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Chapter 13 Fieldwork: Interview with an Immigrant 

Ayanna Moore

SOCI 110

24 April 2022

Chapter 13 Fieldwork: Immigrant Interview Summary

            Immigration comes in many different forms and experiences. Every immigrant's story is different in many ways. The only way one can understand their stories is to hear them ourselves. I decided to interview a close friend for this fieldwork and hear their story. This interview explained the pushes and pulls of coming to America, barriers to integrating into a new culture, and other factors contributing to their story. 

The first thing we brought into the discussion were pushes, pulls, and all other forms of motivation behind them coming to America permanently. Their immigration process began as young as eight years old. They grew up living in Mexico City, Mexico, raised by their mother and other close family members. Though surrounded by immediate family, it was an unstable and unsafe area. They did not have stable education or home life. These became very apparent push factors as they grew up.  One day, their mother sent them on a flight to the U.S. to come to visit their father and stepfamily. They explained that it “felt like a vacation on their first arrival. There was a pool and this amazing house, like Disneyland”. The original pull factor for this visit was a short-term vacation/visit that would not last longer than a few months to spend quality time getting to know their father and stepfamily. Eventually, another pull factor came to light that their education and success would have a much greater chance if they were to remain in the United States.  

While their first impression of the United States was very dreamy and somewhat like a vacation, their struggles of truly immigrating to a new country were yet to come. When asked ‘what do you think were some barriers while going through your immigration process?’ this is what they had to say: “I don’t think it was a struggle coming into America, but once I started getting rooted, that was. . . that was probably the hardest part. Especially once I got to school because I was surrounded by other kids my age, but I was still an outsider among them. I couldn’t speak fluent English yet; I could sometimes get certain words, which was kind of worse in its way. Social norms and expectations were probably the most significant adjustments. Certain things that I grew up thinking were okay now weren’t and some things I grew up thinking weren’t okay were”. They later explained that a lot of these barriers they encountered, while being able to overcome them, left them with some emotional and mental scarring that they are still trying to fight to this day. 

Finally, I asked how they have sustained their connectedness to their culture and what type of immigrant they could label. Concerning their connectedness to their culture, they stated that since coming to the U.S., they have felt very disconnected from their Mexican culture. They explained that “the only real way I stay connected is through still being able to speak fluent Spanish. That and I have some relatives from Mexico that come to visit, but that’s probably it”. After this, we turned the conversation to different categories of immigrants such as labor, professional, entrepreneurial, and refugees. After I explained what each type consisted of more closely, I asked if they felt they could relate to any of them. They stated that they don’t believe they could be classified as any categories. The closest they could link to any term was Internally Displaced (a sub-term of the refugee category that describes immigrants who have had to move around their home country). They explained that during their early years in Mexico, they often lived at many relative households all over Mexico as their mother did not have stable and safe housing. 

This interview was a very insightful experience for me. Comparing this friend's story to the basic knowledge and information I had already obtained made me learn much more. I approached this assignment with an open mind but still somewhat expected that most experiences would be similar to the knowledge I have obtained from material research. Still, I left this interview learning that material research only covers baseline information unless they speak directly to everyone, genuinely embracing different stories. Immigrants go through other struggles every day, each story vastly different from the next. But each objective is to build and better life and do what they can to lead to success. 

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Chapter 10: Class & Inequality

Karl Marx Theory:

In the article listed above, author Julianne McShane discuss a woman named Sophie Balzora and her female constiuates reaction to a react study published in a journal by Health Affairs states that female doctors all across the United States are paid $2 million less than the males in the same positions based on self-reported salary data submitted to the research by over 80,300 physicans. McShane also goes to explain how this major gap in wages was unsurprising to the female doctors in the work field. This article exemplifies the Marx theory of social class as we see to men and women being held on two different of class within this field and being treated completely differently, women being on the lower end and not receiving nearly as much as the men who are in the same positions.

Max Weber Theory:

This article above discusses that during our current pandemic, essential workers such as retail and grocery employees are still consider at the bottom of the occupational hierachy in many aspects. This correlates to the Weber theory of social class as it's certain point it prestige. Prestige is able to be measured in all aspects of life especially occupations. In Weber's theory, certain occupations can hold higher or lower prestige, in this case it would be considered lower, meaning that certain workers are considered more valued and can determine one's treatment in social class.

Pierre Bourdieu Theory:

Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social class primarly focuses on education and how education determines one's place in social class. According to Bourdieu, education can be used as a tool to keep certain people in certain classes. In the article above, Patrick Henry High School, one of the biggest high schools in San Diego, have removed almost all honors, advanced placement, and gifted courses. Many parents of students were outraged, stating that "the cuts will hamper opportunities for students to attend their preferred colleges because admissions officers favorably view honors courses, and the courses raise GPAs". This article shows elements of Bourdieu's theory one could interpert their removal of honors courses as cutting students opportunities of rising in class through higher education and instead keeping them at a lower standard.

