saris - "a garment of southern Asian women that consists of several yards of lightweight cloth draped so that one end forms a skirt and the other a head or shoulder covering" m-w.com
mongrelization - "an individual resulting from the interbreeding of diverse breeds or strains" m-w.com
scapegoating - "to make a scapegoat of" to put the blame on m-w.com
Green Paper - in Canada: "a green paper is taken to be an official document sponsored by Ministers of the Crown which is issued by government to invite public comment and discussion on an issue prior to policy formulation" http://www2.parl.gc.ca/
2. The author Bharita explains the differences she has with her sister Mira on citizenship in the United States. Bharita thinks that "immigrants" in the United States should become citizens and not just be legal immigrants; she wants them to go all the way like her. On the other hand, Mira just wants to have the benefits of her "green card" but still maintain her Indian citizenship. Mira keeps her "Indianness," because that is her identity, "My sister is an expatriate, professionally generous...socially courteous...and that's as far as her Americanization can go."
Bharita's main point is that she is a person that "embraced" everything American and "renounc[ed] 3,000 years of caste-observant, "pure culture" marriage in the Mukherjee family." She describes of when she felt the same way Mira did "with the scapegoating of "aliens," but in her case in Canada: "I felt then the same sense of betrayal...will never forget the pain of that sudden turning, and the casual racist outbursts the Green Paper elicited." This situation made her leave Canada, especially because it "attacked" South Asian immigrants.
Bharita points out that the biggest difference between her and her sister is that she is an immigrant and her sister is just fine "living in America as expatriate Indian." Bharita needs to feel a part of the country she lives in, like civic duty. "The price that the immigrant willingly pays, and that the exile avoids, is the trauma of self-transformation."
3. Do you agree that residents of the United States should go all the way to become U.S. citizens?
If you were in their situation as immigrants in the U.S., would you be an immigrant made citizen like Bharita or a legal immigrant like Mira? In other words, would you "retain" your roots or "embrace" America?
5 comments:
I'm writing this about 60 days after it was posted, but upon reading it I was reminded of exactly what we discussed in class. You take your time to define important key terms and explain what Bharita was trying to state in her essay.
I'm an immigrant and so is most of my family. I do believe that all current residents of the U.S. should have the opportunity to become citizens. I don't that changing one's citizenship status means that they have to forsake their heritage. Isn't that what make the U.S. so great. Citizenship and culture are very different, one does not substitute for the other.
I think that people do not have to choose. Immigrants can embrace the US customs and still keep their country of origins' customs..
When living in any country one should definitely try to learn their language because how else would you be able to communicate. There is a real language barrier if someone tries to move to another country to start a new life. When you do not know the main language alot of things are lost. But i really think there is a way someone can do both. And people should become citizens since they are permanently living in the US because there is no loss into not becoming a citizen.
as an immigrant, i think we should be a part of this big family.when we decide to reside here forever, we should become the citizens reside in here.
I used to be a legal immigrant until i became a citizen just a couple of months ago. I think that being a citizen in the United States definitly brings great benefits. I feel this way because i am holding a job that can only be given to those who are citizens. Without ones own citizenship within the country one lives in, one won't feel the sense of belonging. I feel that when given the opportunity to become a part of a nation that one lives in, then it should definitly be taken. Now that I am a citizen of the United States I had the sudden urge to learn more about the country and the benefits that come along with being a citizen in this great nation.
Post a Comment