A couple of weeks ago in our TELL 400 class, our teacher asked us to write the first thing that came to our minds when we heard the words:refugee, pioneers and illegal immigrants. It wasn't a surprise to see that the words: Mexicans, crime, jail, handcuffs, truck full of Mexicans were associated to the word illegal. It wasn't a surprise to us to see our classmates describe illegal immigrants with such stereotyped terms, because that is what we hear every day in the media. Examples found on YouTube such as:
These YouTube videos, among many, others show the institutionalized racism that exists in the society. People are not thinking of these illegal immigrants as people, good people, who can bring benefits to this country.
This website shows a chart illustrating how TV shows are obsessed with the subject on illegal immigrants and the how it only shows the nation the negative and sometimes not even true side of the illegal immigrants group.
As we researched our artifacts we were looking for evidence of illegal immigrants other than Mexicans, which we could not find. It is like Mexicans is another word for illegal immigrants, when in fact that is not what happens. Illegal immigrants are from all around the world, from different races. They come from countries all over South America, Europe, Asia, etc. Being an illegal immigrant does not mean you have crossed the border, it also means that people entered this country legally, but eventually lost their status. But they stay here because they have gained a better life and they have already acculturated or assimilated to the American culture. An example of someone who lose their status is a student who finished their studies, and consequently loses their visa, becoming a illegal immigrant.
A wrong assumption people have are that illegal immigrants cost more than they profit to the USA, that they are criminals, that they do not pay taxes,that they steel their jobs and health and food benefits. But in contrary they are hard working people, who come here for a better life for their families, sometimes fathers come alone to provide for their families who they left behind in their country. These are people who are also members of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Again we wanted to show good examples of many different races who are illegal immigrants, but for some reason we could only find artifacts on Mexicans.
Have you ever thought that the US would be a better country and have a better economy without the illegal immigrants, or that you pay for their welfare? This is a controversial matter; in fact they work hard and contribute large amounts of money to the nation. They also share their culture, which you got to admit most Americans love. This culture we talk about is food, dance, language, holidays. The majority of Americans love eating a burrito, dancing salsa and learning Spanish. These are only few examples we can give.
An article in the New York Times illustrates an example of how an illegal immigrant pays taxes for social security and medicare but will never be able to receive its benefits, unless they become legal some day. Another example of how they do pay taxes is found in this article.
Who now are the majority, could have been the minority…
A child in this group of illegal immigrants could be hugely impacted if they encounter a teacher who believes and agrees with the deficit theory. Teachers who have this assumption about children coming from other countries will prevent them from improving academically and socially. When in reality they actually do better in school because of their strong academic background from their country. These children are fighting everyday with the big changes in their lives and the barriers they have to overcome that deals with their cultural traits such as: socioeconomic background and language background. These children need attention and help from their teachers. These children might be viewed and treated unfairly by teachers and other educators who believe they don’t have the right to be there taking advantage of public schools and benefits they “are not paying for”. When in truth they have no fault of what they are doing, if it is wrong or not that they are in public school with “no rights”, it is not their choice, they need to be where their parents are. These are the macro factors in their lives, which they have no control over.
It is important for teachers to examine how cultural groups are represented so they can better understand and help their students. As teachers we will come across students from different cultural groups. We will have students who are ELL, who are homeless, who are of a minority group, who are of a majority group, students who are gifted and so forth. Teachers need to obtain the knowledge of what it means to be from each of these cultural backgrounds. For illegal immigrant children teachers need to understand that as they come here, children are dealing with their cultural identity formation until they reach the biculturalism level. Many times in order to reach the curriculum, bilingual students (illegal immigrants or legal immigrants) are not gaining the attention and help needed from their teachers, who are often busy and worried about test scores and how the majority of the class will do regarding grades and literacy improvement. But in reality teachers should be open minded and ready to help all of their students fairly, no matter where they come from, what they look like, of if they are legal in this country or not.
This Cultural Snapshot was done by Camila Monteiro and Lily Bueno.
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