Post Mortem Discussion #3

In Becca Heller’s ted talk called “A safe Pathway to resettlement for migrants and refugees Becca talks about the immigration process to inform the citizens of natural-born citizens of the United States on just how arduous the process can truly be. She sheds light on how people are getting stripped away from their families and are not able to return to them  Aaron and Miriam are brother and sister. They were separated from their mother when they were all forced to flee from their home in Eritrea when they were children. The kids ended up in a refugee camp in Sudan, and their mother ended up in Germany. (Heller 4:23)

Similarly in “Out of Nowhere” Saeed’s family is just another going through this process. The family is forcefully displaced from their war-ridden home in Somalia to Dabbab then from Dabbab to Atlanta then finally ending up in Lewiston Maine.

In the latter part of the novel "Out of Nowhere" authored by Maria Padian, Saeed Bashir goes missing for a couple of days during an ice storm. While Myla and Saeed's sister, Samira Bashir, search for him for hours, Tom is devastated to learn that his long-time friend Donnie has been involved in a car accident due to his and a friend's intoxication. In a touching moment, Tom attempts to comfort Samira with a hug, causing a commotion when a picture is taken. Such an act is considered haram in their culture, as a woman is not allowed to touch a man skin to skin, leading to a social media backlash that slanders Samira and brings shame to her family. Later on, Saeed is discovered safe after detectives come to the Bashirs' house with allegations that he may be involved in terrorism, which is subsequently proven false when Saeed comes home and explains that he was playing for another soccer team and was stranded when the ice storm hit. The book concludes with the Bashirs' sudden disappearance. Tom learns that they have moved to Minneapolis with an uncle after receiving a letter from Samira bidding her farewell and expressing her gratitude.

the lack of understanding and empathy towards immigrants like Saeed and their experiences. A more empathetic mindset could be cultivated by educating individuals on the struggles that immigrants often face, such as language barriers, discrimination, and the challenge of adapting to a new culture. Another issue is the need for more comprehensive immigration policies that allow for a more streamlined and transparent process for individuals seeking to immigrate. The current system can be difficult to navigate as seen in the hectic halls of Chamberlain High School.

      Strike Zone by Mike Lupica is about Nick Garcia who is 12 years old and aspires to become a Major League Baseball player. He has an inspiration in Micheal Arroyo that has gone through a similar experience and became a pitcher for the Yankees. Nick’s parents are both undocumented immigrants and they moved to the U.S. before Nick and his sister were born. Nick fears that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) may come to their house and deport them all. Nick watched that same thing happen to their neighbor and that fear has contributed to interfering with enjoying the game of baseball. Nick has seen a suspicious man around his neighborhood, his baseball games and even Yankee stadium. He finally finds out this man is a lawyer for immigrants and his name is Ryan Gasson. Nick's sister Ameilia had to go to the urgent care for her lupus and a drunk man is there for a fight he has been in. When they left the urgent care the drunk man is mad and starts a fight with Nick's dad. It ends bad and gets processed in jail. The next morning ICE comes for him and he is placed into jail waiting for months. During this Nick's baseball team goes undefeated and wins the championship. Nick also wins the MVP and gets the opportunity to throw out the first pitch for the Yankees. After he throws out the first pitch, his friends father gets him connected with Micheal Arroyo and he tells Nick he is committed to help him with his dad. Ryan Gasson the lawyer represents Nick's dad Victor on his bond hearing. Mr Gasson helps Victor with getting released on a five thousand dollar bond but has no way to pay for that; then, “...Michael Arroyo said,”But I can.”(247 Lupica). Micheal Arroyo said he was going to help Victor and he did so by paying the bond for him. The end of the book is near and Victor is back at home but his legal troubles are not over yet.

 Kyle Quinn in the Ted Talk, “What marrying an immigrant taught me about cultural bias” talks about how he has a wife that is an immigrant and he realizes how differently treated she is compared to a U.S citizen. When they go to the local DMV to get new licenses Nick sees it in action. When the worker saw only his wife’s reaction, …started demanding additional documents including mine which we hadn’t presented yet”(Quinn). The DMV employee doesn’t know Kyle is a U.S. citizen and they freak out on both of them thinking they were both immigrants. 

