Immigrants in Los Angeles
This past week, we have begun reading on a new book that focuses on the narrative of Luis Rodriguez. In his book, we learn how he had to overcome language barriers in school and learn to survive in a more dangerous neighborhood. When Rodriguez and his family moved to Los Angeles, they had trouble fitting in, and teachers often picked on Luis for not being able to speak English well. Furthermore, Alfonso, Luis's father, had difficulty finding a job in America despite being a principal of a high school in Mexico.
The obvious struggle that minority immigrants face is one of Los Angeles's many problems and has affected thousands of families throughout the city. Last year, California had a "Day without Immigrants," where immigrants in Los Angeles did not go to work to highlight the contributions immigrants make to the U.S economy. The demonstration was aimed at Trump who planned to crack down on immigration by building a border wall, taking federal funding from sanctuary city, and deporting illegal immigrants, amongst other things. However, many were unable to participate in fear of losing their jobs, or simply because they could not miss a paycheck. In a Los Angeles Times article (https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-day-without-immigrants-20170216-story.html), one person says that "It hurts my heart" to not be able to participate in the boycott. Despite having a legitimate cause, the movement had a mediocre response in Los Angeles compared to other places such as Texas and Detriot due to a lack of participation and support from immigrant organizations. One organization claimed, "If we make the call and ask people to risk possibly losing their jobs, we have a responsibility to help them."
In the future, how can we as residents of Los Angeles support immigrants in their fight for political justice in Los Angeles? How can we help that movements like A Day Without Immigrants gather more support and become more widespread? How can we help immigrants who want to participate in these movements but are unable to due to fear of losing their job?
The obvious struggle that minority immigrants face is one of Los Angeles's many problems and has affected thousands of families throughout the city. Last year, California had a "Day without Immigrants," where immigrants in Los Angeles did not go to work to highlight the contributions immigrants make to the U.S economy. The demonstration was aimed at Trump who planned to crack down on immigration by building a border wall, taking federal funding from sanctuary city, and deporting illegal immigrants, amongst other things. However, many were unable to participate in fear of losing their jobs, or simply because they could not miss a paycheck. In a Los Angeles Times article (https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-day-without-immigrants-20170216-story.html), one person says that "It hurts my heart" to not be able to participate in the boycott. Despite having a legitimate cause, the movement had a mediocre response in Los Angeles compared to other places such as Texas and Detriot due to a lack of participation and support from immigrant organizations. One organization claimed, "If we make the call and ask people to risk possibly losing their jobs, we have a responsibility to help them."
In the future, how can we as residents of Los Angeles support immigrants in their fight for political justice in Los Angeles? How can we help that movements like A Day Without Immigrants gather more support and become more widespread? How can we help immigrants who want to participate in these movements but are unable to due to fear of losing their job?
I think one of the best ways that we can support immigrants is by volunteering at local organizations. I don’t think (or at least I don’t know of) any people that do volunteer work related to immigration. Since Poly requires sophomore/juniors to volunteer at 1 organization for 20?/10? hours, we could try and get the underclassmen involved in organizations like the ones listed here: https://www.volunteermatch.org/search/index.jsp?aff=&includeOnGoing=true&r=city&categories=41&l=Los+Angeles%2C+CA%2C+USA
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I don’t want it them to see it as just another way to fulfill their requirements, so maybe there’s a better way to approach this. What could be really cool is if someone who immigrated to LA could come and talk to us and give us some pointers on what we can do to help.
To answer the last question, I honestly have no idea how we can help immigrants who want to participate in these movements but refrain from doing so out of fear of losing their job. I think this is another instance where it would be really helpful is we could get an actual immigrant to come and talk to us. I want to hear what the immigration group has learned so far because I feel like they have done some really interesting research!
I think you bring up many good points. Los Angeles, a city built by and on immigrants, continues to be one of the epicenters of immigration politics and we, as Angelenos, need to do more to help in an age of constant fear stemming from the Trump administration. Now, with the immigrant caravan arriving at the border and after the atrocious reaction of border officials, is a better time than ever to talk about immigrants’ roles in Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think it’s difficult, like many issues, to help on problems such as immigration without being immigrants ourselves because we don’t want to assume anything on what might be needed, I still think there are some concrete actions that can be taken. I think it’s important that we become more educated on immigration politics as a whole and make sure to learn about/fight for legislation that supports immigrants and also to try and educate others on what our city might look like without the help of immigrants, something of which they tried to highlight in A Day Without Immigrants.
