Sequence # 3 - Illegal immigration to the US

Hey,

today we first talked about the possible reasons for immigrants to flee from the original countries and here is what we listed:

Sequence 3 : Immigration to the US !

People immigrate to the US for different reasons:

- Religious reasons: in the past, the first pilgrims emigrated from Europe to escape from persecution. They were not accepted as Protestants. More recently, the Jewish community / Jews were segregated during the 2nd World War (WW II).

– Economic and social reasons: Today many people want to go to the US because they think it’s a land of opportunities. You can become wealthy and live “The American Dream”.

– Political reasons: many war refugees go to the US to escape from their miserable living conditions; what’s more some immigrants want to escape from anti-democratic political regimes (such as dictatorships)

The American dream =
- The promised Land / - The Land of plenty /- The Land of free enterprise.

Then we began to speak about our new text entitled: "Why the caged bird sings". Here is what we said:

Ana has been in the USA for 6 years
Ana has been in the USA since she was 29

She started as an illegal laundry woman. She then became a maid and finally she was a successful broker for illegal aliens. She has climbed up the social ladder / the ranks of society.
Now she has money and she can send gifts to her family who are in Mexico.
She must feel both proud and disappointed. She has succeeded but she has become a stranger for her children. She only represents money for them.
She decided to go to New York City because she has relatives there. She knew they would help her with accommodation, jobs and papers.
They were also illegal aliens / undocumented and they knew how to bypass the law.

Additional vocabulary:

- a smuggler = coyote: The person who helps you cross the border illegally.
- (to) lend = to give (and have it back)

HW: get ready to talk about the text and Ana's conditions of travelling.
Files: get a copy of the text here again (yet to be uploaded)