Post Mortem #3

In "The Only Road,"  a young boy named Jamie in Guatemala, sees his cousin Miguel murdered by a violent gang called the Alphas, who want him and his cousin Ángela to join them. They realize that their village isn't safe anymore. they decide to flee to the U.S. to find safety with Jaime's older brother, trying to escape the the Alphas.

To create a better environment for newcomers, we need to change how we think about things in America. Instead of seeing immigrants as threats, we should see them as survivors who deserve our support. by providing resources like education, housing, and mental health services like therapy. It’s important to focus on the positive. By acceptaing and offering chances for success, we can help people like Jamie and Ángela from The Only Road rebuild their lives safely and make a positive impact..

 "The Need for Family Reunification - To Make Families Whole Again," Elizabeth Zion talks about how hard it is for families when they're separated, especially for those who have migrated. She says bringing families back together is important for their happiness and well-being.  She believes that family reunification should be more important in immigration policies. She wants more compassionate ways to keep families together, saying that having families united is very important for their emotional well-being.   

To make life better for immigrants, the U.S. should really focus on keeping families together in immigration policies. A lot of immigrants, especially those running away from violence, go through a tough time because they are separated from their loved ones. When families stay connected, everyone does better. The U.S. can create a more welcoming and supportive place for newcomers.

In “American Street” by Ibi Zoboi, the main character is a young haitian illegal immigrant named Fabiola. Upon entering the U.S. , her mother and grandmother were both caught, with her grandma being deported and Fabiola last seeing her mother being detained. They were trying to get to Detroit to live with her Aunt Jo and her three daughters, Chantal, Pri, and Donna(known as the three Bs by their peers). Fabiola is hit by a massive culture shock in Detroit, and her imagined reality of the “American Dream” begins to break apart. She struggles to continue life in this new place without her mother for guidance, torn between a new place, new people, a boy she likes, and her cousins, she tries to persist in the streets of detroit. The second part of the book continues to up the ante, and Fabiola faces many more challenges. She gets with her man, Kasim, and immediately they face hardship. He is friends with Donna’s boyfriend, Dray, and this becomes a dilemma when Fabiola is recruited by a detective to trace the death of a young girl via drug lacing back to Dray. Through her investigations she unveils a deep rooted drug ring, and discovers that it was her cousins, not Dray, that sold the drugs that killed the girl. Through this, she must worry about her mother in captivity, and how she either sells Dray out (or rather her cousins she finds out later) and loses her boyfriend, but gets her mom back, or she leaves her mother in captivity, keeps her boyfriend and family, and faces possible consequences from the government for not helping the detective. She spends her free time wishing her mother was there to advise her. The third part begins right after the revelation she receives that the reason her Aunt Jo never works is because her cousins pay for everything, with drug money. Now not only would she lose her boyfriend from uncovering the drug ring, but also her family. Soon after, Kasim’s ex jumps Fabiola, and Fabiola successfully defends herself against two attackers, but she catches a suspension and the dreaded reputation as the fourth B. Fabiola spends her suspension trying to find a way to only pin Dray for the drugs and visiting Kasim at work. While trying to uncover Dray, Fabiola slowly loses herself into a life of lying, cheating, and hides behind a facade created by Donna. She makes out Dray to get him to talk and smokes weed(which she promised not to do) to blend in. She uses her opportunity with Dray to tell him to sell drugs at a party at ‘the park’ and subsequently informs the detective that the person that laced the dead girl’s drugs would be selling again at the party in the park. Her cousins find out her betrayal and rush to the party to find multiple cop cars and they are being turned around by a cop when Fabiola sees Kasim’s body. Dray had asked Kasim to go to the party for him, and Kasim was shot while fleeing the police that Fabiola had informed. Dray chases the cousins back to their home, before he is shot and killed by what Fabiola believes is a diety disguised as a homeless man while about to kill Fabiola. For her information, the detective gets Fabiola’s mother out of custody and to Detroit, and Fabiola must live with the sting of what she has done to get her mother back for the rest of her life. The family moves out of the cursed house and drives to pick up her mother and the book concludes.

Sahu Bhojwani is a immigrant born in India and from Belize, who immigrated to the U.S. to study English literature. She struggled to find a job, and finally after 16 years she finally received her citizenship. Soon after 9/11, she was appointed by the mayor of New York to be the first Commisioner of Immigrant Affairs, a very politically charged and dangerous position after 9/11, when many people saw foreign people as a threat or a danger. She uses her experiences to portray the issues an solutions around immigration from an immigrant perspective, speaking on the fear of law enforcement and how most immigrants felt the same about most things. She brings up the voting power that introducing immigrants more easily into voting would bring and how the more people involved in the country’s decisions, the more ideas and viewpoints we have and the more informed people could be from allowing an easier immigration to the U.S.

what is missing from the American mindset and culture to create a better environment for people coming into our country? What needs to change for these people to experience more success and acceptance?

