Week 4
Bill Ong Hing’s article and “Sentenced Home” were
very emotional and difficult materials for me to digest. It reveals the extent
that the government exercises to rid of “unwanted” people. It shows that we are
disposable! We are nothing to them! The government accepts immigrants, throws
them in low socioeconomic communities, and later banishes them for minor
crimes. They expect model citizens to be cultivated from marginalized environments;
their formula doesn't balance out and is contradictory. Regardless of their
citizenship status, that is not how you treat people, especially if you are a
world power who globally propagandize freedom and in the Middle East.
On a more academic tone, I wondered about the
contributions of 9/11 to deportation? How has the narrative change due to a
panic of “terrorism”? Did deportation increase or decrease, and is it
proportional across racial lines? I think Hing’s article could be enhanced by
adding a 9/11 lenses. I know that immigrants from Mexico and South America are portrayed
as taking up all of the jobs, stressing the social services, drug traffickers,
and criminals. However, history tells us that their immigration was welcomed as
cheap labor force in the past. Drawing an association, I wondered about the change
of governmental narratives for Southeast Asian deportation before and after
9/11?
An immigration protest picture.
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