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Summary and Critique of Sources

Immigrants

Currently, the entry and settlement of immigrants to America in the 1800s have captured the attention of many researchers. According to some researchers, immigrants spread so fast because there was no hope of useful lives in their nations: due to poor economic and political aspects. Immigrants entered America either legally or illegally. Nevertheless, they had a significant effect on the America’s political, economic, religious, and cultural attributes. In summary and critiques, I choose five books where the authors talk about immigrants and their effects to the American economic and political status. The five books are; “U.S Immigration and Education" by Grikorenko, “Home Without Security and Security Without Home” by Hogarth, “Beyond Brain Drain” by Fakhar, “Putting in Place Processes and Mechanisms to Prevent and Eradicate Enforced Disappearances around the World” by Sarkin, and the “Impact of Immigration and Immigration Reform on the Wages of American Workers” by Shapiro.

Summary (U.S Immigration and Education: Cultural and Policy issues across the Lifespan)

The book talks about the effects of immigrants on the American education. According to Grikorenko, immigrants had a significant impact on quality and variation of education in the American schools. The book is my most preferred because it clearly highlights how immigrants made the American government desire to expand education infrastructure. In essence, this desire had a significant effect on global education expansion.

Educating the young people was the most difficult thing. This is because they were the ones expected to provide labor for the farms and industries. Therefore, the Whites opted to educate the elderly who could hardly understand English. Also, education was provided only in small doses, thus making the immigrants have unequal access to education compared to the Whites. All through, the author talks about the education policies which had been set, and which denied the Blacks a right to education.

Later, immigrants could slowly get assimilated into the American culture. However, the process was slow due to the language barrier. In this regard, even the immigrants with access to education could not be able to communicate with the Whites. In short, the immigrants’ schooling in America was not a simple task. Blacks were normally labeled as ‘Students In Need of Improvement’ (SINI) due to their inability to understand English concepts. Grikorenko (2007) is very categorical on the challenges faced by the immigrants in the American schools.

Review/ critique (U.S Immigration and Education: Cultural and Policy issues across the Lifespan)

The author states that “Nearly 30% of immigrants had access to education” (Grikorenko, 2007). However, at other points, he cites that there were more than 40 million immigrants. It was impossible for such a percentage to get access to education, bearing in mind the several challenges they faced: language barrier, racial discrimination, slavery, among others. Additionally, immigrants could not be trained because most of their times were spent working in the Whites’ farms. Some immigrants wanted to study as they worked too. However, the quality of education gained from such a divided attention was compromised. In short, the author is contradictory by stating that such a big number of the immigrants had access to education.

Also, Grikorenko says that immigrants hurt the American education. We cannot assume that since some of them especially from Germany and England brought novel education concepts. In actual sense, immigrants made the American education to develop.

Summary (Home without Security and Security without Home)

The book seeks to answer the question of “whether immigrants were safe in America” (Hogarth, 2015). This book is my favorite because it out rightly cover the effects of racial discrimination in America. In fact, there was no security for the Blacks in the American land; their safety was insurmountable. Hogarth highlights several occasions which depicted the discrimination of the Blacks by the Whites. For example, there could be separate classes (for the Whites and the Blacks) in schools. Therefore, America was at some point regarded as a “home without security” because immigrants found things entirely dissimilar from how they expected. On the other hand, it was a secure place for some immigrants, especially from Africa. This is because there were no cases of political or tribal killings like those experienced in their nations. The lucky ones had access to education, jobs, land, and religious freedom. Therefore, America was more secure than their homes.

Review/ critique (Home without Security and Security without Home)

Hogarth has done a thoughtful assessment on how the immigrants were assimilated into the American culture. However, she has failed to comment on illegal immigration, which has continued to rise over the years. Illegal immigrations have remained steady since the 1800s. However, this trend has reduced since 2008, following the introduction of immigration laws. For example, the rules state that immigrants should hold at least college education so as to settle and leave in America. This recommendation has made the number of educated immigrants increase significantly. Hogarth (2015) has not provided us with such insights. Additionally, there is no relationship between immigrants and quality of education or immigrants and effects on culture. The book lacks sufficient information on effects of immigrants on the Americans.

Summary (Beyond Brain Drain)

According to Fakhar, immigrants had a significant impact on the America’s economy. They were significantly involved in the provision for labor on the farms and industries. I like this book because Fakhar highlights all the possible developments in industries and farms affiliated to the Blacks. According to his records, the “Blacks were preferred to work on farms due to their ability to withstand from strange diseases which killed the Whites” (Fakhar, 2014). That is why many could be allowed to work under their supervisions especially in manufacturing industries.

Additionally, farming was valuable in America during the 1800s (Fakhar, 2014). Immigrants were knowledgeable in different farming techniques. Therefore, they were required to offer their farming and harvesting methods in the Whites’ farms. This according to Fakhar was ‘brain drain.’

Review/critique (Beyond Brain Drain)

The book by Fakhar is confusing. According to my understanding of the term “brain drain”, it can only happen where professional skills are transferred from one nation to another. The fact that immigrants were used in providing technical skills may not amount to ‘brain drain. Also, some of the immigrants had knowledge for nothing, a fact that made them start learning farming skills from the Whites. The whole book does not bring out clearly the concept of brain drain, and what the author means. Therefore, according to me, the book is not outright due to several contravening points on how the immigrants passed their knowledge to the Whites; a fact I disagree with.

Similarity/contrast

All the books offer an interesting background of the settlement of immigrants in America. As a result of immigrants, America realized drastic and positive changes in its economic, political, and cultural changes. Immigrants provided new techniques of production, which improved the overall production of goods from the American industries. Also, there is a common indication of all the authors about the challenges faced by the immigrants in America; slavery and racial discrimination. Immigrants, especially from Africa, were denied access to education, better health care services, and public utilities such as access motor transport. However, the Blacks fought for their rights thus convincing the American government to provide for their rights in the constitution.

References

Grikorenko, E. L. (2007). U.S. Immigration and Education: Cultural and Policy Issues across the Lifespan. New York: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Hogarth, K. (2015). Home without Security and Security without Home. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 16 (3), 783-798.

Fakhar, A. (2014). Beyond Brain Drain. IGI Global, 777-778.