Illegal Undocumented in Los Angeles USA

Illegal Undocumented in Los Angeles USA

1.  Introduction

The United States is a country with the particularity of having a population almost entirely based on fairly recent immigration. Through successive waves of immigration from different parts of the world the country has built one of the most populated nations in the world. During the first centuries of existence New York was the main point of entrance for new arrivals, as most immigrants were hailing from European countries. However the Californian economic boom in the first half of the 20^th century made of Los Angeles another major point of entrance into the country. Today New York and Los Angeles alone are home to 18% of all immigrants residing in the United States. Despite being a major door to country these 2 megalopolis have very divergent immigration population (Foner and Waldinger, 2012).

However in spite of being historically a country of immigration the United States has been implementing a policies aiming at reducing drastically the influx of foreign population by operating a firm control of its boundaries. Nonetheless toughening legal immigration didn’t result in less immigration. Many candidates to immigration in the US started to enter the country in order to work and live there permanently without the proper documentation to do so. The myth of the “illegal” alien, later rename in a more politically correct term “undocumented” was born. In Los Angeles it is estimated that 10% of the city’s population resides in the country illegally which is the highest share of any city in the country. Los Angeles’ Sanctuary City status for undocumented immigrants alone doesn’t suffice to explain why the city has been such a preferred destination compared to other similar cities. How can the large undocumented population of Los Angles be explained?

2.    Sociological Analysis: Structural Functionalism Paradigm

According to the Census Bureau in 2013 Hispanics of any race were 49% up from 17.1% in 1970 making it the largest ethnic group in Los Angeles who became then a minority- majority city.

What were the factors making Los Angeles so attractive for Hispanic immigrants? Some argue that the presence of many individuals of Mexican descent can be explained by the fact that California was in the past a territory under Mexican administration. However the Mexican rule only lasted some 25 years and the 1940 US census reported a population of 86.3% composed of non-Hispanic whites. Therefore the population grew as result of direct result of a massive influx of Hispanic individuals.

California started booming economically in the beginning of the 20^th century coinciding with the discovery of oil fields and the major movie studios relocation to Los Angeles turning the region into a dynamic and attractive place. Immigration from Mexico and Central American countries had been continuous and stable over the first half of the 20^th century however in the late 1970’s a combination of factors led to a significant acceleration in the influx of arrivals.

The 1980’s saw wars and never ending unrest in Central American countries, economic marasmus in Mexico due to chronic corruption, but also improvement in long-distance travels and American low birth rate, creating favorable grounds for immigration. Nonetheless starting in 1986 the US Congress adopted measures aiming at fighting illegal immigration enacting the Immigration Reform And Control Act and in 1996 the Illegal Immigration Act reinforcing border control and turning hiring illegal aliens more difficult. Nonetheless millions of immigrants still crossed the border to settle in Los Angeles disregarding the law (Sonensheim, 2013).

The reason underlying such massive influx of population is that immigration fulfills a need for both those who leave and those who receive. and are usually safety or economically motivated. New comers were running away from poverty, wars, looking for work, a better healthcare system and education opportunities for them or their children. They were looking to improve their achieved status (Sullivan and Kimi, 2014) (Chavez, 2012).

In its turn the United States who were starting to face a decreasing birth rate and found absorbing young immigrants as a solution to its demographic problems allowing its total population to keep growing and to renew generations. From an economic perspective aliens often represent cheap labor to fill unskilled jobs and maintain economic competitivity. Immigrants working illegally will pay taxes to support the state expenses, consume, and will not be a burden as they are ineligible for welfare due to their illegal status (Sullivan and Kimi, 2014).

Why is illegal immigration specially focusing on Los Angeles? New York is nowadays mainly an air border as oversees land is remote and the closest land border is with Canada, a country receiving also massive immigration. An air border is arguably much easier to control as all entrances convergence to one same point which is heavily secured, the airport. Also purchasing a plane ticket can be an obstacle for someone hailing from a developing country (Foner and Waldinger, 2012).

On the other hand Los Angeles is very close to the Mexican border. The geographical proximity as well as the fact that the frontier can be crossed by feet which facilitates the immigration process in terms of time, costs, and logistics.

