Analysis

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By Julie Griffith

Analysis

The most intriguing aspect of my interview with Christiane was that she absolutely loved Brazil and had no desire to come to America. She had a stereotypical idea of what the United States was and how Americans were. Fortunately, she was pleasantly surprised to find that Americans are just people. Yes, there are some really prejudice people, some ignorant people, some arrogant people (as there are everywhere), but there are also some kind, loving people who care about all human beings. This false impression reminded me of the lovely ladies in the colonia in Nogales. One of them had a very negative opinion about America, similar to Christiane’s thought that Americans are too busy and there is a loss of freedom with all the rules and regulations. She was very against coming to America, even if she was given a legal and easy way to get here. It was far more important for her to stay in her home country, Mexico, and maintain the level of freedom that she felt there. I guess there is a loss of freedom, in a way, here in America. But I don’t think it is much different anywhere else. Every country has rules and regulations. It is just a matter of what you are used to and what is familiar. The foreign or unusual ways seem very confining to those that have not experienced them. The false impressions that are spread all over the world to people residing in places other than the ones they read about, seem to be shaping our opinions of other countries and their people. It would be impossible for everyone to visit all the countries in the world, but it is possible to analyze our own opinions, see how they are formed (usually by the media), and then do our own investigating so that we can make informed decisions about the impressions and beliefs we choose to hold.

The closeness Christiane felt, and still feels, for her homeland reminds me of the strong ties that family members continued to have, even in their absence, that we read about in C. Small’s book Voyages and in D. McMurray’s book In & Out of Morocco.

C. Small wrote about a family who had many members who migrated and many who stayed home in Tonga. I especially was drawn to the experience of Finau, the one who stayed in Tonga. Her ties and feelings for her homeland kept her in Tonga even as the majority of her family, and numerous village people, migrated to America. But she stayed close to all her relatives who left Tonga, and through this contact we see how both the Tongans who left and those who stayed are shaped by migration. This is also true in Christiane’s case, as she stays in close contact with her Brazilian relatives and goes back to visit every year. No doubt the impressions and images she takes home to Brazil help those she is in contact with to form opinions about America and her life here. I think through individual contact and stories, as opposed to the impressions of mass media, a more enlightened view of the world can emerge.

There were similar strong ties seen in D. McMurray’s book In & Out of Morocco, but with a very different outcome. In the story of Haddou we see a strong minded and caring Moroccan man who leaves his family to go and work in France and Germany for many, many years. He spends ten and a half months away from his family and returns each summer to Morocco for a month and a half to see his family and bring home money and gifts. Haddou’s desire for a better life for his family drove him to seek steady work out of his home country. His strong family ties kept his goals close in mind and made it possible for him to endure his hard life away from his family. But the impact of his absence on his family is sorely seen as his children grow up and form values and ideals quite different from Haddou’s. So Haddou’s family ties actually drove a sort of wedge between himself and his family. For Christiane, I think her family ties have had an opposite effect. She remains close to her Brazilian family, but is also able to take back with her strong ideals and a more enlightened view of American life. Where Haddou’s immigration formed a gulf, Christiane’s formed a bridge.

Christiane’s experiences at school and her difficulty understanding the language reminded me of the lives of the Hmong after coming to America, described by Jo Ann Koltyk in New Pioneers in the Heartland: Hmong Life in Wisconsin. The Hmong were pretty much forced to leave their homeland, and Christiane was not, but the rejection and ridicule they both felt while trying to fit into life in the US is similar. The Hmong felt ridicule for many aspects of their language, like that they had no written form of it, and also for their very different cultural ways. They dealt with this by staying in constant contact with other Hmong, especially those in their own particular clan, sometimes even moving to a different city to be close. Christiane has maintained her Brazilian ties in a number of ways. She is married to a Brazilian immigrant, she visits her Brazilian family every year, she makes an effort to meet other Brazilians in America, and she seeks out other immigrants (from any country) in Arizona and tries to learn from their experiences as well as her own.

The economical situation in Brazil, as described by Christiane, sounds remarkable similar to numerous other countries in the world. They have a huge debt (to the World Bank and IMF) that they are trying to pay off and the job prospects for nonprofessionals are almost nonexistent. This is leading to a wider gulf between the upper and lower classes. Where the country used to be mostly middle class, it is now seeing a surge towards a lower class majority. A chapter in Grace Chang’s book Disposable Domestics deals with how the World Bank has affected so-called welfare reform and the trade in migrant women. "Since the 1980’s, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other international financial institutions (IFIs) based in the First World have routinely prescribed structural adjustment policies to the governments of indebted countries as preconditions for loans. These prescriptions have included cutting government expenditures on social programs, slashing wages, liberalizing imports, opening markets to foreign investment, expanding exports, devaluing local currency, ad privatizing state enterprises." These conditions have driven workers out of their home countries to look for work in other places. Such is the case in Brazil where it has gone from a fairly stable economy of years past to a country which can no longer employ its own people. We see this in country after country around the world (like the video we saw on the Philippines) when the World Bank and IMF swoop down and make impossible demands on countries in exchange for loans. The only hope any country has for stability is in keeping land, products, labor, and lives (and the ensuing profits from them) in their own countries. Once small industries are taken over by huge corporations there is no hope of a country being able to support (and feed) itself.

In W. Lehrer and J. Sloan’s book, Crossing the Blvd: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America, we read the story of Remi, a high priestess from Nigeria who felt that she was called by God to come to the United States. The interesting part of her story that ties in to Christiane’s story is the impression that the people in her home land have of America. In Nigeria, all the people think that everyone in America is enjoying life, and are "wealthy like Babylon." In fact, many Nigerians wind up going back to Nigeria after a time in the US because they are so disappointed with the reality of the ghettos and people begging in the streets. So to the Brazilians idolize American life to the point of being completely unrealistic. Where does this false impression of American wealth come from and the supposed ensuing happiness come from?

All in all, I think my interview with Christiane was very illuminating. I have long suspected that many people have a strong affection and attachment to their homeland. It is hard to leave what is familiar, especially if that place is beautiful, which most places possess their own unique beauty. Christiane does not fit the migrant model in the sense that she was not looking for the illusive "better life", but she certainly has a lot in common with many of the immigrants we studied about this semester. Maybe it is more likely that most people don’t fit a particular model, but we as human beings do have a lot in common. We all seem to have a need for strong family ties, we desire a safe place to live and work, and we desire enough food in order not to be hungry. Is that so difficult? Why can’t the quest to fill these needs be the basis for all immigration policies and for that matter each countries laws governing the welfare of all their people?

 
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