People like Nick's parents need some type of pathway to citizenship or renewing their green cards easier. Both of Nick's parents are hard working individuals who decided to land in the U.S. because it was the best choice for their to be children. Nick and his family shouldn't have to worry about possibly getting kicked out of the country just because of their immigrant status. Its the same for Kyle's wife, she isn't doing anything wrong in the country and she is just trying to get  new license but people like the DMV worker sees she stands out from everyone else. No one needs to be picked on or judged for no reason, all the worker needed to do was do their job and make sure their paper work was correct. 

In the Ted Talk "Don't feel sorry for refugees -- believe in them", speaker Luma Mufleh speaks about her experiences working with refugees and the importance of empowering them instead of pitying them. She shares how her soccer team for refugee children, the Fugees, became a way to build community and provide support for these children who had been through so much.

One quote from the Ted Talk that stands out is "We need to believe in people, we need to invest in them, we need to give them the tools and resources that they need to thrive, not just survive." This quote emphasizes the importance of shifting our mindset from one of pity towards refugees to one of belief and support.

The book "Out of place" by Edward Said is a memoir about his experiences growing up as a Palestinian in the Western world. Said navigates issues of identity, displacement, and belonging as he tries to navigate his dual cultures.

One quote from the book that relates to the theme of the Ted Talk is "Exiled tongues ideally speak not only to the defeated and the exiled, but to anyone who happens to find her or himself estranged from the comforting reassurance of the national hearth" (Said, 2). This quote highlights how culture and language can connect people who have experienced displacement, even if their experiences are not exactly the same.

In relation to the question, both the Ted Talk and the book emphasize the importance of seeing refugees and displaced people as complex individuals with their own identities and potential. By focusing on the assets and resources that refugees possess, we can help them to not only survive, but thrive in new communities.

In Girl in Translation, the main character Kimberly struggles with basic 6th-grade learning, due to a lack of English speaking skills and a lack of patience and understanding from the teacher about her situation. An example of this is when she working on some word math problems and she makes a mistake, so she went to the teacher for an eraser. Kimberly, not knowing that in the U.S. erasers are called erasers and not rubbers as rubbers are slang for condoms, asks the teacher for a rubber and gets confused when the whole class erupts into laughter. The teacher not knowing that there was any confusion and assumed that Kimberly purposefully disrupted the class and so he yelled at her, "'That's enough. Silence! Kimberly, return to your seat.'"(Kwok 53). Kimberly, now embarrassed for something she had absolutely no clue about, sits back down when Annett, a frizzy-haired girl that ends up guiding Kimberly throughout the whole book and helps her better understand the white/American culture that she has to deal with.

This is somewhat similar to the Ted Talk called "Why Children of Immigrants Experience Guilt - and Strategies to Cope" where Sahaj Kaur Kohli spoke about how immigrant children have a lot of responsibilities and they are worried that they aren't doing right by their parents because they have to translate for them, and these children have to usually make decisions for their parents because they can't speak any English, Sahaj even says, "So many children of immigrants may have grown up being responsible for their parents as well" proving that Immigrant children take on more responcibillities than your average American child. In Girl in Translation Kimberly has to do the same thing. This is also how she was able to skip school for 2 weeks and she also deals with anything about school so her mother doesn't have to worry about it and so she doesn't get in trouble for bad grades and whatnot. The only reason that Kimberly went back to school was because of the guilt that she felt about hiding not going to school from her mom, that and living in constant fear when she was home alone, and also the guilt of just sitting there while her mom works her butt off at the factory making a living for them to live. This is also the same guilt that every immigrant child feels. Immigrant children shouldn't have to feel this guilt of basically being an adult in a country where there are tons and tons of programs for normal American people to aid in their living, like Medicare and unemployment, and other support for many many different issues, there should be more support groups for immigrants dealing with these problems. These children shouldn't have the responsibility of supporting their families, because they're the only one who knows English. 

