Undocumented Immigrants in American Society - Essay Example

? Anthropology Chavez thinks that anthropology would do a lot of good to an understanding of the undocumented immigrants and the society at large by giving a clearer view of the lives of the undocumented immigrants. The anthropologists could also offer a better understanding of undocumented immigrants by getting more involved in the research on the reason people migrate and the effects of their immigration. The questions that guided Chavez in his research were that he wanted to know the reason some undocumented immigrants chose to reside permanently in the United States of America instead of returning to their native countries after a brief stay. Another question that guided his research was that he sought to know the variations in the lifestyles of several families of undocumented immigrants (Chavez, 1998). According to the researches of Chavez, Pedraza and Rimbaut; there are clear distinctions between a migrant and a settler. Migrants could be regarded as people that temporary residents of an area; thus migrants are people that leave their permanent place of residence and live in other areas temporarily in search of greener pastures. On the other hand, settlers are people that have the privileges of a citizen of a particular country or region after living there for a particular number of years. Thus, Chavez believes that undocumented immigrants are people that start out as illegal immigrants and they could actually attain the status of a settler after staying there for a particular number of years. The notion about undocumented immigrants is what actually affects the way that undocumented immigrants carry out their duties as workers in the United States of America. These undocumented immigrants do not see themselves as permanent residents, but as temporary workers that have a short stint in the United States of America. The undocumented workers are faced with the challenge that they would have to go back to their native countries someday (Chavez, 1998). Chavez likens the transition that immigrants have to that of a rite of passage by stating that the immigrants engage in a territorial passage that involves a transition that is in three phases as they move to another stage in their lives and this is similar to the rite of passage that happens to humans. The three phases are separation, transition and incorporation. The separation phase is the stage that the undocumented immigrants are separated from their friends and families and this represents an emotional period in the lives of the undocumented immigrants. The transition phase is the stage that the undocumented immigrants are presented with the opportunity of moving to a higher level in their lives as they try to become a member of a society that is actually alien to them. The incorporation phase is the stage that the undocumented immigrants try to in integrate themselves into their new home and society and they identify with the values and norms of this society during the incorporation phase. And this is just like the rite of passage as it takes place when someone makes a reasonable progress by changing from one status to another (Chavez, 1998). Chavez carried out his fieldwork by conducting interviews among undocumented immigrants living in different places. He organized structured interviews and informal interviews for these undocumented immigrants. The difficulties he faced in the course of his field work are that most of the interviews were usually time-consuming (Chavez, 1998). Chavez chose to refer to them as undocumented immigrants due to the fact that he felt that was the most polite and neutral term to use to classify these groups of individuals as other terms that were used were too harsh on these people. Chavez characterizes the social diversity of northern San Diego based in the different backgrounds of the people that reside there. He also characterizes them by the number of years they have stayed in the United States and the factors that affect the way they live. The undocumented immigrants fit into the larger society in areas that they have been residing for long as the ones that have not stayed there for a long duration of time usually lived in isolation (Chavez, 1998). The status of the undocumented immigrants and the US migration policies impact their lives in the sense that the illegal aliens are seen as outsiders by the locals as they treat them as people that are not real members of the American society. They are seen as the others due to the fact that they are also illegal immigrants to the United States of America. The experiences of the female immigrants are different from those of the male immigrants in the sense that the female immigrants are more exposed to the evils that happens during immigration as they could get assaulted and raped. The female immigrants have more emotional attachment to their family and relatives than their male counterparts and this is the reason they are usually reluctant in migrating in the first place and when they finally settle down, they might not want to return home as changing their residence again could deal a great blow on their emotions. The female immigrants would usually be in the house either babysitting or doing the domestic chores, while the male immigrants usually do the hard jobs (Chavez, 1998). Most of the immigrants in Leo Chavez’s book come from Mexico and they entered into the United States through the San Diego border. Some immigrants also came from the Central American countries of Nicaragua, Guatemala, El-Salvador and Costa Rica. The border crossing experience of the undocumented immigrants that Chavez puts in the book is one that is full of risks. The fact that the immigration is illegal means that they face being caught by the border patrol team (Chavez, 1998). The US immigration policies should create a situation that the immigrants should be accepted by the original residents of the region they have decided to migrate to and they should not be treated as outcasts. The local culture and the society deny these people of the necessities of life and deprive them from holding key posts in the society and this is a problem that the immigration policy must address. The immigrants do not feel they are members of the community as they also see themselves as outsiders that are trying to break its way into the larger society. It is an emotional issue for some people due to the fact that they would be of the opinion that they would not be subjected to this kind of treatment if it was in their own country as they do not have a sense of belonging in a strange land. The female immigrants are usually the ones that face this kind of problem as they are emotionally attached to the community around them. Hence, the US migration policies should treat these undocumented immigrants as humans before anything else. Work Cited Chavez, L. (1998). Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society. Texas: Harcourt College Publishers Read More