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Reading Response 2

The document summarizes and analyzes stories of unauthorized immigrants and how they reflect push and pull factors of migration. It discusses the story of Sonia Martinez who had to leave her family in Mexico to work in the US and support them, and could no longer travel back and forth after 9/11. These stories show how economic and family needs can "push" people to immigrate without authorization. The document also analyzes how the Netflix show "Ugly Delicious" portrays the history of Chinese immigration to the US for work opportunities and how the food has become more accepted.

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777 views

Reading Response 2

The document summarizes and analyzes stories of unauthorized immigrants and how they reflect push and pull factors of migration. It discusses the story of Sonia Martinez who had to leave her family in Mexico to work in the US and support them, and could no longer travel back and forth after 9/11. These stories show how economic and family needs can "push" people to immigrate without authorization. The document also analyzes how the Netflix show "Ugly Delicious" portrays the history of Chinese immigration to the US for work opportunities and how the food has become more accepted.

Uploaded by

api-460657824
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Andrea Amaya

English 301
Reading Response 2
Professor Brody
Prompt
According to the Suarez-Orozcos, how do the stories of immigrants like Sonia Martinez suggest
that unauthorized immigration "may not be voluntary"? What "push and pull factors" do these
stories reflect? Is this push and pull adequately represented in ​Ugly Delicious?​ Using evidence
from our texts, justify your opinion.
Response
In the article done by Suarez Orozco, we learned about an immigrant named Sonia

Marinez. Sonia was a mother of four children whose husband died from cancer and had to leave

them behind with her mother so that she could get a well paying job in the United States. She

would travel back and forth from the US to Mexico and sent her family money every paycheck.

However after September 11 , border control tightened and she could no longer travel freely back

and forth between the two countries. So she had to make the tough decision to stay in the United

States so that she could still provide for her children. Sonia was not the only story that these

authors shared to show us how in many cases, illegal immigration paints the picture of a dirty

and evil person. It labels people as “untouchables”. Ideally all these people would be back at

home with their families but unfortunately they had to make the sacrifice to stay in a land that

does not welcome them openly, but need them to function properly.

The question is, “what push and pull factors do these stories reflect?’’. Well, as I learned

from Gilbert, push and pull factor refer to the causes of migration. Push factors refer to

unsustainable conditions that “push” one to move towards a brighter future. Pull factors attract

people to their society whether it be due to political stability, climeant, or employment. America

offers both push and pull factors to all types of people. Often times you hear about people move
to America insearch of employment, seeking political or religious freedom, and opportunity. All

the people that Suarez Orozco brought up in their article are prime examples of how both push

and pull factors brought them to the United States and how they also are keeping them here.

These factors are also represented in the video documentary series, Ugly Delicious. In the

episode watched in class, we learned about how Chinese food is undervalued in the American

society. How it is viewed as something that is greasy and overly sweet in taste, that there's no

way that this cuisine can be viewed as fine dining. However, through the processes of the

episode, we learned that Chinese food is quite complex, it focuses on textures and not just sweet

and sour. We also learned that the Chinese immigration started off with the railroad system. The

promise of employment and a steady wage was appealing to the Chinese. However, Americans

became outraged because they were taking all the labor jobs and accepting lower wages than the

Americans were willing to take. This caused the Chinese to take jobs as cooks or in laundry

mats. These were jobs that were viewed as feminine and therefore did not challenge the

workforce of American males. This episode brought up examples of how much asian food has

become a part of the American staple. Chinese restaurants outnumber McDonald's in the United

States and it cannot just be because only Chinese people are eating there.

America offers opportunity and freedom, this attracts people from all walks of life. We as

American citizens need to understand that these immigrants only want to provide a better life for

their families.
Citations

Chang, David, director. ​Ugly Delicious Episode 7: Fried Rice​. Netflix.

Gilbert, Kimutai. “What Are Push and Pull Factors?” ​World Atlas​, Worldatlas, 26 Apr. 2017,
www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-push-and-pull-factors.html​.

Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo M, and Carola Suarez-Orozco. “How Immigrants Become ‘Other.’”


pp. 666–674.

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