Asian American History

Taken together, you have collected primary and secondary sources.

Now you will develop a thesis statement. Your thesis statement may change as you compose your paper and as you gather more information. However, it is time to start developing some claims and arguments to put forth in your project. These claims and arguments should emerge from your primary data (interview) and secondary data (annotated bibliography, etc). 

What is a thesis statement? A statement that

1. Presents an argument;

2. Expresses to your reader of your point-of-view on a topic;

3. Tells the reader what he or she can expect in reading your paper;

Example 

In the interview with my mother, she talked about the money she sent home and how that paid for school or marriages for her younger siblings and also for building a “solid” house. I realized that my maternal family’s economic status (and all the resources that come from that) changed drastically once my mother became settled in the United States and was able to send remittances home.

During the reading for my annotated bibliography, I found scholarship that showed that remittances do help the circumstances of individual families. The two articles that speak specifically about the migration of nurses from India to the United States showed that often these nurses became responsible for helping their entire family.

From my primary data and scholarly data, I now have the following working thesis statement:

In this paper, I will argue that through migrating to the United States and working as a nurse, my mother was able to improve the economic and living standards of her family.

Notice that I use the word “argue.” You need to also.

Once you develop your thesis statement, you should look at your interview and scholarship to find evidence to support your thesis statement.

My primary evidence will include:

· the specific things my mother told me the remittances were used for (building a house, paying for her sister to go to nursing school, paying for her brother to be trained as an accountant, etc)

· statements my mother made about how she was already sending money back to her parents when she worked in India, but sending dollars goes much further.

· her description of the family before she sent money

I will contextualize the above through scholarly evidence. A few points I have found in my articles that help me understand my mother’s migration as well as provide support for my argument:

· The first wave of nurses who migrated to the United States from India were from poor families and were often looked down upon for having a job that involved coming into contact with bodily fluids AND interactions with unknown men.

· This is an unusual migration pattern for women from India who arrived after the 1965 Immigration Act. Most women came as spouses of professional men or male students.

· Most of the husbands of the nurses were not skilled workers and were able to join them through family reunification.

· Female migrants send a larger portion of their income as remittances than male migrants. They also send more frequently and for a longer period of time.

· Female migrants send remittances to a larger group of extended families as opposed to male migrants who usually send remittances to their wives.

I have a few follow up questions to get more data:

· does she think the condition of some of the other families around us would be our condition if she did not migrate?

· does she still send money? Why or why not?

· did she know that nursing was looked down upon? If yes, why did she still choose it?

Make sure you have read and understand "A Thesis Statement" before you do this worksheet!   

1. What is a potential thesis statement you have right now? Please write as “In this paper I will argue _________________________________________" If you are choosing between two, you can share both.

2. What evidence do you have presently to support your thesis?

a. 2-3 data points from the interview(s):

b. 4-5 data points from scholarly sources: