Intersections (Third Culture Kids)

Part 1

During the month I’ve been here in Tucson, I’ve heard a few people talk about the border region as a different country. Culturally it’s neither Mexico nor the United States. Sure, the road signs and official notices are in English, but just about every business has signs in Spanish. Hot dogs aren’t eaten with ketchup or relish, instead they are wrapped in bacon and topped off with beans and guacamole and are called Sonora dogs. Until recently, too, the public school system emphasized Hispanic-American culture in its history classes as part of the region’s cultural heritage (similar to how south eastern states emphasize history about the civil war period). Granted, the border is a political boundary between two nations symbolized by a wall, but in many ways it is also their intersection.

Intersections fascinate me. For one, there is a newness about them that I rarely encounter in my day-to-day life. Intersections shake things up, and call into question established paradigms (Only ketchup on your hot dog? Why not try some bacon, guacamole and beans!) They bring new energy (and perspectives) to old conversations. (How else would California and Arizona have such beautiful architecture?) In a lot of ways, I guess, living at an intersection is like living an experiment where eureka moments happen frequently to those making an effort to understand each other.

Living at an intersection is sometimes uncomfortable, too. It asks its inhabitants to be patient with the frustration of not understanding each other. (It’s no secret that it is less frustrating to speak with words than with charades.) Differing social norms and values challenge each other at intersections as well. But anyone who lives in an intersection is living proof this isn’t an insurmountable challenge.

My bus ride home last night exemplified this intersection perfectly for me. Without giving it much thought, I picked an open seat. Two spots down from me sat a seventy-something Anglo woman who wore an American flag handkerchief to keep her hair in place. She would yell out “Have a great night and God bless you!” to whomever got off the bus. A few minutes into the bus ride an older Hispanic woman got on the bus as well and sat between the older white woman and me. The Anglo woman, being friendly, tried to strike up a conversation in English with the Hispanic woman, who just responded with a nod and a smile because she didn’t speak the language. Unabashed, the Anglo woman pointed at the picture on one of the Hispanic woman’s bags. It was of two lovers and said “I will love you. Always.” The two women smiled at another, the two laughed, and then one pantomimed that she still dances like a young woman with her husband. Both laughed again. Despite being unable to communicate with words, each woman left the bus with a new friend.

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Written by Jacob Hanger.

Based on this book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_culture_kid

New ICE Memo Released

Last Friday, ICE director John Morton released a memo urging officers to exercise prosecutorial discretion when dealing with undocumented people. Prosecutorial discretion is “the authority of an agency or officer charged with enforcing a law to decide whether to enforce the law in a particular case” (Immigration Policy Center). In other words, it is an officer’s ability to decide which case he/she wants to pursue. The memo describes some basic guidelines when it comes to prioritizing cases: the people who are trying to harm the United States should be dealt with first so that ICE’s limited resources do not go to waste.

This memo is different from previous memos because it outlines specific factors that officers should take into account. First, there are 19 categories that officers should think about when deciding how to proceed. They include anything from the age of the person to whether the person has family who are citizens, from the person’s criminal history to whether the person is the primary caretaker for a seriously ill family member. In addition, there are 8 positive factors that the memo says should “prompt particular care and consideration” (ICE Memo). Among those are whether the person is a veteran or member of the U.S. armed forces and if the person has lived in the United States since childhood. It is implied that exercising prosecutorial discretion with people that fall under these categories means not necessarily deporting them immediately.

While this memo is in no way a substitute for the DREAM Act, it is certainly a step in the right direction. Now we just have to wait and see what ICE officers will do.

Click here to check out the article

Senator McCain places blame for wild fires on migrants

Senator McCain recently told the media that he believes the wildfires along the Arizona-Mexico border were started by migrants crossing the border (You can read more about it here). When asked why he believed what he did, he said he couldn’t back it up with facts. Still, he insisted that it was the crossing migrants. So what do we have here? To me it sounds like nothing more than a hunch.

This story exemplifies a few things that are interesting about the current state of our society. First and foremost it serves to show the priorities of our the media machine in this country. In very few countries would the unfounded opinion of a politician make headline news. Here McCain decided to throw some blame on the migrants crossing the desert, and the news, knowing that the American public loves sensationalistic stories, spread it everywhere.

