Alabama article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/opinion/on-the-rise-in-alabama.html?scp=4&sq=alabama&st=cse

The article that I chose was "On the Rise in Alabama" I found it on the New York Times. I read about the immigration law that Alabama is trying to pass on immigrants. Alabama wants to create a law to ban immigrants without papers the ability to work, travel, rent, and buy a home. This law is bringing fear to illegal immigrants and makes them not want to work in their jobs or do farmwork. This article reminded me of last class lecture because we observed if these actions are racist or not. I believe that its not completely racist, I find it more unfair because i believe that many immigrants come here for hard work and the governemtn judges them as different people. This article makes me upset because it shows that immigration laws are still a big problem in our society today.

Chapter 14

The stuff that really stood out to me in this chapter was the huge population of Asian, Chinese, and Japenese in America. Japense took over much of the population during the 1910-1970 and were very succesful in this country. I read that most Japenese were making more money and graduating from college than an average "white" American. This really struck out to me because I would expect people who are in their own country at their own comfort zone would achieve more but Japense came into this new country and achieved alot and made a higher income than any other American. The immigration of Japense was very huge to our country it increased population and it changed lives of many of the refugees that were coming to America for a better life.

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 discussed about The Immigration Act of 1924 and the national origins system which ended the total exclusion of racail and ethnic groups from naturalization and immigration. There was a big controvery and tension between the U.S. citizens and immigrants that chapter 13 discusses, it showed how different our country was before and how we still have some racial controversy going on today. It was very interesting to read about the bill that was passed which was the refugee policy which was for a displaced person that had been adopted by the UN's International Refugeee Organization. So basically if you were a victim of the nazi, fascist, Spanish republicans, or refugees of the second world war you were put under this category. I found these laws and controversies against immigrants to be very interesting, I looked at both persepctives. For example Americans didnt want any more immigrants to come into their country because they feared communist and danger of nazis and on the other hand immigrants wanted to leave their country because of the cruelty and unfairness that was happening. Reading this helps me understand how our laws work today and how much they have changed when it comes to immigration. Although immigration laws are still a big issue today in our society i believe it has gotten better than it was back then were everything seemed more unfair and unreasonable.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 introduced much information on the gorwth of immigration in America. Chapter 7 mostly focused on Italians, Greeks, Arabs, and Amerians coming to America and how their journey came to be. I was suprised while I was reading because I did not know the amount of Italians that had come to America. There was twice more Italians than Jews during the ninteenth century in America. I did not know how much until reading this chapter. The largest groups were the French, Greek, and Italain that immigrated to America. It was fascinating reading about how many came to this country because you see how diverse and different any individaul from another country is.

chapter 6

In the second part of chapter 6 I learned much about the German Immigration that happend in the earlier days. I found the German Immigration to be very interesting because alot of Germans came from different backgrounds. For example some spoke different languages but still followed German culture. The German population in America back in the day was very high, so I enjoyed reading about Germans settling their lives in America. Since America is filled with so much diversity and ethnicity I always find it important to stay open-minded to different cultures. I have family in Austria so reading about the descendants from Austria was also interesting because I have been to the country and learned much about their culture. Too think of how it was before and how it is now it's fascinating how different our country is and how much more German culutre we have in our country.

Coming to America Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of the book Coming to America explains about African slaves coming into the "New World" I found this chapter to be very intresting because we don't really get real actual facts about the African slaves coming into America. Until my senior year of high school I started learning more about how americans and europeans kidnapped people from Africa to bring them here as slaves. Although we read this in history books or in movies the author explains in chapter 3 that we wont ever know the reality of an African slave because we will never be in their position. I agree with what he stated because all these facts that we are given arent coming from the real source. I find that trading of slaves was a very important factor in building America because it brought alot of money and labor. Of course now things are completely different from how they use to be, it's always interesting to find out how things started and how they turn out.

Coming to America Chapter 2

Chapter 2 was a very interesting chapter in this book because it talksed about the many rules and belifes America had when it just strated becoming this powerful nation. I learned about the indentured service and also the census of 1790. I never realized how they disrespected Indians due to their race and didnt include them in the constituional mandate. It made them feel low and unwanted by the country they lived in. I learned that many Europeans and African Americans came first here to America also known as the "New World", each person that came to America came here for a new better life and too see what everyone was so excited about this "New World". This chapter reminded much of how our country is in the present time. Since many Europeans and African Americans immigrated into a new country for a better life, we still see many people leaving their country to come to America for a new "better life" until this present day. Although back in the days Europeans and African Americans were very seperated its always fascinating too see how much has changed now. African Americans were known as slaves and Europeans were the "white people" with money. If you look at our country now, we are so diverese its not only Europeans and African Americans, we have a diversty of Asians, Middle Easterns, Central Americans, Mexicans, South Americans. and many other people from countries. This chapter made me understand how America really came to a beginning with the people who migrated from different countries.