Summary Of Migrant Camp

Words: 1318
Pages: 6

Leo R. Chavez began his studies of undocumented immigrates in the farming communities in San Diego County. As he stood on a hill he noticed how labor intensive it was to produce crops such as tomatoes and strawberries, especially how the fields were covered in plastic, and holed had to be cut for each and every plant to grow through. As he combed the area, he noticed the amount of workers living in the fields in make shift camps, for minimum pay, tending to the fields day in, day out. While speaking to several personnel, he soon realized that these men represented the two ends of continuum of experience found among immigrants living and working throughout the United States illegally. On one end, they represented the temporary farm workers, …show more content…
Those actions eventually lead to the closure of the camp and sparked a heated controversy that focused unprecedented attention on the plight of migrant workers and their families in San Diego. At the time the camp was closed, it was home to about 200 immigrants from Mexico and Central America. At times, as many as 450 immigrants live there in their makeshift homes hidden in the hills off El Camino Real.
Green Valley’s migrant camp illustrates the role of health professionals in controlling society and its members, especially those considered out of the mainstream because of poverty-related behavior or cultural differences. The health department became the de facto agent to which larger communities used to rid themselves of unwelcome neighbors.
While migrants may not serve family ties, they are stretched across time, space, and national boundaries. They were subjected to many life-threatening experiences while crossing the borders and while working in the United States. While faced with these challenges and living in make shift camps in San Diego, they still had goals they continued worked hard to achieve. Some of their goals included, find a place to stay, work, live cheaply, survive economically, send money back home and not getting appended to name a
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At the time of his re-enlistment, it was discovered that he had had illegally entered the United States from South Africa using a false identity. I knew him for about two years and had grown very fond of him. He often shared his culture with me and my family. We had no idea he was indeed an undocumented immigrant, for he embraced our culture and like immigrants in these studies, he also had goals of bringing his family to America. He also sent money back to his native country and stated that he loved this country because of the opportunities it provided.
After completing this book, I have a better understanding of what our country would be like if it wasn’t for illegal immigrants. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support this practice, due to the fact that we have millions of people in this country who are unemployed. If some of these jobs were listed in the inner cities, maybe we can reduce the rate of unemployed. Looking at the flipside, if other countries were more open to freedom as of the United States, then these people may chose to stay in their our countries enabling it to grow and prosper like the United