So who’s to blame? McCain for stating an opinion or the media for taking something unfounded and sensationalizing it? To be honest, I think there’s enough blame to go around. McCain for being either naïve or misleading and the media for having very lose reporting standards.

What do you think?

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Written by Jacob Hanger

Pulitzer Prize Winner Comes out as Undocumented, Starts Campaign to Support DREAM Act

Jose Antonio Vargas is a re-known journalist who has worked for the Washington Post and even earned a prestigious Pulitzer Prize award for his coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Besides being a re-known journalist, Vargas is also undocumented.

Vargas says that it was last December's failed effort to pass the DREAM Act that pushed him to come out of the shadows, share his status and start his own efforts to support the passage of the DREAM Act.

Read and watch his ABC News interview here.

Visit Vargas' just launched website: http://www.defineamerican.com

And watch his story:

Legislation Update (GA and AL)

HB 87 (Georgia)

On May 13, 2011 Georgia’s governor Nathan Deal signed HB 87 into law. This is one of the toughest laws so far against immigrants. It would allow law enforcement officers to demand to know the immigration status of people involved with other criminal investigations and make the use of fake identification punishable by as much as 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. It would also punish people who “knowingly transport illegal immigrants during the commission of a crime” with up to a year in jail and up to $1000.

A group of civil and immigrant rights groups have sued the state of Georgia and requested a temporary injunction on the law until the end of the lawsuit. One of the people involved in the lawsuit is Republican Paul Bridges, mayor of Uvalda. He wrote an opinion piece on CNN’s website defending his decision to challenge the law, arguing that the law will deal a devastating blow to Uvalda and Georgia’s economy, especially to small businesses and farmers who already have trouble finding enough workers. His arguments are interesting in that they point out why the law runs counter to Republican ideals. First, he paints the law as the ultimate government intrusion; in his small town of 600, neighbors often help each other out by giving rides. Now, it could be a crime to do so if the passenger happened to be an undocumented person. Second, he points out the sheer amount of money that will be lost to this law and reminds people that it is not the fiscal responsibility that Republicans believe in.

Click here to read the full text of Mayor Paul Bridges’ opinion piece.

People left of center have always been the majority of those fighting anti-immigration laws. It is very heartening to see someone like Mayor Paul Bridges, firmly right of center, also stand against this law.

HB 56 (Alabama):

Governor Robert Bentley signed Alabama’s copycat version of SB 1070 into law on June 9th, 2011. Like Georgia’s law, it allows police officers to question someone’s immigration status if he/she is stopped by law enforcement for any reason. It also makes it a crime to transport or rent housing to an undocumented person.

Unique to Alabama, however, are two other more restrictive provisions. One is the requirement that businesses cross check all their employees’ immigration statuses with an online system called E-Verify. This will generate high costs for businesses in both its implementation and its effects on their employees. Another provision requires schools to collect information on where its students and their parents were born. Lawmakers claim the information will just be used as data to answer the question of how much Alabama is spending to educate undocumented children, but parents will most definitely be concerned about the implications for their children’s safety. Some might even decide to not send their children to school.

The law takes effect on September 1, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama has filed a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

"Why did we have to read this book?”

Last time I heard Professor Louis Menard speak, he emphasized that value of a liberal education was "knowledge for the sake of knowledge." He lamented the dwindling number of people graduating with degrees that celebrate knowledge over its practicality. He told us that something like a fifth of all university students are non-traditional students, and that the majority of majors are technical fields. He explained, though, that the liberal arts system of education has not actually been around for a very long time. In the 1880's Harvard made an undergraduate degree mandatory to enroll in its Law School and Med School. Other universities followed suit.

That one decision revolutionized the role of universities in the United States. Students were required to navigate four years of requirements in vastly different fields of study, and hopefully find an interest along the way. They were told to not worry about their career until the end of their collegiate stint. That things would just work out.

Other countries, disagreed with this model of tertiary education. The British model pigeonholes students into their career right after their secondary education (which is already somewhat specialized). The French model gives most people access to a first year of university studies but requires them to pass a test after that year proving they are capable of finishing their studies. Both of these systems require that 17 year old make decisions about their future careers and do not give them a way out.

Enter globalization. Competitiveness is king. The world is flat. And if you don't watch out your job could be sent half-way around the world over night.