In America, there are really only a couple of issues truly separating immigrants and the American people. The first is the cost and time of becoming a legal immigrant. “My journey from international student to American student took 16 years, a short timeline when you compare it to other immigrant stories.” (Bhojwani 2) It also costs quite a lot. This makes it extremely difficult for at risk foreigners to immigrate and often this process added to the danger they could be in causes people to illegally enter the U.S. and illegal immigration creates a negative connotation for the American people on the word ‘immigrant’. This negative meaning spreads to their culture as well, the other main issue. A lot of people view foreigner traditions as alien or strange simply because they are different. “ ‘ Fabiola! What the fuck did you do to the turkey?’ Pri shouts. Donna is covering her mouth, Chantal starts laughing, Matant Jo is shaking her head. ‘What, what, what?” I ask. ‘What happened?” (Zoboi 232) Often times both of these issues could be solved very simply through education on foreign traditions and with adjustments made to the immigration system.

In the Ted Talk "Don't feel sorry for refugees-believe in them," by Luma Mufleh, Luma talks about her experience as a Muslim and how refugees need to be acknowledged and helped because they might need it. She says we need to understand where they are coming from both mentally and physically. A quote: "Harem!" I said in Arabic. "Poor them." "Harem on us," she said, using the word's different meaning, that we were sinning. "Don't feel sorry for them; believe in them." (Mufleh) This quote exemplifies the whole of what Luma is saying when she too learned a lesson about how she should believe in these refugees.

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian is about a boy from Maine who’s in high school named Tom Bouchard. In the book, Tom is the captain of the school soccer team, which is home to his Somali teammate Saeed and a few other Somali refugees who joined the team, who often face struggles with various things, including racism due to their origin and reason for being there. Throughout the book, Tom deals with a lot, including the team facing racism and struggles with his own life and his girlfriend. Other characters to note are Samira, who is Saeed’s sister and speaks better English than he does, and Coach Miller, who is the soccer coach. At the end of the book, Saeed and Samira go missing randomly, and no one knows where they went. With Saeed's absence on the team and on the field, the loss is felt, and they end up losing their game, which put an end to their season. "So now your school has an English only policy in the classroom. If immigrant kids so much as say "can I borrow your calculator?" in their own language, they get detention."(Padian 121) This quote is impactful since it shows the discrimination immigrants go through and how hard the system has made it for them.

What is missing from the American mindset and culture to create a better environment for people coming into our country? What needs to change for these people to experience more success and acceptance?

I think what is missing from the American mindset is the ability to see things from others points of view and adjust accordingly. Our culture simply just doesn't currently accommodate for others we aren't used to or people who are new and might need to adjust in their own ways. We should be more open to knowing the needs and accommodations of those coming into our country and help them achieve those needs and/or respect their feelings and beliefs.

In my book All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir one of the characters, Noor, has to go through this experience. She wants to go to college but feels like she can’t because she feels like she has to work at the liquor store because of what her Chachu did for her.  He saved her from her home when there was a bad natural disaster; she would have died if it wasn’t for him. Now she feels like she can’t go to college, this is probably because of the guilt she feels after him giving up everything to save her, “I can’t be angry at Chachu. He is the only reason I’m standing here. I was six when an earthquake hit my village in Pakistan… He pulled me out. Got me to a hospital and didn’t leave my side… He gave up everything for me. Now it’s my turn”(Tahir 17). This quote shows that her uncle(Chachu) thinks that Noor shouldn’t go to college, in the book Noor gets saved by her uncle and now he feels that she owes him(it’s like the saying “the phone works both ways”). They can fix this by her Chachu letting Noor know that she can go to college, that just because he saved her doesn't mean she owes him anything. This would give Noor the most success; she has already accepted the fact that she wouldn’t be able to go to college and pushed that thought out of her mind and now it didn’t hurt her anymore, “Because Chachu has a theorem about me, too. Chachu’s Theorem of the Future, I call it. It's pretty simple: Noor+College=Never going to happen”(Tahir 18). This quote shows that Noor believes her uncle doesn’t want her to succeed. He wants to finish college and he “couldn’t” because of Noor, now he doesn’t want her to go to college because he feels like he deserves too.

