Post Mortem #1

for my book, 'we are not from here' by T.J. Sanchez, it wasn't really about easing them into the culture of the United states. it was more about getting them to the U.S. in the first place, and out of harms way.  

The Main characters start off in their home town of Puerto Barrios. where they come into conflict with the local gang;lead by Rey who has made Pequenia have his baby, and wants to force her into marrying him.  

This leads to piquenia, and her siblings fleeing their home to find a better life in the U.S. away from the threat of gang violence. 

Unfortunately the youngest of them, Chico, did not make it to the end of the journey. 

What are some things that Americans can do better to help ease immigrants into our culture? 

it would be beneficial to immigrants if the legal system wasn't too dense to get through. Though it wasn't directly covered in the story, the reason Pulga, the second youngest, spent so much time in the immigration camp was because his sister Piquenia had to go through all kinds of red tape just to find a way for Pulga to enter the U.S. as a minor. In the end this ending conflict was resolved when they found an adult who could support them while living in the U.S. 

for my book born a crime by Trevor Noah it was about a African child Born a Crime is Trevor Noah's story  about growing up in africa as the child of a Black mother and a white  father, which was illegal at the time. Through personal stories, Noah reflects on the challenges of being a mixed child in a seperated world, the impact of his childhood on his family, and his close relationship with his mother. The book mixes humor and perserverance to explore themes of racism, and survival in a seperated world.

"What do you mean,Why are we running? Those men were trying to kill us."-trevor Noah(17)

a Ted talk I found was similar was “What Marrying an Immigrant Taught Me About Cultural Bias” – Kyle Quinn

a talk about how a person was turned on so quickly for even being suspicious of being a immigrant.

"the BMV rep saw that green card the reaction we got was shocking. She got up out of her chair began to raise her voice and in a very quick and accusatory way started demanding additional documents including mine which we hadn’t yet presented. She looks at me and says “where’s you green card?” And I said “I don’t have one.” And she said “Then you can’t get a driver’s license” and she pushed back our documents, she leaned over the counter, pushed us out of the way and waved on the next people to become attended to.  And when she did that I grabbed her arm and I put it down I said “I beg your pardon.” I said--I know I’m so nice I said “I beg your pardon”--I said “I don’t have a green card because I’m a U.S. citizen.” And when I said that she stopped dead in her tracks, looked up at me a little bit confused, and this is all she could conjure up and I’ll do the action “Well, why didn’t you say so?” And all I kept thinking was “why does it even matter?”-Quinn

What are some things that Americans can do better to help ease immigrants into our culture? 

to not be so quick to decide a persons fate and to understand them their identity their story to not be hasty with decisions you cant take back

In the speech, Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive, by Phuc Tran, he talks about the subjunctive term and how it has affected his life, his escape from Vietnam, and his parents lives. At one part of his speech he had told his father that he was going on a leave of absence from his job, his father couldn't really understand what he meant because of the language barrier as Tran says, “Even though I assured my dad that it was just a leave of absence, he was unable to comprehend what was for him the sheer uncertainty of not having a job. What he knew were just the facts that I had had a job and that I was not going to have a job. Imagine then going from a language with no subjunctive, like Vietnamese, to a language with the subjunctive-rich fabric, like English.” This helps to show that Americans need to help ease immigrants into the American culture by showing how Tran’s father needs help understanding the language, as in Vietnamese there is no subjunctive case. Americans need to be more patient and helpful to immigrants.

In Jhumpa Lahiri’s book, the namesake, It explores the beginning of immigration, pregnancy, and raising a child in a country completely foreign to them. It is also about the life of the first child of immigrants in the US, and his struggle with the culture around his family and the country he calls home. The parents, Ashima and Ashoke, and the child, Gogol, have recently moved into a white American neighborhood. As the only non-white family they feel the need to try to fit in with the neighborhood, and feel like they need the help of their non-American friends to make decisions as they are all new and help each other. So they help each other make decisions, “Each step, each acquisition, no matter how small, involves deliberation, consultation with Bengali friends. Was there a difference between a plastic rake and a metal one” (Lahiri pg 64)? This shows how the immigrants feel the need to be as American as they need to not have to stand out or be the subject of negative reactions.

