My First Northern Immigrants

E. Jacob, he turned toward home in the fading evening light, relieved from finishing the ordeal. He carried three, fifty-pound bags of corn kernels. He had agreed, after a swift bargaining, to paying one hundred dollars for the corn after John had sold that fall’s harvest, either in cash or in crop. Arriving home, though, he slumped in his wagon’s seat as he realized the work left to do—the entire property needed to be sowed with seeds, and he owned several acres. Though he balked to undertake so Herculean a task, he was startled by the lateness of the season, and began planting that very evening.

During Taylor and Turtle’s first time meeting Esperanza and Estevan, Esperanza is reminded of her lost daughter Ismene by Turtle and “looked blanched, like a boiled vegetable” (93). Esperanza shows that plants and vegetables can have a positive and negative connection to people as she, present day, is positively compared to a vegetable, but her past has a negative connection to plants and

These crops that people are growing might be their only source of food. Again, don’t do something you wouldn’t want someone doing to you. If your crops that you grew were your only source of food, you would want someone to restore them, or else you wouldn’t have any

As shocking as it may seem, corn is an important factor in our diets and might even take up a large percentage of what we eat. In the passage, Pollan brings in all sides of the argument by giving an example of his own experience, describing corn by using metaphors and interesting word choices, and contrasting the way corn moved from being just a simple food to being a problem in our lives. Pollan begins this chapter by describing his visit to a grain elevator in Jefferson, Iowa. He uses descriptive words and phrases to convey exactly what he saw; this gives the reader an idea of what to expect from the chapter and also aids in Pollan’s ethos because he has received a first-hand experience of a grain elevator and how it operates. Pollan also references his meeting with Ricardo Salvador, an agronomist from Iowa State University.

The text 1,360 ft3 by Wayde Compton suggests that only certain kinds of immigrants are welcome in Vancouver. The “Mystery Migrant” that arrives in Vancouver in a container from Hong Kong, is shown to be completely unwelcome. The public reacts to her presence negatively, sending in letters “depict[ing] her as some sort of terrorist or spy” (18). One letter suggests “she should be stuffed back in the container they found her in, locked up, and sent to Hong Kong with ‘return to sender’ painted on the side” (18). These examples indicate that the first problem Vancouver has with this migrant is her foreignness, which is depicted in several ways.

During the time period of 1867 to 1945 the immigrant experience in Canada was different from today. There were many groups such as the Chinese and Jews that were no accepted by the Canadian people by 1945 the rules had changed and there was acceptance towards immigrants. In 1900 there were only 23,000 Chinese people in Canada today there are 1,487,000 which makes up for 3.9% of the Canadian population. This was because before 1923 Chinese immigrants were not welcome in Canada for a Chinese Immigrant to live in Canada they would need to pay a fifty dollar head tax.

Numerous farmers went through pain and tension as they had to physically watch their crops go to

A door opened for many Europeans to come to America during the challenges immigrants faced after the 1880’s. The strong population of countries immigrated and almost all immigrants came into America through Ellis Island. “In the West, there were protests against Chinese immigrants, and in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring immigration from China for the next 10 years.” (The ban was later extended and ultimately not repealed until 1943.) Immigrants coming to the United States faced many financial, social, and educational problems that made life more difficult than was expected.

They were deprived of dignity, worked in harmful conditions ( long hours in a sun, exposed to poisoned pesticides), and deprived of education were “trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty” (The struggle in the Fields). Moreover, the owners (in minority), being in a position of power, oppressed, controlled and humiliated the less powerful massive group of Mexican immigrants to achieve their profits. The farm workers were subjected to ideological justification based only on their jobs and social status, and seen as “ arrogant, stupid, lazy and dirty” and in consequence poor people(The Struggle in the Field).

My ancestors emigrated from seven different countries in Europe. This makes me Irish, German, Swiss, Norwegian, Croatian, Polish and Austrian. On my dad’s side we can trace back our lineage to my Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandfather, Martin Harnish born in 1695, who emigrated from Switzerland to the U.S. to New York in 1715 and started the Harnish farm in Pennsylvania. At that time the Tuscarora War ends and the fist total eclipse was visible in London for almost 900 years. Martin Harnish is the earliest immigrant to the United States in my family, making 11 generations in the United States.

There is a great concern to today’s inequity regarding Aboriginal people’s health, education, culture and language. Stereotypes and racism are preventing the Aboriginal people from seeking the benefits they deserve. As Treaty People in Canada, reconciliation must be a top priority to support the healing process of Canada’s history. The treaty relationship has a significant impact on all Saskatchewan and Canadian citizen’s personal beliefs, societal and political positions, and the process of reconciliation.

Most immigrants who came to the U.S had high expectations that they would find wealth but once they arrived they realized their expectations weren’t what they expected. Although, they were disappointed in not finding wealth the conditions in which the U.S was in by the late 1800s were still a lot better than the places they all had left behind to come. The majority of the immigration population anticipation was to find profitable jobs and opportunities. When the large numbers of immigration were migrating to the U.S, it was during the “Gilded Age”, which was the prime time for the country’s expansion of industrialization. This rapid expansion of new industries led to the need of workers which motivated people from other countries to come to

Chapter 1 Things were monotonous in my early life. On the 20th March 1890, I was born to Henry C. Gatz and his wife in rural North Dakota. This was the same place that I spent the first 16 poverty-stricken years of my life. I can’t remember the exact details of my family life, as I have long since forgotten my parents, but I will never be able to forget my lifestyle on that farm.

First generation immigrants sacrifice their adulthood in search of a better life for their family and for future generations to come. My father came from Peru to support his family. He was the first person in his family to come to America. He works in road construction from morning until night so that my family is supported. The desire to repay both of my parents is the belief that guides my life.

Alexander MacDonald is driving along the 401, a famous Ontario highway, to visit his older brother, Calum, in Toronto. As his car passes a farm, he sees tractors plowing down old crops, and immediately thinks of his grandmother. He reflects on a moment when once, outside Leamington, his grandmother had been visiting and “burst into tears”(2) at the sight of the rejected and overripe tomatoes being ploughed under. She called it an “awful waste” (2) and had to be restrained from running into the fields to “save”(2) the tomatoes. The fertile lands of Ontario are in sharp contrast to the harsh and barren landscape of Cape Breton where the people value the scarce produce the land provides.