Assignment Example on Oppression and Social Justice in the United States

a. In the video, what advocacy strategies did you see being employed in the fight for immigration reform? Is immigration reform a social justice issue, a legal issue, or both?

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Legal Advocacy

Legal migration systems advocacy in the video are evident through the interpretation of the different laws, legislation bodies and agencies that through lawful means can streamline the immigration system and end the suffering of millions of children and their families in the United States who are separated from the parents (Jimenez, 2015). In the video "Immigration Battle" it is clear that policy legislation is viewed as the best solution towards improving the American immigration system.

Grassroots Advocacy and Group Advocacy

Group advocacy is explicit in the video in the manner through which the affected populations are seeking to vote as a block towards candidates that will further their interests in the legislative organs of the nation. Grass root advocacy is evident due to voting in blocks based on the constituents policy needs (Jimenez, 2015).

Self-Advocacy

Self-advocacy is evident in the video where the experiences of families from divided families share their experiences which plays a significant role in directing public interest towards immigration-friendly policies and also the need to protect the interests of the vulnerable populations (Jimenez, 2015).

b. Describe a public policy controversy covered in the news media related to immigration issues. Relate your answer to ecological systems theory or conflict theory.

The primary public policy controversy on immigration is the plight of families and children whose parents are forced to leave the United States despite being married to Americans. The discussion on the implication of the broken immigration system has in the last two years taken significant news space. In the new media, forceful deportation of fathers and mothers of American citizen children is viewed to cause significant psychological and behavioural problems to the affected children. This observation can be supported by the ecological systems theory that holds that different environmental systems affect the behavior of children as they grow up (Jimenez, 2015). For instance, the exosystem ecology of the ecological systems theory holds that the migration of a mother or father whom a child has a special relationship with the child results in a conflicted relationship with the remaining parent.

c. In what ways can your knowledge of the immigration system and its challenges help you to be more culturally competent and empathetic when working with immigrants to this country (both those with and without legal status)?

Knowledge of the immigration system policies and inconsistent problems caused by the lack of the government initiative significantly helps one to understand the challenges that immigrants with legal and those without legal status face in the country. The immigration system is too restrictive, has static immigration quotas despite the growing number of immigrants, the president has the power to end the refugee program unilaterally, only congressional action can change the system, and immigrants, as a result, can live in the United States for years without receiving permanent residency (Jimenez, 2015). All these problems weigh down many immigrants who have to deal with family separation and other structural discrimination because they are not considered as citizens. Therefore, understanding the immigration system problems can help Americans to treat immigrants with empathy in their places of work or residential areas.

References

Immigration battle [Video file]. (2015). Retrieved June 5, 2019, from Oppression and Social Justice in the United States

Jimenez, J., (2015). Social Policy and Social Change: Toward the Creation of Social and Economic Justice. Sage Publications.