Moving to a different country can be a challenging experience leading to cultural shock from having to deal with a different language, different folkways, and different norms.  The presence of fellow countrymen from the same village or relatives already settled in the city is seen as relief for newcomers that despite changing country they can maintain a social tissue allowing them to practice their culture keeping a feeling of in-group belonging. Another aspect is that Los Angeles largely conserved the toponymy expressed in the Spanish language left by the Spaniards which creates a feeling of familiarity for people hailing from countries where Spanish is the official language (Logan, Wenquan and Richard, 2002).

3.   Conclusion

Illegal immigration and undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles have long been a heated topic. Some are deeply against in defense of American society integrity, while others are unconditional partisans invoking everyone’s right to the American Dream. While undocumented immigrants certainly brings and takes away from the United States their presence on Angelino soil serves several purposes. Undocumented immigrants are willing to cross the closest border risking their lives and breaking the law for a glimpse at a materially more comfortable life, joining a friend or a relative already settled while filling-in gaps in the American economy and demographics who welcomes them. As a fairly recent country the United States demographics have changed drastically several times in just a few centuries of History. This current wave of immigration is only one chapter in a country in perpetual mutation.

4.   Sources

Chavez, Leo R. "Undocumented immigrants and their use of medical services in Orange County, California." Social science & medicine 74.6 (2012): 887-893.

Foner, Nancy, and Roger Waldinger. "New York and Los Angeles as Immigrant Destinations: Contrasts and Convergence." (2012).

Sonenshein, Raphael J. The city at stake: Secession, reform, and the battle for Los Angeles. Princeton University Press, 2013.

Sullivan, Richard, and Kimi Lee. "Organizing Immigrant Women in America’s Sweatshops: Lessons from the Los Angeles Garment Worker Center." Signs 40.1 (2014).

Logan, John R., Wenquan Zhang, and Richard D. Alba. "Immigrant enclaves and ethnic communities in New York and Los Angeles." American sociological review (2002): 299-322.

ePortfolio Final Semester Reflection

At the beginning of this class the goals I had in mind were to retain a lot of information from a textbook. This was the goal I had set myself for this class. However very quickly I realized that memorizing is only one way of learning.

To my surprise this class required much less memorizing than I would have expected, probably due to the fact that it is entirely delivered online. Consequently a fair way to assess students understanding and work is not through a test, a quiz or anything requiring textbook facts regurgitating but rather asking something unique from the student, a written composition.

I have to confess that in this class I fulfilled a goal I didn't know I had at the beginning of the semester. I learned how studying efficiently is done. I knew that studying well doesn't mean sitting in front of a textbook passively for the simple reason that the human mind doesn't assimilate in passive way. If science classes always come with a hands-on lab component it is because many things, as abstract as they can be, are learned better when the mind is active.

Being proactive in the learning process is definitely a great goal I achieved with this class. The course was fairly writing intensive throughout and this pushed me to have a critical-thinking, active approach to sociology concepts. To me it is a direct application of Plato’s didactic questioning.

These skills acquired do not only apply to this sociology course, they are valuable to the point they can be apply to any subject. Another thing applicable to life in general are the sociological concepts and paradigms. Understanding how our society works is extremely important and valuable not only as a sociologist but also as citizen, specially in a complex, multicultural society like ours where one often fails to see the bigger picture. The different paradigms encountered in this course reminded me that society isn't the sum of its content but the result of many forces.

In the future I will try to work more on reviewing my written work to ensure its quality in terms of grammar, punctuation and syntax. 

Savage Inequalities Reading & Reflection

1/Professor Irl Solomon History class summarizes the problems associated with inner city. In his classes many girls are pregnant or recently gave birth when they do not have the ability to sustain a child since they are underage and with little to no skill to enter the work force or further their education, especially with the stigma associated with a “ghetto” high school diploma. Furthermore these children are born outside of family structure leaving those teenage girls with little perspectives in their future lives risking to pass the same pattern down to their children.The school lack of funding to pay for equipment and teachers is responsible for students receiving a sub-standard education. Only half the students graduate from high school, only 22% of graduates will further their education at a college level, some 10 to 20% will get a trade education and the another portion will join the military. It is to be noted that the majority of students enrolled at professor Solomon’s class drop-out before graduating or do not pursue education.

 2/ The student named Jennifer is presently a student enrolled in a suburban, quality school but has the particularity to originate in the Bronx. She tells her personal story stating that her parents decided to move away from a poverty stricken area to a wealthier neighborhood in order to take advantage of their better funded school system. However the student believes that tax dollars should only fund local schools, and that leaving an unfavorable environment such as the Bronx relies first and foremost on a personal decision. A personal choice in picking a residence area with the best schools but also a personal and family involvement in school success.    When questioned about sharing resources with disfavored school districts out of humanistic moral values, she dismisses its importance stating it doesn’t bring her anything.