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Chapter 6: Ethnicity and Nationality

For as long as can be traced back, my family and ancestors have lived in around America. Most were from southern states such as North and South Carolina. Just about everyone is of African-American and Indigenious descent. The photo above is my maternal great-grandfather, Earl M. Overbey. He was born in 1934 and raised in North Carolina. During his mid 20's, he served in military, working the Army Reserve to provide for his wife and family. Many of my family have followed in his footsteps and served in America military as a way of not only honoring him but showing our American nationalism.

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Chapter 5: Race and Racism Fieldwork

Miscegenation:

This is a photo of the first interrational couple in America to successfully fight against antimiscegenation laws in what we know now as the Loving v. Virginia case. Richard and Mildred Loving were a young couple who got married in Washington D.C.. Shortly thereafter, they returned to their home in Caroline County, Virgina. After there arrival, they were arrested and charged with violating the states antimiscegenation law which banned all interracial marriages. Eventually, their case reached to the Supreme Court and the states law was unanimously declared unconstitutional and offically banned. I believe this photo and its historical connection greatly tie to the concept of race with it being the only reason as to why they were not allowed to be together.

White Supremacy:

This is a photo taken in 1920 of a Ku Klux Klan rally. The Ku Klux Klan were established in 1866 and use the power of violence and terror to enforce their white supremacist ideology. This photograph has a strong connection to the concept of race in terms of white supremacy (the beliefs that whites are biologically different and superior to all other races).

Jim Crow:

The Jim Crow laws were sets of state and local laws from 1877 to the mid 1960s in Southern United States. These legistations were created for the sole purpose of legally segragating whites from black people. Black people were completely treated as second class citizens and were only permitted to travel and utilized colored areas or items.

Instituional Racism:

The graph above shows and explains the ways of institutional racism. Institutional racism is defined as patterns by which racial inequality is structed. As shown in the cycle, institutional racism lies in housing, criminal justice system, health system, education, and banking. It corrrelates to the concept of race as it is the motivator behind instituional racism. It was born from the ideology that black people were so inferior, therefore, could not be within the same institutional treatment of whites.

Colonialism:

This is an 1805 editoral cartoon created by English artist James Gillray entitled "Plum Pudding in Danger". It's an illustration depicting national leaders trying to colonize as much of the world as they can believing they are superior and deserving of more. They believe as though other countries are not as civilized (due to their racial status) as themselves so they must take it over and push their own ideologies/beliefs in order to make the other nations "better".

Individual Racism:

This is a screen grab from a YouTube video entitled "Racism in the Elevator". It stands discuss the individual racism in places as minimual as elevators. In the screen grab, we very clearly see the white women express her individual racial bias. By gripping tightly onto her purse, she's expressing the concern that the man who enetered the elevator with (who is of darker complexion) would be entitled to steal it from her.

Sources Sited:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRfjLfyXYlA

-https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/white-supremacy-alt-right-wing-tips/

-https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/blackrights/jimcrow

-https://www.teenvogue.com/story/miscegenation-laws-in-the-united-states-explained

-https://equineteurope.org/the-other-pandemic-systemic-racism-and-its-consequences/

-https://theboar.org/2018/01/anti-colonialism/

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The photo above is of the most expensive items in total that I own. This assignment taught me a great deal about myself and my spending habits. I never really viewed myself as someone who owns extremely valuable items while most things I have were gifted or handed down from others who didn’t need it. While listing my items, I started to view myself as a minimalist while also gaining a greater appreciation for everything I’ve been given.

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Fieldwork #1

This is a photo taken of my lava lap that I own in my room. I have owned it for around 8 or 9 years now. Lava Lamps were first created in 1948 by a British accountant named Edward Craven Walker. Walker first had the idea and created it in a village in England called Dorset. In my life, it stands as a sense of peace or relaxation. I especially use it sometimes if I’m experiencing really bad headaches because the warm tone and dull lighting tend to relive my head. Lava Lamps are still currently being made today by a company called Mathmos in the United Kingdom. The quality of life in the United Kingdom is ranked to be quite high. Being ranked at 5th place out of all European nations in quality of life statistics. It is safe to presume that those manufacturing these lava lamps everyday live a good life.

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The Four Key Dynamics

Time-Space Compression: 

This is a photo capturing a group FaceTime call. FaceTime is an app designed by Apple to allow people to contact each other worldwide and remain face to face. These calls take mere seconds to initiate and, if there is an excellent standing internet connection, can go on for hours. This stands as an example of Time-Space Compression as it decreases the amount of time it takes to reach out to others no matter how far they are. 

Flexible Accumulation: 

This is a photo of a cargo plane stopped and loaded for its next flight. Cargo shipments by planes are a faster and more effective way for companies to ship out and receive supplies quicker. This is an excellent example of Flexible Accumulation as it shows companies changing and adapting their methods of gaining profit and making themselves more avaliable.