Group items tagged

Illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico has increasing become a topic for debate. The Mexican government seeks Illegal-Alien Amnesty; however, the United States, under the Bush Administration, believed in building a 'guestworker' program, which in theory would address the educational deficits amongst the incoming immigrant workers. Immigrant workers who enter the United States are coming from areas of poverty which lack adequate educational facilities and due to the lack of financial prosperity young adults are frequently withdrawing from school to try and turn a profit for the family. The cheap labor that comes into the United States comes at a high cost to the natives as it increases the poor population and the amount of people relying on welfare programs. Analysis of the statistics show that the amount of households headed by immigrants make up the majority of the poor population on welfare and without health care insurance; therefore, the United States is seeking to establish policies that address both issues in the welfare system as well as the policies regarding hiring unskilled immigrant workers.

Because they do not have healthcare, illegal immigrants go to the emergency rooms and clinics when they get sick. Since it is an "emergency," the cost of treatment, seeing them, x-rays, etc is at least 3 times more expensive than it would be to have the same things done in a doctor's office. Therefore, illegal immigrants are costing the government more money now than they would if we provided them with healthcare.

In the first one hundred days of Barack Obama's presidency the issue between the US-Mexico border was being addressed. The discussions between President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón ranged on issues from global climate change and immigration reform. However, the issue that is most pressing is the use of assault weapons in correlation to the increase in organized crime. President Calderón has been trying to manage illegal immigration into the United States through attempts to increase employment rates in Mexico. To add to this initiative to crack down on the immigration issues between Mexico and the United States there has been an agreement between the United States, Mexico, and other Latin American countries which is a $1.4 million Merida joint security plan where the usage of United States equipment, technology and expertise are used toward combating drug trade. With the ban lifted in 2004 by the United States of assault weapons the organized crime has increased significantly; therefore, the drug trade has been gaining sufficient hold in towns.

The reason I have tagged this website is not particularly to highlight Africans immigration to Latin America, but to bring attention to some of the topics we have discussed in class. Identity plays a huge roll in the context of this article: we are so focused on our identity being what we see and where we came from, but how does the identity of these people change when they immigrate to Latin America?

This article talks about the Japanese immigrants of Brazil, first of whom arrived there more than a hundred years ago. Now, there are more people of Japanese descent in Brazil than anywhere in the world outside of Japan itself. It also talks about how immigrants at first have a culture shock and discusses the importance of integrating into the indigenous culture.

This article talks about El Salvador and the gang that originated there, MS-13, which was spread north by immigrants escaping the civil war.

In the past, the United States has granted political asylum to gays and lesbians from Latin America who could prove that they faced discrimination and persecution in their own countries because of their sexual orientation. Many of the asylum seekers were Mexican men who were HIV positive and were able to get the medical treatment they needed in the US. However, now that Mexico has taken some steps towards being more accepting of homosexuality, political asylum for Mexicans is harder to get.