Migrant Literature And Migrant Literature

This characterization gives a bigger meaning to the dangerous journey taken by immigrants to cross these socially constructed borders and brings meaning to immigrants as people, and not just as objects. The film shows the landscape of Honduras, people working in the fields, how children learn in school, soccer playing as a pastime and other visual occurrences that expose the viewer to the daily life of a Honduran citizen. The personification of Yohan being from Honduras, being father of three kids, a husband, a son, and a worker in his community, shows that his identity does not just amount to one negative connotation that is perceived out of ignorance and xenophobic principles. With Yohan as a real-life example, it motivates individuals to see that migrants expose themselves to dangers because of their family and goals. Yohan is not just a number or a name, but a person with a dream and a background—which provides a further representation of immigrants as people. This depiction gives immigrants a contextual background, gives them an identity through their “homeland.”

Growing up with parents who are immigrants can present many obstacles for the children of those immigrants. There are many problems people face that we do not even realize. Things happen behind closed doors that we might not even be aware of. Writers Sandra Cisneros and Amy Tan help us become aware of these problems. Both of these authors express those hardships in their stories about growing up with foreign parents. Although their most apparent hardships are about different struggles, both of their stories have a similar underlying theme.

In the early 1980’s, a group of young siblings living in poverty tell an important story of the immigrant experience. Reyna Grande’s, The Distance Between Us, is a memoir written with the recurring appeal to the reader’s pathos. Grande uses the rhetorical strategy to keep the reader’s interest and to help them make more connections to the story. Grande’s use of pathos helps to show not only the importance of understanding the immigrant experience, but the importance of following your dreams.

Belonging to place/culture is a major concept in ‘Migrant Hostel’ to show how the migrants use their background as a sense of affiliation and belonging. This can be seen through the use of a in “Nationalities sought each other out instinctively like a homing pigeon circling to get its bearings” This example shows how the migrants felt isolated and alone when they first arrived at the migrant hostel. As they came together the “sought each other out” through the use of nationally and culture which made them fit in and feel excepted into the place.

Throughout life, every individual must face obstacles; some more difficult than others. In the story “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, and article “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, there is a main character who has to face many challenges because of the fact that they’re immigrants. In all three texts, it is evident that being an immigrant has many affects on their lives. However, this label and the obstacles that come with it didn’t stop each character from pushing forward.

The Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community formed in Southern California in the 20th century because of two factors that came together: farming emphasized by migrations like the Okie farmers from the East and Mexicans “imported” to the U.S. because of the need for cheap labor as a replacement of Americans during World War II. The migrant labor group formed after an already similar group in the U.S had been established in California, the American farm workers from the East, known as the Okies. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s caused the movement of the Okies to the West and was followed by the transition from American dominant farm labor to Mexican migrant labor. The Okies reinforced farming in California through the skills they took with them,

On this extensive journey it allowed for an emotional journey to take part between immigrants, shown by the metaphor “silence fell from it’s shackles” showing readers that they were finally able to talk about their past experiences and emotions, which allowed for emotional release. The lengthy journey also allowed for Skrzynecki to allude back to his past life remembering both good and bad memories.

Like Bridie and Sheila they too are the forgotten victims of war, left to get on with life in their new country. The opening short sentences establish an atmosphere of sadness and apprehensions as the negative connotations of ‘dampness’, ‘crowded’ and ‘sank’ denote feelings of loss. As the ‘Immigrants’ wait in silence, the onomatopoeia of ‘the train’s whistle’ is a stark reminder of their transition into a new world and loss of the old. A melancholic tone is used to frame feelings of depression coupled with the pathetic fallacy of ‘crowded air’ and ‘dampness that slowly sank into our thoughts’ to capture vividly the common experiences of dislocation that is being felt. The alliterative use of ‘slowly sank’ highlights a loss of hope further denoting pessimism about an uncertain future in a country where indifference is experienced. Skrzynecki’s use of personification ‘time hemmed us in’ reflects the confinement of the immigrants as the extended metaphor of time is symbolic of stasis in their lives, moments of transience, but with little meaning. This loss of identity, both cultural and personal is further expressed through the figurative language where the powerful simile ‘like cattle bought for slaughter’ profoundly expresses their fear and pessimism through

