Author: SARAH GURSAHAI

The videos “Immigration Nation Episode 1: Installing Fear” and “Think you Know ICE”, were two interesting videos which gave me a new perspective on how ICE operates. The first video shows a negative side of ICE whereas the short video shows a positive side of ICE portraying them as heroes.

The video titled “Installing. Fear’: on Netflix helped me to understand better how the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operated after President Trump signed an executive order to have illegal immigrants across the country removed. Before watching this video, I never knew that ICE had to undergo special training to have illegal immigrants removed. It was also very sad for me to see the process of having illegal immigrants detained; especially. Young children. The video was very emotional to watch and see the fear and sadness in people’s eyes. ICE was always known for detaining illegal. Immigrants; but only those who committed criminal acts. Now, with the new executive order which Trump signed ICE is detaining innocent people who are just working hard to earn an honest living.

The second video however shows ICE in a more positive view. The video shows ICE committing heroic acts that saved people from fraud and theft.

3/5

I find the article titled “How Coronavirus could make people move” very informing. I can completely relate to what the article is saying.  The Coronavirus has caused a major upheaval in all of our lives.  The virus changed our social lives, our work lives as well as our personal lives.  The coronavirus has changed migration drastically. For example: during the peak of the pandemic in New York, many persons migrated to different states where the number of cases were much lower. Thousands of persons were unemployed, some persons were not able to afford the basic necessities such as food, rent and clothing.

The Coronavirus has caused a major impact on my life as well, right before the pandemic started my mom had plans to migrate to NYC, but was unable to do so due to the virus.  One benefit I would say from the pandemic, is being at home and having more time for myself and did not have the stress of waking very early to travel for work. One skill I have developed while working from home was to be more organized. Being restricted. To digital communication with my co-workers and classmates did cause a challenge for me as persons were always late to meetings, and sometimes did not pay attention and was zoned out a lot. I think one way to overcome these challenges is simply by speaking with my co-workers.

I have always heard of the phrase “Narrative Analysis”. I never really understood what it meant, nor did I ever research on it. After reading Sonja Foss’s article titled “Narrative Criticism” I now have a much better understanding. After reading the article I understand that a narrative helps us to understand what an experience is about and helps us to justify the reasons why we make certain decisions.
According to Foss, there are four main components to a narrative. A narrative must comprise of two events. Events must also be connected in a narrative.

Recent Artifacts that I can conduct a narrative analysis of that is. Related to immigration are:
1. Social Media
2. Documentaries.

The artifact that I will write about is the image of the Muslim lady.

Characters
1. The Muslim lady wearing her Hijab.
2. The ICE agent that arrested the lady.

Event that took place:
1. The ICE agent arresting the lady, seemingly because she is Muslim.
2. The torch of Lady Liberty fell on the ground.

Immigrants face a lot of difficulties coming to the United States and when they reach they work tirelessly to achieve a better standard of living for themselves and their families. They contribute tremendously to the economy as they work very hard and also pay taxes. In this regard, I believe that the government should provide more assistance to persons at the borders so that they do not face this much difficulty entering the United States. I often hear about immigrants coming from different countries but I never really understood the in-dept experiences and difficulties they face in reaching here until I listened to the podcast ‘’The Outcrowd”. It was heartbreaking to hear that there are no sorts of amenities for example: washroom facilities for persons for persons to take care of their hygiene. This resonated with me deeply as I came to understand that the conditions for persons, especially young children camping out at the facilities are inhumane. There are just five toilets for over 2,500 persons, so it is highly impossible for everyone to get a chance to use the toilets.

In my opinion I think that the podcast allowed persons to speak in Spanish so that they could truly express how they feel. We the listeners, will be able to hear the sadness and frustration in their voices and be able to understand their situation better.

These notes respond to Howard Zinn, “A People’s History of the United States, Scott Forseman, Social Studies Textbook and NPR the Movement of Indigenous People Day.

After reading both articles, it is clear to me that the main aim of  both Zinn and Forseman is to educate people about Christopher Columbus. These were both interesting reads for me because it gave me a better insight into who Christoper Columbus really was. Zinn portrayed Christopher Columbus asa merciless person who killed the natives while Forseman portrayed Columbus as a kind-hearted person who has the Indians best interest at heart.

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hello everyone,

My header image portrays a very powerful image to me because it shows persons in search of a better life. After much research I find it fascinating that migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million.