{"id":626,"date":"2010-10-04T07:52:24","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T11:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=626"},"modified":"2010-10-04T07:52:24","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T11:52:24","slug":"immigration-has-a-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2010\/10\/04\/immigration-has-a-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Has a Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Amidon \u2014 <\/em>I had just come out of a meeting Thursday morning and was frantically trying to respond to about two-dozen emails that arrived in the hour I was away from my desk. At about 9:35, Wabash English Professor Warren Rosenberg called me to tell me about a unique panel discussion that I wouldn\u2019t want to miss.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Christie Byun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The topic: immigration.<\/p>\n

The panelists: Six members of the Wabash faculty who have at some point in their lives been immigrants.<\/p>\n

The time: Ten minutes from the moment I hung up with Professor Rosenberg!<\/p>\n

I recalled a similar collaboration a few years ago that produced some wonderful stories, photos, and classroom experiences, so I grabbed a camera and notepad and took off for Detchon Hall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gilberto Gomez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I got there I found three different classes all studying \u2014 in various ways \u2014 the topic of immigration. And what better time for Wabash students to be discussing the myriad issues surrounding immigration than now \u2014\u00a0when so much is being written about sealing our borders and tightening already difficult immigration standards.<\/p>\n

Sitting in front of the roughly 45 students were professors Gilberto Gomez (Spanish), Peter Mikek (economics), Christie Byun (economics), Sam Rocha (teacher education), Agata Szczeszak-Brewer (English), and Jane Hardy (Spanish). After each professor talked about his or her experiences immigrating to (or from) the United States, the panelists took a range of questions from the students.<\/p>\n

It was fascinating to listen to each person describe their feelings about immigration.<\/p>\n

For Professor Szczeszak-Brewer, the decision to migrate from her native Poland was very difficult because of the closeness of her family. And if her American-born husband could have spoken better Polish, they probably would have ended up in her home country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my case, I wondered if I could define myself outside my family and my community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sam Rocha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Rocha was born in \u201cthe Valley\u201d of South Texas in Brownsville. For generations, his family owned horse ranches near the border. When his parents moved to Mexico as missionaries, Rocha was, technically, an illegal immigrant, where he felt prejudice because he was too \u201cAnglo.\u201d When the family returned to Texas, the prejudice returned \u2014 this time because he was too Hispanic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you live in the Valley, you speak Spanish,\u201d Professor Rocha told the students. \u201cBut if my family was told to go \u2018home,\u2019 we would go north.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Hardy is a United States citizen married to Professor Mikek, who is Slovenian, and their two sons have dual citizenship. But for a short time, she lived and worked in Spain, and she later lived in Slovenia for five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter living outside the United States, when I came back I had this feeling like I didn\u2019t fit in,\u201d Professor Hardy said. \u201cI was aware after being away that I had changed and my identity had shifted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Gomez agreed. \u201cBeing an immigrant gives you the proverbial double vision\u2026 For those of us who move back and forth, we develop an ability to see things from multiple perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Peter Mikek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Mikek said he is easily frustrated by questions about his identity, but he also said the topic leads to good classroom discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI often ask my students, \u2018What makes you American and what makes me different?\u2019 It\u2019s a shockingly difficult question,\u201d Mikek said.<\/p>\n

One student asked the professors why they chose to stay in America. Professor Gomez gave a brief history lesson and reminded the students that since the dawn of time humans have been nomadic. The concept of staying in one place \u2014 in one country \u2014 is a relatively recent phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Agata Szczeszak-Brewer & Jane Hardy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Szczeszak-Brewer, being the fine teacher she is, turned the question around and posed an interesting notion to the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do tend to be nomadic, to move, to seek new ways to define ourselves, yet we have a need to fit in,\u201d she said. \u201cThese two sentiments are present at the same time. As college students, you want to seek and to explore \u2014 all so that you can determine who you are. And yet you join fraternities and clubs so that you feel as though you fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Mikek wanted to drive home one key point: The Wabash professors are in the tiny minority of most immigrants in this country. \u201cWe were not forced to come here for financial reasons,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are part of a brain drain from other countries\u2026 Look around at places like NASA and you\u2019ll find people from all over the world working there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Professor Szczeszak-Brewer introduced the panel, she said, \u201cWe teach immigration and exile in our classes\u2026 and we want to place human faces behind the history and the stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of the discussion, the students still had more questions than answers. But they also began to realize that behind the radio talk shows and screaming headlines, immigration is about real people. Immigration has a face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Amidon \u2014 I had just come out of a meeting Thursday morning and was frantically trying to respond to about two-dozen emails that arrived in the hour I was away from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/10\/Byun.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}