Last Day of Human Geo

Today in class, on December 14, we reviewed what would be on the exams and we reviewed the last test we just got back. Today is the last real class we have in human geography. After the exam, we will be in the next semester and take western civilization. This is somewhat sad because some of the stuff we learned in human geo was interesting. In particular, I liked the debate we did on immigration and getting to share my own opinions with the class. Western civilization does not seem as interesting as human geography but I don't know what it is going to be about. Also, I am nervous about the exam because I want to do well and finish with an A in this class. I will need to review my notes and my tests to help me study. I will be studying all weekend along with everything else I have to study.

Essay Day

Today in class, on December 12, Mr. Shick was not there so we had a sub. We worked on our essays all class and I started my second essay. I gathered some facts about option b of the essay. Immigration used to have few rules about migration in the United States before the 1800s. The first immigration policy was implemented in 1903 that banned lower class people and people affected by mental illness. Later in 1917, they required immigrants to be literate to be let into the country. In the 1920s, the United States added border patrol and quotas to immigration policies, which turned down people in need of refuge. Over the next 10-20 years, they tightened quotas, removed race as an exclusion from immigration, strengthened security procedures and preferred skilled immigrant workers and family reunification. Later in 1986, some policies were passed that granted immigrants temporary visas to work and protected children from deportation. Also, in the 1990s, the government was trying to provide accessible legal methods for immigrants  

Test Day

Today in class, on December 11, we took the test on migration. I reviewed the notes before I took the test so I could remember the things that I studied last night. Then we took the test and I thought I did ok on it. The first part of the test was matching and had vocabulary terms to match to definitions. This part was easier than the next section, which was mulitple choice. After the test, I finished my blog and started my essays. I am going to pick questions A and B. Question A asks to discuss the challenges immigrants face regarding population and migration. Question B asks what are the different ways in which United States immigration policy has evolved over the last 100 years? What are the positive and negative effects of these policies? What immigration policies would you recommend the US to implement right now, and what would be the effects (both positive and negative) of your policies?

Studying For the Migration Test

Today in class, on December 10, we talked about the essay questions a bit more and took notes. We have a test on migration tomorrow, which I am going to study for, by writing this blog on my notes.

• Migration is a permanent move somewhere versus mobility which is short-term and repetitive.
• Two types of migration: international, move to a different country, and internal, a move within a country. 
• Reasons to be accepted into asylum:
• race, religion, nationality, political beliefs, social groups, and domestic violence 
• Metering: the limit of asylum seekers. 
• 2 main reasons for visa acceptance 
• specific employment placement 
• family reunification 
• Northern and Western Europe have the highest per capita income 
• results in attracting immigrants 
• they take low skill and status jobs that residents won't do 
• Agreements, like the 1985 Schenyen Treaty, give immigrants the right to hold a job, live there, own property elsewhere
• Countries have adopted immigration policies to reduce the number of immigrants 
• View from the U.S, motives to enter illegally (pull forces) 
• employment opportunities
• family 
• better way of life 
• View from Mexico 
• Northern Mexico wants compassion for their immigrants 
• Southern Mexico is less tolerant because they have to deal with many unauthorized immigrants 
• Immigration concerns in the U.S 
• border patrol 
• workplace
• civil rights
• local initiatives
• Immigration concerns in Europe 
• Culture or language will be changed our lost due to immigrants 
• Population growth due to immigrants, which is disliked

Taking Notes

Today in class, on December 6, we took notes and had some discussions. The notes are on controlling migrants. A lot of the information I had already seen because I read it in the packet we received the day before and took notes on. For example, we talked about quotas and how they limit the number of people coming into the country. There are two main reasons why people are let into the country besides the main dangerous reasons for immigration like violence. One reason that 3/4 of immigrants are accepted for is family reunification. The second reason that 1/4 of immigrants come to the U.S is skilled workers. This is for people who will take high priority and high skilled jobs that are not like labor jobs most immigrants take. The rest of the immigrants deal with distribution.

