Illustration courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

IMMIGRANTS

STUDENT SECTION FOUR

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In this section you’ll encounter people who are making a voyage from their country to the United States in the present time period.

You will again "adopt" an immigrant family. This time the family will be fictional. The instructor will help you choose a family and the nation from which your family is emigrating. 

Please look into reasons why your new adopted family might have left their country of origin. Do some research into the country of origin of your family. What are the economic, political, religious, cultural conditions of that country that may affect you decision to emigrate? In the cultural considerations, please remember to look into gender and class equity issues.

Do some research into articles in the media about immigration from your family’s home country. How are people from your family’s home country been portrayed in the media? You may use Beaucoup's Media section, with links to newspapers and magazines as well as other sources of information, or NewsTrawler which has a meta-search engine that allows you to search newspapers, magazines and other news sources from around the world at the same time. (Search hints for NewsTrawler: - Do not search more than twenty sources at a time, it may return an error message; - Also when you use multiple words in your search, you may use boolean operators such as AND, OR, NOT.)

You may also research using the information and links about other cultures and immigration provided at
Ethnicity in 20th-Century America by Professor Thomas J. Archdeacon, University of Wisconsin
Migration And Immigration Sources, and Diversity Sources from Dennis Boals
Hall of Multiculturalism from the Texas Education Network (TENET) and the University of Texas
Tips for U.S. Visas: IMMIGRANTS and Visa Services from the U.S. State Department explains the different category of immigrants and visas
Laws, Regulations and Guides has information on laws controlling immigration and the work of the INS along with forms needed. (DO NOT DOWNLOAD  Acrobat Reader UNLESS YOUR TEACHER GIVES YOU PERMISSION - Your teacher can get information on how to do this in the Teacher's Guide.)
About Immigration by American Immigration Lawyers Association explains the principle ways people are allowed to enter the U.S. legally and about immigration facts and myths

Using the new adopted family, devise a product that

• describes your new family in general terms;
• describes the reasons why the family decided to leave their country of origin; and
• makes predictions about experiences they expect to have in America, the "American dream" for each family member.

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