Moving To America Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1 starts off with Jung Jae fleeing seoul Korea with her son from the North forces. Again in January 1951 the North came back, but she had to leave her son this time. On the way to the south on top of a train in a snowstorm she died of a heart attack. The Americans found her son Pong Suk and use him as an interpreter. After the war he came to America with a military student visa. Chapter 2 follows the Alarcon family move to America from Bolivia, but only because of their grandma Edu. Edu wants to work in the big city to earn money, she is still a teenager. She's a very good worker, and stayed living in the city. Later she moved to La Paz, the capital. Her children and grandchildren all moved to America and then Edu moved with
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them to northern Virginia. Chapter 3 consists of Nak who wanted to leave his abusive mother and South Korea with his wife. They needed EB-3 employment visas.
The national origin quota system was abolished in 1965. They told Nak’s parents in 1976, they were moving to America. They moved to Berlin, Maryland and worked at a chicken processing plant. Got a house and then bought a gas station. Later on they bought a liquor store and ran it until retirement. Chapter 4 is about Victor Alarcon, who followed his sister from Bolivia to America. In northern Virginia victor and his wife moved in with another Bolivian couple he knew back in Bolivia. Victor was shoot by an El Salvador teenage gang. In Chapter 5 Esam had come to the U.S. from Libya with his family in 1982 at the age of 15. He never liked the American high school experience on the account of his muslim conservative upbringing. He decided to do pre med after school. Chapter 6 returns to Victor after being shot. The bullet went cleanly through his shoulder. The El Salvador boys were convicted of another crime 3 days after the shooting. Then the book goes through the long and racist history of Virginia. Immigrants were moving in not realizing the struggles blacks had to face to raise the community to modern standards. Religious conflicts were ramped. Chapter 7 goes back to Esam Omeish being raised as a good muslim in Libya, but in
America religion defined him. Most muslims in America turned away from it, but not Esam. Esam went on to do a double major and med school. Chapter 8 you dive into the racial persecution immigrants faced in America. Also the more diverse America seemed to get, the more native American citizens want to stop immigration, non Anglo saxons. The Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigrant chinese labor. The 1900s was a war about immigration in congress. The republican party spoke of pure racism. Celler, a senator, said it was the saddest thing he has ever heard. By 1930 immigration dropped by 75 percent. Chapter 9 talks of the start of JFK. He took down the discrimination in the immigration policy. Chapter 10 continues after JFK’s assassination, where Johnson took office. By 1965 the civil rights movement changed the American public against white supremacist. The immigration standards were changed to family and employability based. Part 3 consisting of chapter 11 through 16 went through the history of the acts that slowly change the immigration policy and referring to our immigrant families throughout as examples. Chapter 17 brings you back to 1965, where the reforms were about who to let into the country. A population bomb argument started circling, that to many people would destroy the environment. In chapter 18 9/11 just happened and mosques in Washington were closing, scared mobs might show up. Dr. Esam Omeish was general surgeon at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Virginia at the time. After 9/11 spanish classes and illegal finding was out of police departments and counterterrorism was in. By chapter 19 Victor’s sons were Varsity soccer players freshmen year. The second immigrant generation was not fully Americanized, relying heavily on their race due to discrimination. Schools were very prejudiced towards latinos. Chapter 20 is about the 2008 elections. Barack Obama excited all the immigrants, because he's a half muslim Kenyan and lived in Indonesia for some of his childhood. Keam worked on Obama’s campaign team. America is increasingly non white and thus the traditional beliefs are dieing out with the ever polarising republicans. Chapter 21 opens to a large ceremony of new immigrants getting their citizenship. Every immigrant wants different things from this country.