The best way for immigrants to assimilate into American culture is for us Americans to have an open mind, and to support the immigrant. Weither it's a language barrior, lack of understanding, or even just a slight difference, don't get mad, just try to be pacient and help that immigrant better understand the situation, because they are human too.

In the ted talk what marrying an immigrant taught me about cultural bias by kyle quinn, he talks about how he went to get his license renewed, and when they saw his wife with him and how she looked, the lady at the front desk automatically assumed that he was also part of that culture or not us citizen. she racially profiled him until he told her that he was actually us citizen.  “I do not have a green card im us citizen, and When I said that she stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at me a little bit confused and this is all she could conjure up ill do the action, well why didn't you say so?” 5:30 her entire motive and perspective changed when she realized he was us citizen. She was kinder and more willing to help. In a girl in Translation Kim lives a double life, during the day she's a perfect school student, and at night she works in her aunt's factory in disgusting conditions. Throughout the story she grows up and experiences all sorts of things including getting a boyfriend, getting pregnant, and wanting an abortion. Throughout all of this, her & her mother basically experience neglect from the American aunt, she gets them an apartment but it's trashed, has bugs, and isn't very sanitary. She wants “good things for them” but doesn't want them to be better than herself or her daughter. “I realized the truth, she did this on purpose, letting us move on a weekday instead of the weekend, giving us the presents at the last moment. She wanted to drop us here and have the factory as an excuse to leave fast- while we were still thanking her” pg 11. What's missing from the American mindset is simply that we as people don't think that other cultures could be as great as us, we give them opportunities but we give them lesser opportunities, we don't want them to be greater than us. In the ted talk, the lady at the counter gave them different things they could do too other than renewing his license before she knew he was a us citizen, but when she found out he was American, she was totally for helping them and renewing their license. Us citizens are against foreign people being better than them for no reason besides the fact that they just don't wanna see it. 

In Kyle Quinn’s Ted Talk “What Marrying an Immigrant Taught Me about Cultural Bias” he talks about his wife, Isabel, who immigrated from Brazil to America. Kyle is originally from America but met Isabel in Brazil on a year long exchange program. Kyle did not know about the hate and discrimination that immigrants get in the US even with the proper documents until the day that they had to go to the BMV to transfer their licenses over to another state, as soon as Isabel handed over her temporary green card the lady who was working started yelling and demeaning more documents as soon as she found out that Isabel wasn’t a US citizen, she also started yelling at Kyle until he said that he was from the US. As soon as she heard that he was from the US, she completely stopped yelling and became a whole lot nicer to him. In that moment he says that he felt like he got a small taste of what it's like to be an immigrant in the US. he has realized that immigrants including his wife have become almost immune to the racist remarks because they are so used to it in America by now. 

“The purpose of this story is to portray to you all that her tune changed entirely when she found out that I was an American. She was nicer, she was more accommodating, she was more patient. When she thought we were both foreigners, she had little to no patience at all to deal with us, and I imagine in that very moment I was getting a small taste of what it might be like to be discriminated against as an immigrant in this country.” (Quinn, 6:06-6:36) This is the quote from Kyle's Ted Talk when he talks about realizing how bad the discrimination against immigrants is. 

The book “All You Can Ever Know” by Nicole Chung, focuses on the life of Nicole as she grows up in a white family after being adopted as a baby. She faces many challenges throughout her life ranging from being bullied for being the only Korean kid in her elementary school, questioning how she will be as a mom to her soon to be daughter and also trying to reach out to her birth family while not knowing much about them or how they will react to finding out about her. 

“Was ‘Chinee’ supposed to be a nickname? I did not know what it meant, but I instinctively understood that he wasn’t making fun of something about me, or something I had done. He wasn’t mocking a name I could change into a nickname, or clothes my parents could replace, or glasses I could take off at recess. His target was who I was. How I’d come to be here, in the place where he believed I did not belong.” (Chung, 14) This quote is talking about when Nicole was younger and she used to get bullied by her classmates for being the only Korean girl in school. Like in Kyle's story she was also confused by why it mattered if she was a different race or not but then also like Kyle’s wife, Nicole also got used to the racist remarks that got thrown at her. 