In terms of how we can help movements such as A Day Without Immigrants or how we can help immigrants participate in them, I think it’s more of a difficult case. I think that it actually was fairly widespread and known-about within Los Angeles, but the issue of participation is a big one. One of the biggest reasons for some not being able to participate had to do with fear of losing their job/not getting their paycheck, so much of the support would have to come from employers who I believe shouldn’t punish those who participate at all. If the employers who rely on immigrant work themselves were truly able to see a day without their work, then they might realize just how important they truly are, along with all others of Los Angeles.
It's a pretty ambitious goal to ask people to stay home from work/not contribute to the economy for a day, particularly when many immigrant communities in Los Angeles are among the poorest. I understand the point of the protest, though, and I think it can be powerful to show just how empty many places would be without the contributions of immigrants.
ReplyDeleteI was struck by the end of the article that describes that a teacher was showing students what to do during an immigrant raid. While this particular video may have been more of a matter of immediate safety rather than activism, it gets all the students in the class thinking about these issues and developing empathy for those who have to face these issues on a day to day basis. School walkouts can be effective -- some of the most salient protests in history have been through walkouts, like the Chicano Blowouts of 1968. However, I also think that educating students on the issues is equally, if not more, important, and it would be great if more teachers discussed current events related to their subject and explained to students how to get involved if they are passionate about the issue.
The "A Day Without Immigrants" movement is bringing up a very important issue. Many immigrants come to LA for a better life and work very hard to achieve it. However, asking immigrants to miss a day of work is not practical considering the fact that many may not be able to afford to miss a pay check or may not have the relationship with their job or boss to ask for a day off. I think a way to support LA immigrants in their fight for political justice is to, like Sophie said, support organizations that fight for the rights of immigrants in LA (here is one...https://www.esperanza-la.org/). I think helping these types of organizations get more recognition is the first start; whether that be expressing it on different platforms of social media or volunteering, it could possibly have an impact (even only impacting one person is a success).
ReplyDeleteI think it would be difficult to help immigrants participate in a movement like "A Day Without Immigrants" if they are afraid of losing their jobs just because it wouldn't be our decision. What I mean by that is their boss has the last word whether that is that they are being fired or kept. However, I think a way people can help more immigrants participate is to go to the jobs around the area and state what movement is happening, when it is happening, and ask if they have or know any LA immigrants to let them participate. That may sound like a dumb idea but it's surprising to see how impactful the way you describe something can be.
I agree with what everyone has said- we should be conscious of the actions we are taking to aid in this immigration crisis so that we aren’t coming at it from an angle of being patronizing or like we know better than they do. I also agree that awareness is really important. I know that I am not as well versed on this topic as I probably should be, but this CoA class has really helped me out in that department. I have learned a lot about the history of immigrants in LA, I think it would be really beneficial to learn more about the current immigration crisis. I haven’t really had the chance at Poly to take a class that discusses current events - and while this CoA class has definitely done some of that, I would like to continue this discussion (like the day of Midterms when we spent a good deal of our time discussing what was happening was really interesting for me). And even then, only a handful of our grade is actually taking this class, and I am sure there are plenty of people who would also like a platform to learn more about current events.
ReplyDeleteI also think that youth have a really strong role in our current political climate. We saw what happened after the Parkland school shooting/March For Our Lives, and how much the children of Marjory Stoneman Douglas made an impact on that movement. I think we have a lot of influence with being young and having something to say - we just need a way to say it. I agree with Emma on the topic of school walkouts/sit-ins/demonstrations. While leaving work for a day might be a really difficult thing to ask of people, encouraging youth to stand up and fight for something they feel passionate about might be just as if not more effective.
I agree with most of what has been said already. While the day without immigrants protest could potentially send a very powerful and necessary message to our president, it is impractical to ask immigrants to stay home. Like Simone and others have said, many cannot risk losing a paycheck or take the chance of getting fired. We also have to think about undocumented immigrants who can't skip work out of fear that their bosses might call ICE.
ReplyDeleteWhile protesting and supporting organizations is important in trying to spread awareness of an issue, the most important thing to do is to get to the root of the cause. Maybe we can support senators or other people who hold positions of power who are immigrants or who actively don't support deportation of illegal immigrants.