From reading this book I now comprehend the vast amount of interesting struggles and adventures immigrants experience coming to America. Even when the book only discusses the lives of a few families, it gives a detailed timeline that immerses you in their footsteps. Also from the full history of immigration legislation I have a map of how the government felt about immigrants through the changing decades. A lot of the documents in class that we discussed came up and got explained in for more detail, like the Chinese Exclusion Act. The same cultural ideas we learned in class came up prominently in the book, changing as the 20th century evolved. Overall the book was rich with interesting stories and struggles that the immigrants and the progressive politicians had to face. I would very much recommend this book to people who treasure important history.
them to northern Virginia. Chapter 3 consists of Nak who wanted to leave his abusive mother and South Korea with his wife. They needed EB-3 employment visas.
The national origin quota system was abolished in 1965. They told Nak’s parents in 1976, they were moving to America. They moved to Berlin, Maryland and worked at a chicken processing plant. Got a house and then bought a gas station. Later on they bought a liquor store and ran it until retirement. Chapter 4 is about Victor Alarcon, who followed his sister from Bolivia to America. In northern Virginia victor and his wife moved in with another Bolivian couple he knew back in Bolivia. Victor was shoot by an El Salvador teenage gang. In Chapter 5 Esam had come to the U.S. from Libya with his family in 1982 at the age of 15. He never liked the American high school experience on the account of his muslim conservative upbringing. He decided to do pre med after school. Chapter 6 returns to Victor after being shot. The bullet went cleanly through his shoulder. The El Salvador boys were convicted of another crime 3 days after the shooting. Then the book goes through the long and racist history of Virginia. Immigrants were moving in not realizing the struggles blacks had to face to raise the community to modern standards. Religious conflicts were ramped. Chapter 7 goes back to Esam Omeish being raised as a good muslim in Libya, but in
America religion defined him. Most muslims in America turned away from it, but not Esam. Esam went on to do a double major and med school. Chapter 8 you dive into the racial persecution immigrants faced in America. Also the more diverse America seemed to get, the more native American citizens want to stop immigration, non Anglo saxons. The Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigrant chinese labor. The 1900s was a war about immigration in congress. The republican party spoke of pure racism. Celler, a senator, said it was the saddest thing he has ever heard. By 1930 immigration dropped by 75 percent. Chapter 9 talks of the start of JFK. He took down the discrimination in the immigration policy. Chapter 10 continues after JFK’s assassination, where Johnson took office. By 1965 the civil rights movement changed the American public against white supremacist. The immigration standards were changed to family and employability based. Part 3 consisting of chapter 11 through 16 went through the history of the acts that slowly change the immigration policy and referring to our immigrant families throughout as examples. Chapter 17 brings you back to 1965, where the reforms were about who to let into the country. A population bomb argument started circling, that to many people would destroy the environment. In chapter 18 9/11 just happened and mosques in Washington were closing, scared mobs might show up. Dr. Esam Omeish was general surgeon at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Virginia at the time. After 9/11 spanish classes and illegal finding was out of police departments and counterterrorism was in. By chapter 19 Victor’s sons were Varsity soccer players freshmen year. The second immigrant generation was not fully Americanized, relying heavily on their race due to discrimination. Schools were very prejudiced towards latinos. Chapter 20 is about the 2008 elections. Barack Obama excited all the immigrants, because he's a half muslim Kenyan and lived in Indonesia for some of his childhood. Keam worked on Obama’s campaign team. America is increasingly non white and thus the traditional beliefs are dieing out with the ever polarising republicans. Chapter 21 opens to a large ceremony of new immigrants getting their citizenship. Every immigrant wants different things from this country.
From reading this book I now comprehend the vast amount of interesting struggles and adventures immigrants experience coming to America. Even when the book only discusses the lives of a few families, it gives a detailed timeline that immerses you in their footsteps. Also from the full history of immigration legislation I have a map of how the government felt about immigrants through the changing decades. A lot of the documents in class that we discussed came up and got explained in for more detail, like the Chinese Exclusion Act. The same cultural ideas we learned in class came up prominently in the book, changing as the 20th century evolved. Overall the book was rich with interesting stories and struggles that the immigrants and the progressive politicians had to face. I would very much recommend this book to people who treasure important history.