There is a lot missing from the American mindset as well as the culture. One of the biggest would be acceptance. The American mindset has been about the same for decades especially with how America treats people from foreign countries. We do have a lot of acceptance with culturally related things like food and clothing but not the people, tribes or cultural groups including religion, race and cultural mores. There are a lot of reasons why these are not accepted in America, mostly because of the standards that are put on children when they are young. A lot of children grow up in households where standards are set like they must follow a certain religion or lifestyle, these come from their parents of course but most of the time the parents get it from their own parents and so on for decades before. There are also trauma related reasons like 9/11 or the Oklahoma City Bombing which were both tragedies in America due to terrorist attacks. These are both reason for maybe not accepting immigrants into America but its not a reason to harass and discriminate against every single person to come into this county, they have already been through so much that you’ll most likely never personally know what it feels like to be in their situation so I feel as though we should stop the hate and discrimination against immigrants, their culture, race and lifestyles and start accepting everyone for who they are despite the different backgrounds everyone might have. 

In "What Marrying an immigrant taught me about cultural bias", Kyle Quinn shares his personal experience of witnessing cultural bias in America through his marriage to an immigrant wife. He recounts instances where his wife faced bigotry from strangers and even his own family. Reflecting on his own biases, he admits to not defending her when she was interrogated by his family. He uses these experiences to emphasize the emotional impact of cultural bias and hopes to evoke a similar response from the audience. He strongly believes that the discrimination and mistreatment faced by immigrants are unnecessary. He emphasizes that they are hardworking individuals who, through no fault of their own, come from different countries and seek a fresh start. The speaker argues that it is crucial to treat immigrants with respect, as they are just like any other person. He condemns the act of treating them as if they are guilty of a crime based solely on internal fears, deeming it morally wrong and calling for it to be addressed. For example, “I was exposed to this deep-rooted cultural bias, and it’s damaging. It’s damaging to our nation’s values, and it’s damaging to our nation’s immigrant“ (3:27 ). 

In Girl in Translation, written by Jean Kwok, the main characters include Kimberly and her mother as well as the rest of her family that reside in America. The author focuses on Kimberly’s hardships and her issues with not just assimilation, but generally trying to better herself as a person and student in order to provide the world for her and her mother so they can eventually escape their cruel reality. Kimberly eventually starts to resent herself and her culture because she is made to feel unimportant due to her background and culture. All she wants is to provide for herself and her mother, to become something she can be proud of. She resents the fact that she can't seem to do this all because of the fact that she's from another land, and eventually, she goes out of control. She starts to control the one thing she can, her body. She plays around with boys and distracts herself from her true goal, being financially stable. Her grades drop, and she soon hates who she's become but she doesn't know how to act around her American peers because, on one hand, she needs to focus on her future, and on the other, she craves to be accepted because of how lonely she truly feels. A quote that shows Kimberly rejecting who she states, "... I relaxed for the first time in hours, and I realized how much stress I’d been under the whole day, how foreign the entire world of Harrison was. I stood close to Ma and, without answering, leaned my forehead against her shoulder...’Ah-Kim, you should not be so sensitive. I’m sure all of the nice girls are changing where they cannot be seen. The whole world is not looking at you' She gave me a quick squeeze and turned back to her work…I was suddenly so angry that I wanted to push her into the pile of dresses…" (chapter 7, pg 135). 

To fix this, all that needs to be done is Americans need to take a step back and look into the lives of immigrants. They're forcing them to feel unfit anywhere because they had to leave their home because their rights were rejected and now, they're being rejected again. If Americans took the time to realize the damage they are causing to the lives of other people, things would be able to change. The legal systems could be more accommodating, immigrants would have more options career-wise, and they'd feel like they belonged and they wouldn't strike themselves down because of the fact that America is striking them down. A quote that shows the struggle immigrants go through trying to be accepted all because of simple ignorance/arrogance is, "...the biggest myth in the unwritten book of immigrating to the U.S is that you can simply marry an American and get a green card. It could not be further from the truth. It takes at least three to four years, a big investigatory process, numerous interviews, hefty fees before you're even considered for the permanent green card“ ( 3:58). 