Tom Bouchard has a perfect life at his high school hes popular,successful, and is dating an attractive girl. His life changes when Somali refugees, fleeing from war settle in Enniston. Saeed, a talented soccer player who joins Tom's team. A prank involving vandalism of a rivals schools emblem, results in Tom and his friend Donnie having community service at the K Street Center, a facility helping Somali refugees. There Tom works with Saeed's sister and other Somalis. These interactions give Tom insight into the refugees' struggles. As Tom becomes more involved with the Somali community, he sees the realities of racism within his town.The novel's main idea is Tom becoming aware of his own biases and systemic challenges faced by Somali refugees.I saw this Somali girl on all fours on the staircase landing… I heard one guy say ‘Dude, what is she doing?’ ‘Facing Mecca,’ someone replied.” Chapter 9, Page 9 this shows the struggle of integrating immigrant culture. 

“What's missing from the American immigrant narrative.” is about a girl who goes to the US while parents are deported, takes advantage of opportunities, and brings her brother and its about self determination. A quote supporting their struggles: “these laws +systems well, they broke up my family.” (Gutierrez 1).

In order to create a better environment and opportunities for immigrants US citizens need to be considerate and understand people are very different but it's better to embrace our differences rather than not.

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian is about a boy from Maine who has a perfect life hot girlfriend, soccer captain. On the soccer team, there is an immigrant from Somalia named Saeed, and there are a couple of other people on the team. Saeed and the other boys face many challenges in the book, like racism due to where they are from and what they look like. Throughout the book, Tom deals with a whole bunch of things, including his teammates facing racism, and Tom also struggles with his own life and even his girlfriend. Some other good characters to note are Samaria, who is Saeed's who speaks better English the Saeed, and Coach Miller, who is the boys' soccer coach. At the end of the book, Saeed and Samaria randomly go missing, and not a single person knows where they went. With Saed's absence from the team and on the field, you can tell that there is a big part missing from the team. They ended up losing their game, ending their season. A good quote to use is “ only our best player” ( Padian 313). This is a good quote to use for this summary because it just shows how much of an impact saeed has on the soccer team. 

To create a better environment for immigrants coming into the USA i feel we need to help them with stuff, help their parents with chores or groceries, go out and do something to make their life/transition easier i also feel that we need to offer more them have more opportunities for them to grow and make a impact 

A good ted talk to use is “Don't feel sorry, refugees believe in them” By Luma Mufleh In this ted talk she creates a soccer team and talks about how big of an impact they have on teams. asked them if they had ever played on a team. They said they hadn't, but that they would love to. I gradually won them over, and we formed our first team. This group of kids would give me a crash course in refugees, poverty and humanity. Three brothers from Afghanistan -- Roohullah, Noorullah and Zabiullah -- played a major role in that. I showed up late to practice one day to find the field completely deserted. I was really worried. My team loved to practice.” this is a good quote because it shows just how much they love playing soccer and how much they care about each other

In the Ted talk, What's Missing from the American Immigrant Narrative, by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez talks about how Gutierrez has been striving for her own success, even after her parents were deported to Mexico. Gutierrez had strived to be successful so that she could bring back her brother to America, because she had felt like she had to for her parents had tried so hard to give her the opportunities. She uses the oxygen masks on planes as an analogy for helping yourself before helping others,"In case of an emergency, put your oxygen mask on first before helping those around you"(Gutierrez).

In the Book, the namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, the main character, Gogol, is born in America with Indian parents. For most of Gogol’s adolescence, he has struggled with both his name and Indian heritage. He hates his name so much he changes it before he gets into college and it gives him confidence,“For his father had a point; the only person who didn't take Gogol seriously, the only person who tormented him, the only person chronically aware of and afflicted by the embarrassment of his name, the only person who constantly questioned it and wish it were otherwise, was Gogol”(Lahiri). And with his Indian heritage he basically leaves it behind unless he is with his parents. Gogol becomes successful in his work as an architect and doesn't worry about money, he has three loves in his life, the second teaches him how much he enjoys the American family more than his own, and his third love becomes his wife who eventually cheats on him and leaves. At the end of the book, he finds a gift that his father had given to him years before his death, and as he starts to read it he feels like he is connecting to his father.

The struggles of anyone may or may not be because of themselves, the people they surround themselves with, or people they have never met. Just because a person is struggling doesn't necessarily mean they need outside help, they may need to try helping themselves first before going to get help from others.