Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human group (Scheuble, 2013). The book Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe studies the social behavior of illegal immigrants between their own group and those towards the out group. In the book the author observed that most illegal immigrants get fake Mexican identity card because their current circumstance would not meet the eligibility to get a real Mexican identity card. This is what happened to Yadira, she did not meet the requirements to get an ID card, so she had no other choice than to get a fake one (Thorpe,106). The author realized that sometimes circumstance had to be taken into consideration when trying to figure why a person committed a deviant act. The author also noticed that …show more content…
Culture is the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next (Henslin, 40). One of the cultural objects that have been passed down from one generation to the next in Marisela’s life is the peñata (Thorpe, 99). Piñata is a candy stuffed clay pot that this hanged from a tree or a beam. It has been a tradition of Mexico to break the Piñata during celebration (History of the0 Piñata in Mexico, 1). This culture is now passed on to Marisela to sustain her Mexican heritage. Social structure refers to the typical pattern of a group (Henslin, 94). One pattern between the illegal immigrants the author have noticed that many illegal immigrants such as Alma use false social security to work (Thorpe, 137). While others have decent job because they were granted legal authorization to work even though they initially did not possess an adequate prof of legality, this was situation with Isbel (Thorpe, 164). This was the social structure in U.S. for illegal immigrants, some had luck and given a chance to enhance life while others still were in misery because that luck never came to …show more content…
Another incidence in the book made me think of this idea. Julio, Yadira’s friend, did not want to finish high school and go for higher education even though he had the opportunity and papers (Thorpe, 99). That made me think why didn’t he have motivation to go and study more, was it family reasons or was he just not motivated enough. While Julio had no intention of going for higher studies Elissa’s boyfriend, Juan, and Clara’s older brother had motivation to go for higher education; both of the guys were enrolled in college (Thorpe, 97). All of these circumstances with these people made me think did the age they came to United States have any effect on their
Part Three of the book “Just Like Us” written by Helen Thorpe is comprised of illegal undocumented individuals residing in Denver Colorado. The individuals consist of a group of four Mexican young adults all with the dream of one day attending college and finally obtaining a legal status within the United States. In this portion of the readings, Yadira, Marisela, Clara, and Elissa are entering their senior year at their University and have defined the odds of successfully completing college while maintaining an illegal status. Helen Thorpe clearly demonstrates a passion in tracking individuals that are determined to become legal citizens within society; however, lack the proper advocacy and documentation to do so. Part Three of the book envelops the complexity of maintaining a legal status among society members through the lives of these four influential young ladies striving to achieve higher education in the
In Marcelo M. Suarez- Orozco and Carola Suarez- Orozco’s article “How Immigrants became “other” Marcelo and Carola reference the hardships and struggles of undocumented immigrants while at the same time argue that no human being should be discriminated as an immigrant. There are millions of undocumented people that risk their lives by coming to the United States all to try and make a better life for themselves. These immigrants are categorized and thought upon as terrorist, rapists, and overall a threat to Americans. When in reality they are just as hard working as American citizens. This article presents different cases in which immigrants have struggled to try and improve their life in America. It overall reflects on the things that immigrants go through. Immigrants come to the United States with a purpose and that is to escape poverty. It’s not simply crossing the border and suddenly having a great life. These people lose their families and go years without seeing them all to try and provide for them. They risk getting caught and not surviving trying to make it to the other side. Those that make it often don’t know where to go as they are unfamiliar. They all struggle and every story is different, but to them it’s worth the risk. To work the miserable jobs that Americans won’t. “I did not come to steal from anyone. I put my all in the jobs I take. And I don’t see any of the Americans wanting to do this work” (668). These
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It involved the analysis of data from 90,000 individual surveys conducted by the Mexican Migration Project to establish the presence of social effects, and the analysis of qualitative data from 120 in-depth interviews with migrants and their family members in Mexico to reveal the underlying mechanisms. Firstly, it confirmed the hypothesis that “having prior migrants in the household or community increases individuals’ likelihood of migrating net of economic and political context effects” (2013:19). Secondly, through its qualitative research, it found that tough immigration policies among other things, reduce communication channels between migrants in the United States and their families in Mexico. The flow on impact of this is a break down in the feedback loop on what is often, a hard life as a migrant in the United States. Within the context of increased restrictions on border crossings, Garip and Asad (2013) argue that restricting these communication channels simply acts to perpetuate the myth of a glamorous life in the United
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What is sociological imagination? Our textbook describes sociological imagination as the ability to see our private experiences, personal difficulties, and achievements as, in part, a reflection of the structural arrangements of society and the times in which we live. The movie entitled Forrest Gump is a great example of sociological imagination. In this paper, I will cite examples from the movie and tell how they correlate with sociological imagination. Sociological imagination allows us examine the events of our lives and see how they intersect with the wider context of history and tradition of the society in which we live. (Hughes/Kroehler, The Core, p. 7)
Sociology is the study of social relationships and how one interacts in a society. It is a way of seeing and making sense of the world around us. Sociological Imagination means to think and ask questions as a sociologist would. It means to look at the world with a sociological point of view by asking how individual actions relate to societal forces. There are four different ways Donna Gaines uses C. Wright Mill's concepts of the Sociological Imagination in her study of the Suburbia's Dead-End Kids. Gaines emphasizes the fact that when one teenager commits suicide it is a personal matter, but when a group of teenagers commit suicide it becomes a matter of public concern which needs everyone's attention. To find the answer to why these teenagers
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This is the foundation of the Sociological Imagination Concept. According to C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination is developed when we can place personal problems in a social situation or environment such that they are no longer viewed solely as individual or personal problems, but instead as social problems. That is problems that are shared by enough peop...
Conley, Dalton. (2013). You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking like a Sociologist (3rd edition). Columbus, OH: W. W. Norton & Company.
Immigration has been a topic that has caused multiple discussions on why people migrate from one country to another, also how it affects both the migraters and the lands they go. Immigration is the movement from one location to another to live there permanently. This topic has been usually been associated with sociology to better explain how it affects people, cultures and societies. Sociology has three forms of thinking that are used to describe and analyze this topic. There are three forms of thinking that are used to tell and describe immigration to society; structural functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict theory. Each of these theories uses different forms of thinking and rationality to describe and explain socio topics.
After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family dynamics and basic group behavior.
The thought of arriving immigrants in any host country has been accompanied by reactions of exclusion, and continues to expand throughout the years. During any social illness, immigrants tend to be the first to be held responsible by their recipient societies. Most crimes are associated with immigrants due to the fact that they may not possess the same socio-economic status as natives. Another contributing factor is the media that conducts numerous stories that highlight the image of immigrant crimes to recall the alleged difference between native and foreign born. Undoubtedly, the correlation between immigration and crime has become one of the most controversial discussions in current society.
Marsh, I and Keating, M., eds. (1996) Sociology: Making sense of society., ed [2006], England: Pearson Education.
Kendall, Diana. “Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials.” Ed. Mark Kerr. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2013. Print