What Americans can do better to help ease immigrants into our culture is by helping the immigrants get accustomed to their new world and being patient with them also. Immigrants are trying to live in a place they have had no connections with, the least any native can be is kind and helpful.

In the Ted talk, "3 questions to ask yourself about U.S. citizenship," it's about this guy Jose Antonio and his knowledge on U.S. history and how he doesn't have a licence. He also explains how you or someone in your family's history was or is a immigrant. 

"What kind of citizenship are we applying for?" This shows him wondering like even if he is a U.S. citizen he still gets looks bad upon and they still dont treat him right or equal. 

n my book, Out of Nowhere, by Marina Pedians, is about a high schooler named Tom and he's going through a lot of changes like when 4 immigrants come to his school just post of 9/11. One of the immigrants is named Saeed he is a immigrant from Somalia, and he joins the soccer team. His home life is not the best and he has Tom fill out Saeed's paper with all of his infortmation so Saeed can play soccer. Tom and Donnie got in some trouble when they painted the rival schools mascots special rock and got caught. Tom got sentenced with 100 community service hours. 

"People who were born and raised in this town are on waiting lists for housing, while these folks show up by the bus loads and are handed a clean, free apartment and a check from the government every month while they sit at home" (Pedians 144). This shows him talking about how unfair it is for them to just come here and get all their food and money handed to them. they think its unfair and want a change but they get sent here and cant do anything about it. 

you can help immigration by donating money to the organizations who support them or you can start a fundraising for immigration. you can adapt to immigrants by remaining optimistic and avoiding judging others. If you think about just not judging a book by its cover and treating everyone equal they would live way better lives. This ties in with my book because he's talking about how they just came to their town and took all their houses without their say but they're coming from a bad place and you should just be happy for them for them getting out of where they were before.

The book All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir is about a boy named Salahudin who is dealing with an alcoholic father and a sick mother. Then one day while he is helping his father who is drunk, he isn’t at the hospital when she dies. There is also Noor who is his ex-girlfriend who wants to go to college but feels like she can’t because her Uncle(Chachu) wants her to run the liquor store. Salahudin does not work a job but still has to try and support his father and sick mother. While Noor is working at the liquor store but wants to further her education, she feels like she can’t because her Chachu saved her from an earthquake and dropped out of college to give her a life in America. One thing Americans could do to help Immigrants ease into American culture in my book would be if they would show more support for their emotions. When Sal’s mother dies he feels like he can't cry, especially in front of people, “My eyes get hot. Don't cry, Salahudin. Once you start, it’s over”(Tahir 51). This quote helps to show that Americans should make mental help accessible for immigrants and make them feel more at home, so that they can feel like they are allowed to cry and show how they are feeling.

In the Ted Talk “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” by Phuc Tran, he talks about how Vietnamese people do not have things like “would have” or “could have,” which is subjunctive language, which overall makes them more positive because they think more positively. He talks about the positives and negatives of subjunctive language. Tran says, “The subjunctive allows us to be creative, but it also allows us to become mired and regret.” (Tran). This quote perfectly explains what he’s saying, it explains how the subjunctive is good but can be bad. If you also think about it a different way the quote also is a good example of the differences between languages and cultures due to the gap and changes. 

My book “Out of Nowhere” by Maria Padian is about a boy from Maine who’s in high school, named Tom Bouchard. In the book, Tom is the captain of the school soccer team, which is home to his Somali teammate Saeed and a few other Somali refugees who joined the team, who often face struggles with various things, including racism due to their origin and reason for being there. Throughout the book, Tom deals with a lot, including the team facing racism and struggles with his own life and his girlfriend. Other characters to note are Samira, who is Saeed’s sister and speaks better English than he does, and Coach Miller, who is the soccer coach. “But you still have choices, no matter how big or small your luck quotient is.” (Padian 29). This quote is saying no matter what happens and whether the odds are in your favor or not, you always have multiple options and it can work out.

Some things Americans can do better to help immigrants ease into our culture are, for example, having more sources of help and guidance for immigrants to go to for advice, overall needs, and especially education towards culture and language if needed. Americans should also be more understanding towards them and their cultures so as to make them feel more comfortable.