Packet #2

Today in class, on December 5, we discussed exam plans and were given a second pack. We started class talking about essays for the exam. There will be 4 essay questions and we will pick 2 and write about them. I think this is an easy way to get a lot of points and a good study tool for the exam. This is something you can look up and get all the information you need at home even though it will probably take a long time doing and preparing. Next, we highlighted some important information in the packet about why immigrants face challenges. After we were done the reading and highlighting this packet, we copied it down in our notes. I know must of the information by know and we are going to review the information in a powerpoint tomorrow in class so I will understand it even more.

Taking Notes on Changing U.S. Immigration

Today in class, on December 4, Mr. Schick was not in class so we took notes on a packet about immigration. Some facts I learned from this packet were 80 million people migrated to the United States between 1820 and 2015, including 42 million who were alive in 2015. The three main periods when people immigrate here were the colonial settlement, mass European immigration, and later Asian and Latin American immigration. After the United States gained independence, the population in 1790 was 3.9 million, including 950,000 who immigrated from one of the colonies part of the U.S now, with 62% of immigrants from Europe and 38% of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 1820 and 1920, 32 million people immigrated to the United States and 90% of them are from Europe. Germany has sent the largest number of immigrants with 7.2 million. Italy has sent 5.4 million, the United Kingdom with 5.3 million, Ireland with 4.8 million, and Russia with 4.1 million. Frequently changing boundaries make it hard to distinguish the exact number of immigrants. Immigration to the U.S dropped a lot between the 1930s and 1940s because of the Great Depression and World War II. Gradually, the number rose up the following decade and shot up greatly at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Now, the leading sources of immigrants are from Asia, China, the Phillapenes, India, and Vietnam. 

Debate on Immigration

In class we had a debate on immigration and asylum seekers. When we first voted if we were for what trump was saying and trying to inforce, or against it, I thought I had no opinion. As I started to learn more about the topic and hear more opinions from other people I started to take more of a side on the issue. Also, I figured out that politics can actually be interesting.

Some things I learned from the podcost and taking notes was there are specific reasons only that immigrants can be allowed to enter America. These reasons are race, religion, nationality, political beliefs and social groups. Eventually Obama added domestic violence to the reasons. Along with this, I found out that metering goes hand in hand with asylum. The podcast desribes metering as the limiting of people that can apply for asylum and it is currently around 30 people a day. I don't think this if a good idea to limit the amount of people trying to enter our country. This will backup the system and make the process a lot longer. This may increase the amount of illegal immigrants because people are trying to avoid a situation that must be pretty desperate for them to try and immigrate. Also, another fact I leanred was the Trump administration has made it so that women who are victims of domestic violence, and anyone who is a victim of gang violence cannot be granted asylum in the United States. I think this is also a bad idea because this will increase the amount of illegal immigrants as well for the reasons I listed above. I learned that they are keeping people who are trying to get into asylum in Mexico, which will not help in my opinion. There are people trying to escape bad situations and even though Mexico may be better compared to where they are, there are many people trying to leave Mexico so it will be adding on to the problem. 

Overall I felt it was a very engaging class and I liked sharing my thoughts about this topic. I think our class handled it very well and we could try this with another topic because I feel it gives people room to formualte their own opinions and learn a lot.
I thought that Sydney Walsh had very good points that I agreed with and I enjoyed hearing what she had to say. Also I feel like Colin did a good job trying to bring up solutions and comprimises to the problem. I did not agree with most of Trent's ideas because I felt like he was not very good at defending his arguements and he was making points that may even harm many poeple, which I do not agree with. Overall I feel like the class did well adding points to each side of the conversation and the fact checkers did well.
The question "why do people immigrate" was clearly answered in this discussion. All of us saw the different reasons why people want to immigrate because they are in very danger and being hurt ot discriminated against. They are trying to find a better place to live or raise a family.