Illustration courtesy of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

IMMIGRANTS

STUDENT SECTION FIVE

In this section your team will make decisions for their present day adopted family to help them as they struggle to survive in the United States, to help them reach their dreams.

Part A

Our towns and our times have many similarities with where you lived in nineteenth century Boston. Your place of residence at times depends on how much money you have and who you are comfortable living next to. Please select several housing situations in the towns around your school which you think would be suitable for your present day adopted family. Keep in mind that some family members might choose or be forced to live somewhere else. This will affect the number of rooms you may need. Use a local newspaper to find places to live for your family. From these choose a place to live for your family. Using a spreadsheet program, calculate housing costs.

Part B

What are the difference in employment available to your present day immigrant family now as opposed to the Irish in the nineteenth century? Consider some or all of the following points, while remembering that you are dealing with the employment skills and the culture of your present day "adopted" family:

Please find appropriate jobs for members of your present day adopted family who you think can and should work. Use a local newspaper to find employment for your family. Should some family members live and work elsewhere? Make note of the difference in jobs available to males and females. What is your annual take home pay? Don't forget taxes(such as federal, social security, state, medicare, etc.)and deductibles (union dues, insurance, etc.) Using a spreadsheet program, calculate net income for your family.

Part C

Do your family’s shopping. Using a spreadsheet program, make up a marketbasket of goods (purchasing TVs or VCRs as well as clothing approprieate for the area your family lives in) are included and food that you would use in a week. Then, calculate costs for a year.

Part D

What type of transportation will your family use? Please find appropriate transportation for your family members. For example, is you intend on purchasing car, take into account fuel, loan, service, and insurance. Using a spreadsheet program, calculate yearly transportation costs.

Part E

Using a spreadsheet program, calculate the other expenses your family will incur, such as:

Part F

Now use a spreadsheet to calculate your family's financial situation. Will your adopted family make it financially the next ten years?

Part G

After doing the above, look at that dream again. Have your family’s financial dreams been fulfilled?

Has their other dreams been fulfilled? What kind of political and social climate do they find in America?

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 provided at

In Section Four your team described what your adopted family had hoped to find in America, their "American dream" for each family member. Please devise a product or products that describes their experiences in America. Describe what they found in America. How has the "American dream" for each family member changed?

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