In Sonia Nazario’s book, Enrique’s Journey, she presents the issue of migration through the thrilling tale of the journey taken by a Honduran boy, Enrique. Nazario’s central argument focuses on the endless cycle of parents leaving their children, and the children following and the desire for this cycle to stop. She wants the parents to stay in their countries and not break up their families. In order to extensively research the journey Enrique and other child migrants took, Nazario began, “as Enrique did, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Using her extensive interviews with him as her map, she retraces his steps, telling the story as though she had sat beside him on each step of his journey,” (Wildman). These steps fueled Nazario’s argument as she

The teenage years and transition to adulthood is in itself a very difficult period. Blending or fitting in are omnipresent issues that must be dealt with. For children of immigrants, this difficulty is only intensified through language. Both Amy Tan and Khang Nguyen strategically use narrative anecdotes and employ several rhetorical devices to illustrate this struggle in their works, “Mother Tongue” and “The Happy Days,” respectfully. Amy Tan chooses her childhood home as the primary setting of her work. This allows her to focus primarily on her conversations and interactions with her mother. However, she also gives several anecdotes in which her mother’s background and improper English negatively affected her, outside the home. Through

‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan and ‘Growing up Asian in Australia’ edited by Alice Pung, explore the different experiences of migrants when moving to a new and foreign culture. These texts discuss the broad and individual stories of migrants, including the many positives aspects of migrant life, as well as the many negatives and hardships that are faced. In this essay I will endeavor to discuss the similarities and contrasts between these two texts in regards to the difficulties migrants face when moving to a new country and assimilating into into a new culture. When migrants relocate they often struggle with language and communication barriers, which creates many limitations for them. Migrants may also have difficulties with being accepted by

For thousands of years, waves of immigrants continue joining the developed countries in the world, bringing with them the unique cultures, languages, and ideas. Over time, those unique values might be faded away with each generation because of the new culture exposition. The second-generation immigrants experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of host society. Most of them are unable to preserve and empower their origin cultures. Many differences between the first-generation and the second-generation immigrants arise. Through the analysis of the mother in “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” and the Das family in “Interpreter of Maladies”, I would like to demonstrate the differences between the first-generation immigrants, who travel from other countries, and the second-generation immigrants, who were born and raised on the immigrated land. These differences include the purpose of being in the foreign land, the connections to their homelands, society’s view, and the culture differences.

Exploring the themes of identity and immigration, this essay will focus on one short story and two case studies. Caterina Edwards’ Island of the Nightingales, follows Teresa Pomoronzola, a second-generation Italian immigrant living in Edmonton, who is sent to her mother’s homeland, the island of Lussino, in order to think clearly and gain perspective. Primarily, Teresa faces the internal conflict of choosing between her two lovers, yet she is also conflicted about her identity. Through the juxtaposition of divergent lifestyles and cultural values, Edwards’ Island of the Nightingales, suggests that a second-generation immigrant’s return to their family’s homeland is the ideal method for reconciling a conflicted identity and effectively understanding one’s background.

In the Second Edition of Servants of Globalization: Migration and Domestic Work, Rhacel Parreñas examines all of the challenging aspects of the lives of migrant Filipino domestic workers. Throughout the interviews that are included in this novel, the author was able to analyze different cases filled with personal struggle and familial support using the perspectives of many determined women across the diaspora, mainly focusing on those to travel to work in Western Countries. In this paper, I will briefly summarize the first three chapters, bringing to light the most important aspects the Parreñas included. I will then discuss the methodology used in her convincing global ethnography, before I include both the advantages and disadvantages to

The arrival of immigrants into developed nations has been a common trend for centuries, but so has the wave of resentment from natives of the land towards those who are migrants. Adichie illustries this migrant struggle through Americanah, which explores the hardships migrants must face with trying to be accepted into the new society. With her portrayal of the immigrant tendency to assimilate, Adichie skillfully highlights the pain associated with losing essential parts of one’s true identity.