Course Spring 2013

1. IMMIGRATION MUSINGS

2. The story goes that my grandfather, my mother’s father, came to this country
illegally. He had first emigrated from Russia at the end of the 19th century
and went to what was then Palestine. He was one of the early settlers working
on what we now know as a Kibbutz. But Poppy, as we called him, was not
content in such a barren, unforgiving land.
So he came to the US. Well, at least tried. He had the eye disease that plagued
many Eastern Europeans at the time and was denied entry at Ellis Island. He
went to Canada.
And the folklore is that he walked across the border to New Hampshire and,
the rest, as they say, is history.
MY GRANDFATHER WAS AN
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT- MAYBE

3. In the past five years, immigrants to Italy have been the reason that the
country has not lost population.
The Italian, as is the case of Japan, birthrate, is not keeping up with the
number of deaths. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2758366/
England is not all that happy with the influx of former Soviet Bloc
immigrants as it is increasing youth unemployment:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/25/uk-migration-rise-poland-
eurozone
COUPLE OF IMMIGRANT FACTS
TO PONDER

4. Yes, it is indeed a truism that the immigrants often take the most difficult of
jobs because no one else wants them.
I overheard a person from Martha’s Vineyard complaining that the Vineyard
residents were being pushed out of jobs such as landscaping and stonework
and other such items ‘necessary’ for the well-to-do. Possibly true and what is
interesting to think about is who is paying for the work? It isn’t the
immigrants pushing out the residents. It is the residents wanting to pay less.
For anyone interested in reading about some of those difficult jobs early on I
recommend David McCullough’s The Great Bridge about the building of the
Brooklyn Bridge.
SO WHO IS DOING THE
DIFFICULT JOBS?

5. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Consider the recent factory collapse in Bangladesh.
Now consider the Shirtwaist Triangle Factory Fire
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/triangle/player/
PLUS ÇA CHANGE, PLUS C'EST LA
MÊME CHOSE

6. At the Tenement Museum in New York City there is a facsimile of a
newspaper from the end of the 19th century where almost a full page is
covered with the names of the men who had gone missing.
It was the way that the man would come over from the old country and make
enough money to bring his family over to the US. This was considered noble.
Often when the family arrived the wife couldn’t believe the awful conditions
and in order to escape the wife and family, in the days when there were plenty
of places to take on new identities, the men just up and left.
Interesting that there is so much concern about the woman from the
Philippines who leaves her family to make a better living for everyone.
THE WOMEN OF THE
PHILIPPINES

7. ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS? THIS IS
LONDON WHEN COAL WAS KING

8. THIS IS BEJIING TODAY

9. The people who immigrate, legally, who were once doctors and lawyers and
are now street sweepers, and small bodega owners and nail salon employees?
Anyone been to an Irish faux pub in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day? Is everyone
in there legally here?
The specialized visas and what our educational system could and should be
doing to educate our own for these specialized positions?
AND WHAT ABOUT?

10. Several years ago we knew a young French woman who had been to Boston
once before and wanted to return but needed some kind of a visa. As she was
a family friend of a friend I volunteered to go to the Immigration Office in
Boston to find out what she needed.
One of the scariest experiences of my life. For many of the people in that
office, having someone ask, and then take away, one’s documents is terrifying
as that is what they are fleeing from- oppressive regimes who take away your
documents and then often your life.
One tiny Sister of Charity was walking in and out of the lines and the seats
comforting the frightened. I can still feel her compassion.
STANDING IN THE IMMIGRATION
LINE

11. Thank you all for the thoughtful and often passionate responses to this week’s
discussion of immigration. It is through your voices that I offer the commentary
in these slides and one more 50,000 foot view:
Northeastern has a program in Australia where I have been fortunate to teach and
will be returning this summer. The classroom is made up of multiple nationalities,
religions, and languages.
The lessons in that classroom are not just of the subject matter but of engaging
Indians to speak with Pakistanis; encouraging young Chinese and Thai women that
they had a voice; that we could all go out for a drink where fruit juice was the
primary libation; and that Ramadan, Diwali and the Jewish High Holidays were
within weeks of each other.
In that contained room we experienced globalization and contributed, just a little,
to world peace.
THANK YOU