Swine Flu

The outbreak of the swine flu will definitely have an impact on the way Americans view Mexican Immigrants and Mexicans alone. People on the border already have a negative view toward Mexicans crossing the border and the constant flow on immigrants crossing their property it an annoyance to farmers and ranchers. With this already present attitude and the scare of the swine flu sweeping the country, Mexican immigrants are going to take the brunt of the blow. Mexico seems to be the source of the swine flu and contains the most outbreaks so far. The living conditions in the country are terrible so it is a feeding ground for a virus like the swine flu. American fears will help create just another prejudice against Mexicans. People are scared of getting the swine flu and they do now want it in America. Im sure many people blame Mexicans for the outbreak of swine flu in America. Many have been trying to mend the relationship between Americans and Mexican immigrants and some have had success. But with this recent swine flu dilemma I feel that those efforts will take a step backwards due to the new prejudice that is created against Mexicans.

Reflection of Class

I would just like to say that this class was certainly an eye opening experience for me and I am sure others. Although some readings were better then others, its interesting to read how Mexicans live either in their homeland or In America. However I think the most relevant pieces were the films we watched, Traffic in particular, Its amazing to think that this chaos goes on day after day, and that even though their are officials helping to “crack down” this will still continue. 

Also reflecting on images of individuals crossing the dessert to the “safe land” of America. Risking their lives for their families, without even knowing the consequences.

Overall I believe for me it was awareness of key problems that innocent Mexicans face, undocumented individuals live with and seriousness of problems with drug trafficking.

Thanks

Swine/Assimilation/Mexicans

The swine flu has been around for a few weeks now, and we have seen the hype the media has portrayed but not nearly enough about how this is effecting the country of Mexico. Personally I never even thought of the impact this would have on the economic standpoint in country of Mexico. Its a given fact that Mexicans would now be viewed as even more troublesome. Its a shame this is how it is, that they really are harmless just trying to provide better opportunities for their family. How often I think that they have better relationships with there families then the majority of us do. Not because we don’t care just because in America its always go, go, go. Very seldom do we stop and appreciate what we have.

swine flu

This recent out break of swine flu has added fuel to an already burning fire. Americans are already become skeptical about letting people over the border because of the recent violence going on in Mexico, and the government may begin stopping people at the border who even look sick and not let them acroos for fear of the flu spreading, which is sad and unfortunate but in some ways I think it is the best way to protect the American people for the time being. After it dies down I think that the barriers can be dropped somewhat but I dont think that Americans will forget this out break and the generalizations will continue for a while.

As a final blog I just wanted to sum up what I have learned about immigration and controlling borders. Before this class I had very little knowledge about the issues surrounding immigration. Probably like many Americans, I did not have a positive perception of immigrants in general. Of course I did not, and still do not think people should be in this country illegally. However I now have a better understanding of why many immigrants are forced to come to America illegally. The fact that conditions in Mexico are so horrible and legally entering the United States is sometimes quite difficult, people feel there is no other way than to cross the borders illegally. I would do the same thing to help my family and to survive and create opportunities for myself. Assimilating into America, I have learned, can be a very difficult thing for immigrants to do because they don’t want to lose their own identity, however they want to belong and be successful in this country. Although I do believe Huntington is somewhat harsh in his beliefs, I do agree that we need to somewhat preserve our American “identity” and people who come to this country should try to speak our language and follow our laws. I think language is going to the biggest obstacle because many immigrants do not want to learn English. However I feel that if they are going to live and work in America they should at least try to learn the English language. I do not think Americans should have to change their way life to accommodate people from other countries. With everything that we have learned this semester, I have a much better understanding of the issues surrounding immigration and I do not think we should close our borders, but there must be something done about the increasing numbers of illegal immigrants coming into this country.

H1N1 and Assimilation

I’m trying to write an outline for the assimilation essay question on the final and it dawned on me that assimilation has probably gotten harder for new Mexicans immigrants in the last few weeks. Assimilation is defined as becoming part of the larger community. Immigrants that are trying to do that might be finding that the American fear that has developed in the last few weeks is hindering the process. How can you try to fit in with Americans if they are avoiding you and scared of what you might have been exposed. This is probably a similar situation to the fear of people like Mamdouh who look similar to the group responsible for 9/11.

Swine flu

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/05/01/penhaul.mexico.flu/index.html

 

The article discusses how Mexico City the capital of Mexico is having to deal with the swine flu. I think its sad that a country as big as Mexico is now being controlled by this disease. Even sadder is that hte first American death caused by the swine flu has been confirmed. If the swine flu doesn’t clear up there is a chance the US could go back to letting people in like they did at Ellis Island, if you were sick or seemed sick, they send you back, which might ultimately be best. I think there’s already so much going on that more precautions need to be taken. I’m keeping an eye out to see where in Latin America the swine flu is hitting because a lot of immigrants go through Mexico to get to the US.

Traffic

This film was a great example of the violence that goes on near the US/Mexico border. It seems like when something is illegal, it will proceed to happen anyway but under violent conditions. We know this to be true with immigration and now too with drugs. Illegal immigrants have faced many dangers and violence and they still try to enter the US, even if it means hiking through vast deserts or sneaking by authorities. The other reason for violence in that area is the illegal drugs that are being trafficked in Mexico, the US, and between the two. The movie showed a ton of violence between drug cartels, who even got violent with police and drug officials. It is interesting to notice the trend that illegal activities are going to happen no matter what the law is, but things become dangerous and violent when they are illegal.

Swine Flu

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/05/05/cinco.de.mayo/index.html

Similar to what we discussed in class, the swine flu is having severe ramifications to the economic situation in Mexico City. Even Cinco de Mayo which is a huge deal in Mexico has taken a tremendous toll all across the nation. Festivities have been canceled as a precautionary measure. I think the swine flu is going to have huge ramifications on the overall treatment of Mexicans. Because the flu is said to come from Mexico, people are creating a stigma about all Mexicans. This is just one more problem that is effecting the border. The truth is the disease could be spread by anyone, and with the amount of people/goods that are transported every day across the border, anyone is vulnerable. I think the best thing we can do is take precautionary measures in keeping ourselves healthy and avoid the unnecessary hype. I understand that people are trying to be safe and some people have died from it, but the worse thing we could do as a nation is create an inherent fear of “mexicans with the swine flu.” We should just move past thing and do our best to make sure that not a lot more people become infected.

Borders-Canada

All semester we have concentrated on talking about our southern border with Mexico. Although I do enjoy the topic, I beleive that our northern border can be just as interesting of a topic. Although there is not the huge number of illegal immigrants like those that come from Mexico there are other problems. The major problem would probably be the illegal drug trade across the border. The northern border is much much bigger than the southern border and that allows it to be much more porous to importing illegal drugs. Like what we talked about in class today, much of the northern part of the country is supplied with their illegal drugs through the northern border and I bet it is a huge multimillion dollar business. Although our sothern border also has the illegal immigration problem as well as the drug trade, I feel that the northern border should still be a large issue with our government. You rarely hear about the northern border drug trade on the news and you frequently hear about the problems on the southern border. I dont feel that this is fair to the Mexican people, and it kind of signifys them as a scapegoat and a topic that the media loves to talk about.