Like Lux said, Los Angeles is a city built on immigrants. The history of immigration and immigration patterns in Los Angeles is complex and fluid, and unfortunately we don't get to learn much of that history in school.
ReplyDeleteBecause LA is an epicenter of immigration, there are countless nonprofits and community organizations here that work to support immigrants. I feel like our class could definitely form meaningful connections with various advocacy-based groups (dealing with all kinds of issues) and invite people to speak to our class, go on urban labs to community events etc. In looking at the policy side of immigration, again there are a ton of organizations out there working to help immigrants. My old babysitter now works for CHIRLA which is a super cool LA based immigration justice group.
Also, I've been thinking about the recent statewide law that legalized street vendors. This is a huge step towards supporting immigrants, who often times can be targeted because of sidewalk vending without a permit/legality. I wonder how many other seemingly simple changes can be made to support immigrants in other ways. I've also been thinking about language and the way language impacts experience in LA. Do immigrants who come to LA and don't speak english have access to healthcare, community services, transportation. etc? Maybe we can look into this further.
I think the idea of a "Day Without Immigrants" is well-intentioned and impactful in theory but impractical in a non-idealistic world (kind of like communism). I wonder if there's a way for the city to estimate how much money would hypothetically be lost if immigrants didn't come to work for a day and then heavily publicize that number? I don't know how possible that would be, especially with the large numbers of undocumented immigrants in the city, but I think it might be a way to make the same point (albeit in a much less powerful way).
ReplyDeleteRegarding what we can do, I think one of the biggest things is doing our civic duty by voting in as many elections as possible. I know this point has been emphasized over and over and over again recently because of the midterms and I don't want to be preachy, but it really is the most important way to exercise our power as citizens. We can start by not electing candidates who are actively antagonistic towards immigrants, and specifically by voting against Donald Trump in the next presidential election.
I also think it's crucial to rally for the abolition of the Electoral College. As Californians, the current system renders our votes much less powerful than other places in the country (Wyoming or Vermont, for example). This electoral system was created with racist intent, and it continues to keep the racists in power today.
Attempting to make change through our country's cumbersome democratic process might not be the quickest or most exciting way to do things, but I think legislative changes are the most long-lasting and promising prospects we have for the future of immigrants in this country.
If you want to learn more about how the Electoral College skews election results: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2012/11/presidential_election_a_map_showing_the_vote_power_of_all_50_states.html
Since I am not very informed about specifically how to help immigrants, I looked up some organizations and committees in Los Angeles that are dedicated to serving immigrants. There is an organization called the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and according to their website they help refugees and immigrants resettle in communities as well as help them start small businesses. Like what Sophie said, we can volunteer for organizations such as IRC. We can also donate money or give necessities such as hygiene items, kitchen supplies, and school items (pencils, backpacks, etc.) One way to help that I read which actually seemed pretty straight forward was hiring immigrants. I know we are not in the position to be hiring people at the moment, but when we start entering our career paths, I think an important way to support immigrants is by hiring them. We can also volunteer at the Job Center.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, I have no clue about how we can specifically help immigrants who want to participate in “A Day Without Immigrants”. Even though we can show support on social media, there is no a way that I can think of that will directly help them with potential consequences such as being fired. I feel like it is a risk that comes with the territory, and there isn’t really anything we can do to prevent the negative aftermath. All we can do is spread awareness of the purpose of the day. Unless we are in the position to hire fired employees or something along those lines, I'm not sure what we can do.
I think one way we can support immigrants in their fight for political justice is by creating awareness about how impactful immigrants are in the US and how many systems would falter without them. Movements such as A Day Without Immigrants create this awareness that needs to spread. Instead of only taking place in Los Angeles, perhaps it can spread to other states, maybe even nationally. One way our class can help this cause is by using our talent of networking for spreading the message and the word regarding the importance of immigrants. I know that historically, people were against immigrants because of the fear of losing their job; however, today this is not the case: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/us/immigrants-arent-taking-americans-jobs-new-study-finds.html
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, immigration is the most pressing issue of our time - even more so for us considering that LA is at the forefront of immigration policy (for reference, the city's population is around 35% immigrant).