3/ The school in Rye is well built, pleasant to the eyes, having all the equipment needed, unlike the East St Louis high school that is falling apart, lacking proper equipment, understaffed and poorly conceived. The student body of Rye is mainly composed of White and Asian students whereas East St Louis is almost exclusively Black.The student body of Rye is thriving, studies Latin, takes AP classes, well-spoken evaluating in cultured environment. The school in East St Louis serves a much degraded area, with fewer opportunities, where crime isn’t uncommon, poorly motivated in doing well in school being distracted by extracurricular problems.     The American school system has many problems. The high school dropout rate as well as the teenage pregnancy frequency is considered high compared to other industrialized countries. Only 75% of all students enrolled in high school graduate. This underperformance might be correlated with the level of expenditure by the government with only 5% of the American GDP being allocated to education, which is low when compared with other first world countries.However such performance is not the consequence of neglect from the American government but rather the result of a policy. As a country applying largely the philosophy of the “laisser faire, laisser passer” the state chose to intervene little, keeping public services such as education and healthcare to a minimum, the government refuses to fund schools complementing local property taxation to allow each school the same budget and the same oportunities. One might ask, then how does the US get its skilled work force so vital for a competitive economy? The solution is to grant work visas to foreign highly skilled graduates, which are immediately operational and didn’t cost the state anything in education.This is the reason why many Americans receive a substandard education because the government doesn’t view equality of chances as a priority in order to maintain a competitive economy. 

Montgomery Bus Boycott & Liberation Theology

The Montgomery buss protest came at a time and place when and where America practiced racial segregation in every day life between Blacks and Whites. Such laws were specially a source of conflicts in the Deep South where Black population is important and society lies on remains dating back from the colonial era. 

At the time The American society was following the "separate but equal" precept, meaning that Blacks and Whites were to lead confined lives in public, and interracial contact was not only illegal but socially and morally disapproved.Bus sits were segregated and Whites were given the priority when seats were unavailable. The arrest of a woman refusing to follow the law triggered the onset of a very significant political protest. Rather than doing demonstrations or engaging in violence the movement leader opted for a peaceful way to make themselves heard launching a bus boycott.

However the vast majority of Black people living in Montgomery at the time being poorly educated and politicized the organization had to organized accordingly rather than through a political party or a union. This is where the Latin root "Religare" meaning to "link together" took all its meaning. Blacks in the South being predominantly fervent Baptist Christians made of that church the natural leader of the protest since it was the place where neighborhoods and communities would get together. Such church leaders' charisma and ethos compelled the followers to join a unified, organized cause. This example shows how religion is not only about devotion to the sacred but has also a social role and consequently is very powerful vector for political ideas, for the good or the bad.   

Sociology project #1

Project 1 has been the most challenging assignment so far. Aside from being the most difficult it has been the most valuable. Retaining material through memorization in order to be able to answer correctly multiple answer question is only one way to learn.
However as Jean Piaget said “We only retain form our masters whatever we are able to rebuild on our own”. This means that in order to assimilate and master material one must be able to restate it through their own mental process. Being able to restate new material is an evidence of knowledge ownership. This is why it always advise to “explain” to others as a learning technique. It forces us to handle and organize the concepts in an operational way, which makes sense for our mind. Whatever makes sense to our mind is more easily memorized. I have found that writing as a learning technique is a very powerful method in many different aspects. Learning by just sitting in front of a book or a computer screen is a method that can be deemed as active-passive requires a lot of energy and may not give the best results, at least as far as I am concerned. I need to be proactive in searching, comparing and contrasting concepts in order to stay engaged and focused throughout the whole study time.
This form of learning carries the vantage to benefit those who perform better using visual cues. Since the confrontation of concepts is a very abstract task, mentally handling abstract ideas only helps. Using writing extensively as a form of studying rather than “dry” memorizing by reading has proved to be a much more effective form of learning. I have been periodically using this method but I am now aware of its power and will keep using it not only for this sociology class but also in my future nursing courses where pace is hectic.

Mont Shuksan, acrylic painting

Mount Shuksan, Washington by sindu5673 on DeviantArt

Caricature playing with face proportions

Caricature playing with facial proportions by sindu5673 on DeviantArt