 "The Need for Family Reunification - To Make Families Whole Again," Elizabeth Zion talks about how hard it is for families when they're separated, especially for those who have migrated. She says bringing families back together is important for their happiness and well-being.  She believes that family reunification should be more important in immigration policies. She wants more compassionate ways to keep families together, saying that unity is very important for their emotional well-being.   

“We need governments to accelerate reunification applications, and we need them to address the bureaucratic and political barriers to reunification for families worldwide” - Elizabeth Zion. 

In "The Only Road,"  a young boy named Jamie in Guatemala, sees his cousin Miguel murdered by a violent gang called the Alphas, who want him and his cousin Ángela to join them. They realize that their village isn't safe anymore. they decide to flee to the U.S. to find safety with Jaime's older brother, trying to escape the Alphas.

It’s hard to be here. We don’t belong, but we have no choice," chp 17

To help immigrants settle into American culture, it would be great for people in America to focus on keeping families together and making environments more welcoming and inclusive. Elizabeth Zion says that governments should speed up the family reunification process. So that families will feel better about the process. In "The Only Road," Jaime says how tough it is to feel out of place in America, saying, “It’s hard to be here. We don’t belong, but we have no choice.” This shows how immigrants feel like outsiders and not welcomed into America. To make things easier, Americans should show empathy towards immigrants because we have no idea the struggles they're going through. We should also make sure that they have access to cultural and language resources so that they feel more at home and welcomed. If Americans were to give this kind of support it would help immigrants feel better about their cultural struggles when moving to the us. 

the Ted talk, "3 questions to ask yourself about U.S. citizenship," is about Jose Vargas who talks about Immigration and not having a licence himself. 

“What kind of citizenship are we applying for?” this shows the struggle of immigration .Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian is about a white boy experiencing his state becoming a secondary migration location for Somali refugees from war torn countries, and you see the situation through the white boys eyes as the somalis join his soccer team and school

“You gotta wonder who the genius was that came up with the plan to put a bunch of Africans in Maine, the coldest,whitest state in America” page 8 Padian.

This shows how immigrants can feel like they dont fit in. Something you can do to ease immigrants is treat them like everyone else and be kind.

In the TED-Talk “Why a ‘Good Immigrant’ is a Bad Narrative” by Maeve Higgins, she tells us about her personal experience as an immigrant.  I liked the quote “People should not be considered valuable just because they do something of value to us, like pick our fruit or perform our life-saving surgery or win our soccer game. People are valuable because they are people.” (Higgins). I agree with her and what she thinks about that subject. 

The Namesake is a Novel that talks about a girl named Ashima Ganguli who’s from Calcutta and her husband. They got married and moved to America. She gives birth to a son in and she and her husband Ashoke decided to name him Gogol after Ashokes favourite Author Nikolai Gogol. Ashoke was in a train crash which nearly took his life. During this train ride he was reading Nikolais' book.  The novel goes on and the novel mostly follows Gogol's life while he grows up. Ashima and Ashoke have a daughter named Sonia. In the novel Gogol struggles a lot with his identity and wishes to fit in more as an American child. Ashoke gives Gogol the book written by Nikolai Gogol but doesn’t explain why he gave it to him. Gogol puts away the book and forgets about itLater when Gogol moves to Yale for college, he officially changes his name to Nikhil. Ashoke died from a heart attack and Ashima and Sonia lived in Boston and Nikhil created a life in New York. Nikhil comes back to his childhood home to celebrate a holiday and finds the book Ashoke had given him. Ashima spends her time in both Boston and Calcutta and Sonia stays in Boston with her husband Ben. The novel ends with Nikhil promising to read the book, given from his father.

A quote I liked was “They would have felt lonely in this setting, remarking that they were the only Indians.” (Lahiri 155). Ashima is from Calcutta and she didn’t feel like she fit in in Boston.  She didn’t feel like she fit the American standard.  Something Americans could do is simply to be less rude to people who are different.  Just because they’re not from here doesn’t mean they’re any different…at least, not in the ways that matter. This applies to the TED talk as well…it would relieve pressure on immigrants.  I think people just have to realize that we are all humans and that some people have too much prejudices towards other people, especially if they are not from their country.