With so much uncertainty it seems almost irresponsible to risk irrelevancy by studying something that doesn't guarantee one a job, especially when degrees can cost upwards of $200,000. And that's what is happening. The trend has been an increase in technical degrees like engineering and a decrease in traditional liberal arts degrees.

I'm getting degrees in Political Science and Latin American Studies. Does that mean I'm not worried about getting a job? I am actually terrified about not finding a job.

But there is a reason I am not pursuing a technical degree.

I went to a high school that is comparable to MIT. By the time I graduated I knew how to program in Java, Ruby, Python, and C. I had taken Differential Equations, and Complex Analysis. In short, I knew more math and engineering than I ever wanted to know. When I got to college I decided I wanted to pursue the social sciences I didn't get the chance to in High School.

I have loved every single moment of it. I have read the same treaties and books the founders of our government did. I have learned the languages of the Americas (Spanish and Portuguese), and have studies their cultures. And, you know, every new language is a new job market.

What I'm trying to get at, is this: the way I see it, college is meant to change the way one thinks. It is an artificial environment meant to stimulate its students. For many, college is the first time they have been somewhere like this. The stimulation is important because the students are constantly being challenged to break with their home paradigms. Though non-liberal arts education is obviously stimulating in the area the student is mean to study, I question how stimulating it is in areas the student is not meant to study (my guess would be not very). For example, a British studying chemistry will only take chemistry classes, and maybe one research paper writing class.

So, what's the point of this? Well, I have no problem with being practical about education. I think it's a great idea, actually. Unfortunately, I am afraid technical degrees sometimes short-change the student in areas they aren't deliberately studying. So as we think about ways to change education, we should keep in mind what we are forsaking for competitiveness.

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Written by Jacob Hanger. Based on: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/06/06/110606crat_atlarge_menand?currentPage=all

Sen. Reid: DREAM Act is win-win

In May of this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reintroduced the DREAM Act. A few days ago, he wrote an opinion piece advocating for its passage. For those who aren’t clear what the DREAM Act entails, here’s a refresher: if you come to the United States before 16 years of age, live here for at least five years, graduate from high school, stay out of trouble, and either serve two years in the military or complete two years of college, you would be eligible to become a lawful resident (Reid, “Senate’s DREAM Act is win-win”).

It’s interesting to see what arguments Senator Reid makes in favor of the DREAM Act. The most fascinating for me was how he used the story of Corporal José Luis Gutierrez, a permanent resident from Guatemala who came to the United States undocumented. He says:

Hundreds of thousands of non-citizens fight in our military. And hundreds of thousands more want to serve our nation, which they love as their own. But they can’t, because their parents brought them here illegally, and, unlike Cpl. Gutierrez, they aren’t fortunate to qualify for one of the very few routes to legalization that exist.

While I’m not sure of the validity of this claim, it’s interesting because he is assumedly attempting to appeal to a conservative crowd, who might have a more positive view of immigrants that love the United States and want to serve in the military. In addition, he makes several other arguments in his opinion piece. If you would like to read more, click here.

The Battle to Save Ethnic Studies Continues

Yesterday Superintendent John Huppenthal declared that the Tucson Unified School District’s Ethnic Studies program, specifically Mexican-American Studies, violates A.R.S. §15-112, the law that resulted from HB 2281. He based the decision on an Arizona Department of Education audit, claiming that the audit shows that the program violates 3 of the 4 sections in the law:

1) that it promotes resentment towards a race or class of people
2) that it is designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic race
3) that it advocates ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals

Click here for the full text of Huppenthal’s statement

However, as Jeff Biggers of the Huffington Post says, the audit does not actually conclude what the superintendent claims. In fact, Biggers quotes extensively from the audit, which has such gems as “No evidence as seen by the auditors exists to indicate that instruction within Mexican American Studies Department program classes advocates ethnic solidarity; rather it has been proven to treat student as individuals” (Pg. 63). He then goes on to quote two more sections that, when combined with the quote above, effectively disprove all of the Superintendent’s claims.

Click here for the full text of Jeff Biggers’ blog

TUSD now has 60 days to bring MAS and the Ethnic Studies program into compliance with A.R.S. §15-112 or else the district will lose 10% of its state funding. The fight to save Ethnic Studies is not over; 11 teachers are still involved in a lawsuit against TUSD. For more information about the battle to save Ethnic Studies, visit http://www.saveethnicstudies.org/