Essay Example on Exploring the Lives of Latino Americans: Migration, Identity & Community

Both articles and the video mainly looks at the life of Latino Americans in the United States. They all look at the migration of the Mexicans into the United States. I agree with the author's standpoint in the article by Jimenez that he immigration of Mexicans into the United States cannot be compared to any other immigration since they are the highest number of immigrants in the country. As the author says, "Today, Mexico is the largest source of immigration to the United States. Mexican immigrants make up nearly 9.8 million, or 30% of the total foreign-born population." (Jimenez, 2010) It shows that there are many Mexicans in America who have migrated from their country. I also agree with the video that one of the measures that can be taken to reduce this is the making of the regulations of migration tighter to discourage the Mexicans from immigrating

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Both articles of Jimenez and the video are similar in that they look at ways in which Mexican migration has had an effect on the population of the Americans and also how the migration can be reduced (Jimenez, 2010). There is a conflicting opinion by Zaragosa Vargas since he looks into the suffering of the Americans due to the strict rules that have been put in place, for example, Latinos detention centers and the increased anti-migrant policies that have affected the Latinos negatively. One of the areas of the topic that can be looked at is how to reduce the migration of the Mexicans into America since, as seen, it has had severe impacts on the population in the United States. Further historical links can be made as the migration of the Mexicans started a long time ago, and therefore it is not a new issue.

Some of the important questions that the authors raise the impact that the Latino migration could have on the ethnicity of the native Americans. Due to the increase of fading of ethnic boundaries, increased intermarriages, and change in language liabilities, the originality of the American culture may fade. As the author states, "immigrant replenishment is a significant factor determining ethnic identity formation among later-generation Mexican Americans" shows the threat of the immigration of the Latinos (Vargas, 2011). Other important questions that were raised in the video are the question of how the immigrants are used as scapegoats in case of an economic crisis. This shows how most of the immigrants are blamed for the economic crisis, especially the Latinos who take up the highest percentage of immigrants in America. The response of the question was that it was due to the political will and political power of the government that the decisions made are the way they are.

The government needs to consider what is fair in making their decisions as they should stop blaming the Mexicans on the economic crisis. The articles and the author stress change in that the government should step in and change their policies towards immigration f the Mexicans. Some of the measures taken against them are too strict, and therefore the Mexicans end up being frustrated. The authors explain power relations by showing the negligence and ignorance level of the government in matters of immigration. The author of the second article examined the time history that of the past to show the history of the migration of the Latinos. Through the article, the origin of the migration of Latinos is established, and even some of the reasons as to why they started migrating are outlined. The articles and the video were very educational as they highlighted the history and the current situation of the migration of the Americans. They also show the different effects the migration has had on America in general, for instance, on its population.

References

Jimenez, T. R. (2010). Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, immigration, and identity. Univ of California Press.

Vargas, Z. (2011). Crucible of struggle: A history of Mexican Americans from colonial times to the present era. Oxford University Press.