Global Studies Course Analysis

Migration policies are often designed with the sole objective of influencing international migration by either restricting or encouraging circular migration, immigration or emigration(Ripsman & Paul, 2010). Open border policies have contributed to the uncontrolled to the flow of illegal immigrants into countries and in turn generating challenges to the host countries. The fundamental basis for arguments has been whether open immigration policy or restricted immigration policy

Throughout the course of this class, I have been back and forth with this question. This course has shed light on the good, the bad, and the ugly of globalization. So as this course comes to an end and my opinion has changed multiple times over the weeks, I feel I still stand at a fork in the road when it comes to globalization.

Patricia B. Strait’s article, “When Societies Collide: Part Three: Finding the Best Fit Immigration Model” (2011), showcases multiple immigration models for countries to choose from. Countries look at its current factors to determine which model is appropriate. No model is necessarily the best, but instead, Strait emphasizes finding the most fitting model for a country's historical, cultural, demographic, and economic prerequisites.

Immigration-related discussions could always cause vehement debates and arouse ambivalent feelings among both policy makers and the general public. On the one hand, we appreciate that immigrants contribute to cultural diversity, social vibrancy and economic prosperity; on the other hand, we sometimes could not resist to express our concerns and complaints about how immigrants constantly drive competition in job markets, put strain on public resources, and pose threats to social peace. Although classical economic model predicts with the expansion of labor force caused by increasing immigrants, wages or per capita income will fall and living standards will deteriorate, there might be a subgroup of immigrants who could, in contrast,

Destruction, violence, and chaos engulfs the lives of those in the Middle East, specifically in Syria. Since 2011 the country has been in disarray and consumed in a vicious civil war displacing millions of inhabitants of the region. Several countries have offered aid and asylum to these refugees, which raises the question: Should the United States (U.S.), a prominent world leader, allow Syrian refugees to seek asylum in their country? Several articles explore this question, including “Are Syrian Refugees Really a Security Risk? - Harvard Political Review”, “To Defeat ISIS, Know Thy Terrorist; Scorning Syrian refugees is doing ISIS a huge favor”, and “No vetting of Syrian "refugees" in Obama's "resettlement" invasion: the FBI says there is no way to vet incoming refugees and Senate and House chairmen blasted Obama for serious national security risks and economic costs of refugee policy”. The authors of the first and second article, Evan Bonsall and Kurt Eichenwald, argue that the refugees should be allowed asylum, while the author of the third article, William F. Jasper, argues against granting asylum. All of the authors employ complex rhetorical strategies including ethos, pathos, logos and other systems to explain their opinion and target their desired audiences.

The dilemma regarding the American refugee policy and America’s stance on refugees at this point in time is a challenging topic for many to discuss. Not only is this controversy affecting Americans, it is also hurting refugees in desperate need of our help. America needs to start handling the emerging refugee crisis by first working to remove the stereotype associated with refugees, then the U.S. needs to assess which refugee countries should (if any) actually be banned, and after accomplishing those-- America needs to work to help the countries in need by letting refugees in, and working to help the refugees live happily in their country of origin.

For the podcast, I interviewed Lina Abdulnoor, with the intention of exploring the intricacies of refugeehood by analyzing Lina’s refugee experience. Lina lived in Iraq with her family until they began receiving death threats due to their religious beliefs. Convinced that they needed to flee the country to survive, they left Iraq as refugees. After leaving Iraq, they settled in Jordan, where they waited two years until the U.N. to approve their request to move to the U.S. in 2012. Lina and her family initially settled in Virginia, where she experienced culture shock as she adapted to American culture and the English language. However, Lina did not feel accepted in Virginia; her experiences in the state led her to think that Americans treated her according to negative stereotypes of Iraqis. After living in Virginia for several months, Lina and her family chose to resettle in San Diego, California, which harbored a larger Iraqi population than Virginia did. Supported by San Diego’s Iraqi community and various refugee organizations, Lina flourished, and she currently studies at UCSD while holding a stable job.

Over the last decade, the number of immigrants has increased tremendously growing from 331,000 to a whopping 409,000. An increase of about 78,000 people ( Britannica). Despite media coverage on the issue many people are blind to the true nature of the situation . Therefore it is important to understand the extent to which immigration affects us all.

Much of my life has pertained to being an outsider. I immigrated to America from detrimental circumstances in Haiti, therefore I was always viewed as foreign. If my accent did not reveal my identity, then my Caribbean island boy demeanor or way of dress surely would. At a young age, I gained interest in African history because as a citizen of a developing black nation, I had experienced their economic struggles, encountered similar social discriminations, and inherited comparable cultural values. Today, my academic aspirations focus primarily on the history of the African Arab States and understanding the complex events and leaders which have shaped this ever-changing region. As seen by the European refugee crisis, what happens here influences the political discourse of the world.

From the micro-level to the macro-level globalization has transformed the world into a smaller place with constant interactions occurring at every moment between nations, institutions, groups, and individuals. And with this prevalent interconnectivity, migration between the Global North and the Global South has been a controversial consequence of this global integration (Hinojosa, 2015). For this reason one cannot ignore the importance and impact of migrant populations in the country they settle in, and in the countries of origin.

With increasing interest in serving refugees, I sought the help of Ben Lyons, a Groton alumnus, to help me find a fitting internship for the subsequent summer. Ben helped me find an internship with an organization that provided free legal assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in Istanbul, Turkey. This was in the summer of 2015 and the refugee crisis had just unraveled; Turkey, at the time,

For our Global Studies 1 spring final project we had to think of a thesis that used “Through my history and English courses, I have learned...” as a starting/expansion point. We were to write journals that responded to different open ended questions about the process of this project and about our experiences in this course. The main part of the project is the product which was a medium of our choice that exhibits a meaningful point of connection for you between history and English this year. My product for this project is a website. It is a multilayered bubble map/mind map that demonstrates, through each English book and history unit, that when you analyze a conflict, large or small, deep down, moral obligation plays a big part in the outcome and the cause. I explored the cause of each conflict and major event in each English book and history unit, and walked the viewer down a path that shows to the root cause, moral obligation.

The purpose of the research will be to seek answer- how Europe aims to improve the social, cultural and religious balance between the migrants and the citizens of Europe through the exchanges of views, culture, language, tradition, religion regardless of sex, gender, and ethnicity. This discussion is providing a strong base for the following research questions:

This issue was chosen due to its scope. The Syrian refugee crisis is among a list of issues that will not only shape the world in 2016 but also dominate news outlets in upcoming years. Because of the despairing situation, many governments are struggling to find ways to handle the rush of individuals seeking asylum, for the fact that it seems the crisis is worsening. In addition, the media coverage on the topic sparked my interest and led me to research information because I had no idea what was occurring and the detriment of the issue.

This source analyses the causes for immigrations. Often people leave their native country due to poverty, issues of security or simply because they are seeking a better life. This excerpt demonstrates Pierre’s struggle from the young ages. He lived in poverty, had to walk kilometres in order to go to school and essentially is a real combatant as he managed to go to school, college and university even if he was poor and his parents could not financially support him. Eventually, he will leave Congo and then Ukraine because of poverty but also because he had a dream of a better life.