ReplyDelete@Sophie and @Alexis - I've volunteered at the IRC since sophomore year. It's a fantastic organization that works directly with both immigrants and refugees in helping them obtain citizenship/and or seek asylum. I've found that it's difficult as young people to find hands-on volunteer work within immigration organizations that are on the front lines of the issue like the IRC. Client information is highly sensitive, meaning that specific training and experience is required to handle most materials for immigrants' safety, and even organizations like the IRC, which is pretty high profile right now given the current political climate surrounding immigration, are short staffed and underfunded. My Mom has worked there for years as a translator, which is the only reason why I've gotten to volunteer at the office.
That being said, like everyone already mentioned, it's crucial for us to take smaller steps and advocate (be educated on the topic, support immigration organizations, patronize immigrant businesses, vote accordingly, etc.). Going off your mention of public schools failing immigrant children as we saw in Always Running, I'm wondering what LAUSD's current programs are like for students whose first language isn't English? How are they being supported? Are they alienated and immediately sanctioned to a lower academic track?
In our current political climate, there is a palpable hostility toward immigrants. It seems that we have forgotten that America, if nothing else, is a nation of immigrants. The Trump administration and certain media outlets have slandered the image of foreigners, subsequently creating a rhetoric that devalues or ignores the rich contributions made by those who are escaping violence or poverty in their own countries. We are seeing the implementation of certain policies aimed at excluding people of color in an effort to create a more "desirable country". Our current president has even gone so far as to single out Scandinavian countries that he would like to attract while demeaning certain African countries. "Day without Immigrants" was a clever way to spark awareness but to advance political justice we need to take to the polls. We need to vote for officials who are invested in improving the lives of immigrants and their communities. In addition to voting, we must educate ourselves about the history of immigration in the U.S. and how vital these individuals are to our economy. I believe that the way we understand the issue of immigration will dictate the kind of solutions that we gravitate toward. If we believe that brown people are spilling into our country and taking and draining our resources, then we will want to stem the tide and build a wall. If however, we recognize the value and humanity of those coming to make a better life for themselves and contribute to a nation where they have an opportunity, then the solutions we seek will be welcoming and accommodating. The national dialogue needs to shift to the latter if we are to live up to the words emblazed across the statue of liberty welcoming all to our shores.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the suggested methods of supporting minorities in our communities through volunteering opportunities I also think that we should try to connect with people obstructed by language barriers in our own community. A great way to lessen the burden of only speaking a language other than english is to volunteer as a translator during parent teacher conferences. This simple act enables students and parents to both succeed and feel a part of the education’s of their children. Parent teacher conferences previously consisted of Spanish speaking parents sitting quietly sitting through meeting that they did not understand, and it is extremely powerful to be able to include someone in this process.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the message a "Day Without Immigrants" has but like others I believe that it is extremely ambitious to ask immigrants to stay home from work when every pay check counts. I feel the best way to help movements like a Day Without Immigrants and support immigrants is to hear from immigrants themselves. We need to be more educated to understand how to help them in any way. The way we can help organizations and movements like a Day Without Immigrants is to spread the word about them because many people that aren't afflicted by the throes of immigration wouldn't know about these organizations.
ReplyDeleteI feel it is our responsibility to vote for people with progressive thoughts on immigration who treat immigrants as human beings instead of "threats". By electing people who care about immigrants we can create a better atmosphere for immigrants which creates an easier lifestyle.
I think an important thing to do as a first step is listen. As Angelenos, we are surrounded by residents in LA that are immigrants or know of people who immigrated to LA. Similar to what a few people were saying above, I don't believe it is effective to simply jump in and start helping because we "assume" immigrants need a certain type of assistance. We should definitely support them; however, I think it would be better to first understand an immigrant's or immigrant's family situation. Listening is important and more beneficial in the support of immigrants in Los Angeles. Only then can we properly assist those who may need aid.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that walkouts are useful tools that create awareness surrounding a certain issue, I think it would be interesting to look at the privilege involved in participating in events like that. May people couldn't not show up to work, yet we have the privilege to walk out from our classrooms to protest against something. Just an observation.
I realize it is hard to leave a job to raise an awareness about immigration and the treatment of them in this country. Perhaps if we could reach more people on a global scale without taking time out of school and/or day jobs could be useful. I suppose this means looking into the utilization of social media as a tool to network and promote. Other than that, I do not feel like I have a solid answer and I am interested in hearing what my peers have to say. Supporting immigrants in days such as "Day without Immigrants" can be difficult especially on a personal or direct level.