In the novel, The Far Away Brothers, Ernesto, and Raul are struggling, hard! They still have their coyote debt on their heads and are struggling to fit in. Back at home isn’t easy either. The family is in crippling debt and their own family members are questioning why they’re pursuing education over a job so they can pay back their father’s loan. “Maricela thought the threat of losing the land might kill her father. “ Why are you still in school?” she wrote to the twins. Surely they could work full-time at least for a while, to make sure they weren’t responsible for destroying their family” (Markham 158). This quote shows how the twins family is on the verge of losing their beloved farm all because the twins have yet to pay back their father for the loans to escape El Salvador. In the end through a bunch of litigation and not knowing if they would survive they move on with their lives after finally meeting up with their brother. That’s how the story ends, with them living in Oakland, CA and Donald Trump being elected President. What I think needs to change is the way we go about treating these people. Their lives are just as messed up and confusing as ours and they need a chance at a new start.

In the Ted Talk How Employers Steal From Workers and Get Away With It, Rebecca Galemba talks about how wage theft is a common thing among Latin American immigrants “Although wage theft impacts many industries, my research focuses on one of the most vulnerable sectors, day laborers, most of whom are immigrants from Latin America who seek daily work for cash”(Galemba 01:30). This quote helps prove my point that we should help immigrants and not treat them like outsiders because we have no idea how they are being treated and what their past is.

In the ted talk "What missing from the American immigrant narrative" by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez, she explains how there are two immigrant narratives. One narrative explains how immigrants work minimum low wage labor jobs. The other narrative is how immigrants who are the ideal symbols of success are called "superimmigrants". These narratives stereotype immigrants. This is harmful because impacts laws and systems that affects communities, families, and individuals. “I know this firsthand, because these laws and systems, well, they broke up my family, and they led my parents to return to Mexico” (Gutierrez).

In the novel "Girl In Translation" by Jean Kwok, Kimberly is a perfect representation of these two narratives. She works less than a minimum wage jobs making 1.5 cents per skirt and she is a "super immigrant" because she is very successful at the end of the book by becoming a pediatric cardiac surgeon. The book doesn't directly mention laws and systems, but it does talk about how illegal their place of work is. "Money had probably already changed hands to ensure a casual inspection, but we were still as afraid of being found out as the owners. If the factory was closed down, who would fill our rice bowls then?" (Kwok 233) There is an inspection at the factory. Aunt Paula and Uncle Bob had to hide all the underaged workers because the factory would shut down if the inspectors found child labor. 

The thing that is missing from American's mindset to help immigrant assimilate is that we forget they are scared. Immigrants are scared because they are coming from one culture to a completely different one. This makes it hard to accommodate. We need to help them and be kind to them. We need to provide them with resources to learn English and to learn about our culture. 

My book (Private Label by kelly yang) is about two Chinese immigrants who moved two California. One is serene who is quite popular and has a father figure she doesn't really know and the other is Lian who is picked on for his name and is pressured to be successful by his mother. Serene’s mother, however, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which causes her to search for answers on who her father was and why he never came. Lian’s mother tries to make him study and such but he has other plans, which leads him to create a Chinese club to make his transcript look “Better”, but uses it to do what he dreams of doing. They both meet when Serene brings a picture of her father and mother while her mother was pregnant with serene, wanting to know what the Chinese writing meant in the back of the photo.
“it's him. The email I've been waiting my entire life for.” (Yang 395)

Sayu Bhojwani, an American immigrant, came to America and was a political leader for her state. She tells the audience how much of a hassle the American immigration programs are, the lengthy lines, and the filing process. She in general thinks that immigrants are very important to keep the country's culture alive as a “free Country”.

“Immigrants' votes, voices, and vantage points are what we all need to work to include in American democracy. It's not just my work. It's also yours….We never know what putting a new factor into an equation will do.” (Bhojwani 11:10)

What America needs to understand is that we need to push our boundaries to have an insight into immigrants. We as a society somewhat can relate to others, as we like to be cautious when it comes to exploring new societies and cultures. And as a society waiting should not be an option to explore their intentions, because that can create discrepancies and stereotypes that conflict our opinions.