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Elizabeth Rubio

ENGL-1050-502-Sp18

April 26, 2018

Discrimination against immigrants in the United States

The first topic that we discussed this semester in this class was about Immigration and

Assimilation. I am an immigrant in the United States, however, before the Immigration and Assimilation

discussion I did not know much about the immigration debate in the United States. Thanks to the readings

of that week, I am now able to understand more about how the immigration system in the United States

works, and how those historic events contributed to the discrimination toward immigrants in the United

States. Most people immigrate to this country out of necessity, in search for a better quality life, but many

Americans see them as intruders, as inferior people due to of immigrant’s poverty backgrounds.

Part of the assigned reading in our first week of this class was an article written by Mary Gordon

titled "More than Just a Shrine: Paying Homage to the Ghosts of Ellis Island”. This article refers to the

events that happened at Ellis Island in 1892. Many immigrants arrived to this Island, but many of them

were rejected and others were put in the jail waiting for deportation. Even decades after the events at Ellis

Island’s, Gordon felt that Ellis Island stood for “insecurity, obedience, anxiety, dehumanization, and the

fear of displaced” (Gordon, 432). These are things that sadly many immigrants still experienced in this

country today. As an immigrant myself, I cannot say that I have felt directly discrimination for being an

outsider. However, despite immigration system becoming more “humanized”, the feeling of insecurity,

obedience and anxiety will always exist, along with the fact of being merely an immigrant (Gordon, 433).

The same phenomenon was happening in the west coast where thousands of immigrants were

coming from China. Angel Island was an immigration station in the bay area of San Francisco, CA. Many
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Chinese immigrants were detained, interrogated and put in jail as they waited for deportation to China

like agents did at the Ellis Island. In response to those immigration events, the United Stated enacted a

federal Law known as the Chinese Exclusion Act. It was the first restricted immigration law in the United

States. This act was created in order to exclude Chinese Laborer to enter and remain in the United States.

The marginalization that many immigrants experienced at Elli and Angel Island is a demonstration of the

discrimination that many immigrants have suffer through history in the United States.

On the other hand, on week 15 we had the opportunity to analyze an article written by Amitava

Kumar titled “Passport Photos” (Kumar, 514). This article is about an imaginary conversation that Kumar

had with a border patrol officer in Texas, at border with Mexico. The conversation revolved around a road

sign which had a message in English and Spanish. Jared Muniz a classmate posted in the Week 14, April

9-13: Intersection of Cultures discussion “Kumar is also trying to make us understand that we as a nation

tend to treat others differently and we should work toward being more inclusive, and equal in the way we

treat each other.” I agreed with Jared Muñiz because the word in the Spanish road sign had a different

meaning that the word used in English. In English, the road sign is CAUTION, and in Spanish the sign

translates to PROHIBIT. This message clearly denoted the inequality and discrimination toward Hispanic

people in the United States because while American can enter to Mexico without any restriction for

Hispanics it is prohibited to enter freely to the United States.

I enjoyed this class very much because in addition to learning about immigration and assimilation

in the United States, I also learned about many other topics related to diversity. A good example are

artistic murals. I was able to learn that murals are more than just art. I learned that murals expressed

historic, socials injustices, and is a way to keep legacies alive As a result, the next time that I have the

opportunity to see a mural, I will look for the meaning of the pictures rather than just focusing on the art.

This course has helped me to open my mind to the different cultures, to appreciate the diversity that we

have in the United States, and to know that diversity enriches and benefits our country. Diversity makes

the United States a great nation, and learning about it make us better citizen too.
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Work Cited

Gordon, Mary. “More than Just A Shrine: Paying Homage To The Ghosts Of Ellis Island.” New

York Times, 1987. pg. 431-435. Print

Kumar, Amitava. Passport Photos. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. pg. 513-515.

Print

Lee, Erika and Judy Yung. Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. Oxford University

Press,2010.EBSCOhost,libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.

aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=439566&site=eds-live.