CAPs Blog #4 Jihyun Kim

Immigrants

Voluntary travelers who come to a new country, region, or environment to settle more or less permanently are typically known as immigrants (Martin  & Nakayama, 2009). They tend to stay for a long-term duration bringing their families along for the ride. The United States is known as the “melting pot”, which means everyone is combined together in one giant pot but on the inside there are individual pieces that float around. Majority of the U.S. Americans believe that most immigrants come to the United States in search of freedom, but actually they come the United States to join other family members, in search of employment, and to escape from war, famine, or poverty (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). The United States is not the only country that welcomes immigrants as permanent residents; Canada, Australia, Israel and New Zealand also issue special visas and developing programs (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). Immigrants are welcomed during the times of economic prosperity; however, these countries can quickly restrict immigration during economic downturns. Accepting immigrants mean increasing the number of labor, which helps the economy prosper.

The United State’s friend from the south has been migrating to the north, to the U.S., for a while. The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S. is not increasing. The Mexican-born population in the U.S., which had been growing earlier in the decade, was 11.5 million in early 2009. That figure is not significantly different from the 11.6 million Mexican immigrants in 2008 or the 11.2 million in 2007 (Passel, Jeffrey S., 2009). Due to the large amount of immigrants that migrate to the U.S., the security of the border has gotten stricter. The cars have to wait in line longer, border patrol officers are more inclined to detect any sign of violation or threat to the U.S. Mexico is by far the leading country of origin for U.S. immigrants accounting for a third of all foreign-born residents and two-thirds of Hispanic immigrants. The U.S. is the destination for nearly all people who leave Mexico, and about one-in-ten people born there currently lives in the United States (Passel, Jeffrey S., 2009).

The concept of immigration and immigrants is familiar to me because I am an immigrant myself. The textbook was correct in terms of how the primary reason people come to the United States is to join other family members (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). It wasn’t the freedom my family came here for but rather for opportunities such as better employment and education. This concept is very useful in terms of improving the country’s economy by welcoming immigrants. More countries should allow people to migrate to their country, or gain the “freedom of movement” concept from the European Union. It means that an EU national may travel to another EU member state and live, study, or work on an equal basis with native-born residents (Martin & Nakayama, 2009). The world would be more diverse and intercultural communication would be enhanced.

References:

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5^th Edition ed). New York, NY: McGraww-Hill.

Passel, Jeffrey S. "Recession Slows -- but Does Not Reverse -- Mexican Immigration." - Pew Research Center. 22 July 2009. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. <http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1288/mexican-immigrants-recent-inflows-outflows>.