happy for their friends that have successfully crossed the border, but they knew that it would be too dangerous to do so.

I thought it was very interesting when Dr. Alvarez mentioned in the video that contemporary globalization intentionally covers up undocumented travel. She mentions choosing between two evils of life of experiencing racism, violence, under-the-table unemployment in their home country or facing the same issues in the new country. The video definitely helped me gain new perspectives on what I had heard from Guatemalans, and helped me consider the bigger issue of migrant struggles and feeling unwelcome everywhere.

Collective Takeaway, Group 1, Feb 4

Uncategorized

Group 1: Colleen Burke, Oressa Gray-Mullen

How do the theoretical frameworks evolve and change from one to the other?

Starting with Modernization, this framework is a bit more narrow and highlights a divide between “civilized” and “uncivilized,” viewing certain societies (modern) as more productive. Within the Modernization framework, it is expected that in order to become modern, a nation or community must adopt the values and structure of a “modern” state and replace their traditions. This modern pursuit is a western ethnocentric ideal based upon the nation-state framework and was established during high American and Soviet influence after WWII. Modernization expects a radical but gradual and lengthy process towards homogeneousness as the third world countries move towards the first.

This moves forward into Dependency, with the idea that underdeveloped states are subordinate to the first world core. This concept was developed from neo-marxism and Keynes’ economic theory. However, one of the main differences and changes from Modernization to Dependency, is that within the Dependency framework it is believed that “peripheral nations experience most economic development when ties to the core are weakest.” The many are marginalized as social inequalities and economic growth rise during economic denationalization and domestic industrialization. 

Beyond this, we come to the World Systems Model, in which the economy and framework is viewed at a more macro level, looking at it as a global, dependent network rather than as separate nations/regions. As international communications developed and more multinational events and change occurred, the World Systems Model grew in the 1960s. 

Which ultimately leads us to Globalization, a framework that highlights social relations stretching facilitated by communications, media, and transportation and allows room for conditions to vary based on cultural factors within each nation. While also transcending the nation-state divides, globalization expects deterritorialization and radical new relationships. The goal of Globalization appears to be for more interconnectedness while attempting to “transcend homogenization” which is very far from Modernization, which assumes things must be replaced and taken over in a way.

How do the frameworks lack further explanations as to how people live their lives? 

Looking at theories of Modernization and Dependency, there is a clear ethnocentrism. However, there are ways of reaching modern ideals of success that do not match the ethnocentric view of modernization. Additionally, the fluctuation of wealth in third world countries diminish dependency theory. There is information missing on how the “periphery” nations or the third world countries maintain their own independence and cultural practices, as both theories call for them to essentially bow to “core” nation attributes in order to rise. There is a clear misunderstanding of the third world’s conditions and desires for progress and how that progress would look best for them (rather than assuming the “modern” Western states know best). It is

interesting to look at World Systems and Globalization and consider how we maintain and share individual cultures, communities, and practices while becoming so interconnected with technology and communication. Although this scale feels all encompassing, it is also too macroscopic to realistically reflect on people’s lives. 

How does the economics piece connect people in different ways through mobility and education?Over time, major changes in theory are due to political motion and human events both effecting or being the product of economic change internationally and within different regimes. Multinational economics has the capacity to strengthen bonds between nations through interdependent trade and a capitalist free flowing market. This can lead to denationalized economics; the capitalistic market is central to Globalization and Dependency theory rather than the nation-states bound geographically. This demands change in education or the thinking around people’s identities and goals. In the world systems theory, a nation’s economic system should be understood in relation to the world-system- a change in perception for economic gain. In modernization, the modern ideals are built around industrial progress for economic gain. To become “civilized” means to unlearn or leave behind the uncivilized. Depending on where you began, economics may be a motivation for people to migrate or seek out education in another space, specifically a wealthy first world country. It also has the capacity to connect people through jobs, or encourage movement to different nations in search of a new job or new opportunities for economic growth.

Media Reflection 3.3

Uncategorized

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.