Chapter 23 - Capitalism & Culture (Since 1945)
The beginning of this chapter was very hard to read as Strayer starts the chapter by telling the story of a young woman named Memey from Indonesia. Her husband died, and she was left in poverty with a young child. Being a mom she wanted to be able to provide for her son, so when she heard about a waitress job in Malaysia she quickly jumped at the opportunity. She entered Malaysia illegally and was ready for work. She was taken shopping for new clothes and makeup, and after dinner "a man came for her and took her to a hotel room nearby to start work." It was at that moment that she realized that she wasn't being hired for a waitressing job, rather was being made into a sex worker. She got to see the conditions of other women and how they were beaten and threatened, which scared her to run away. About 4 months later she was able to escape due to a sympathetic client. She escaped and returned to her home in Indonesia with bitter memories and an HIV infection. Later, she found work with an organization who support women in situations like the one Memey had experienced.
Although Memey ended up finding a job that would help her support her child. I can only imagine her feelings knowing she was in an environment where she saw no way to escape. It's truly heart breaking that sex trafficking is something that is happening in our world, and over time has just gotten bigger. Memey was lucky to be able to get out, as there are thousands of women who never find a way out of that life.
Memey's illegal move Malaysia is a move that many people do in order to give themselves a better future. Chapter 22 talks a lot about global migration and how we've seen a significant pattern of it since the 1960s. People from developing countries like Asia, Africa, and Latin America moving to more industrialized parts of the world like Europe and North America. Many of these people move to other countries illegally, for many reasons. Some may be wanting a better future for themselves and their children, escaping dangerous situations in their countries and knowing they can have a better future draws them to other places.
"By 2003, some 4 million Filipino domestic workers were employed in 130 countries. Young women by the hundreds of thousands from poor countries have been recruited as sex workers in wealthier nations, sometimes in conditions approaching slavery. Smaller numbers of highly skilled and university-trained people, such as doctors and computer scientists, came in search of professional opportunities less available in their own countries. All of this represented a kind of reserve "development aid" -- as either cheap labor or intellectual resources-- from poor countries to rich. Still other peoples moved as refugees, fleeing violence or political oppression in places such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Sudan, Uganda, Cuba, and Haiti."
This paragraph in the textbook for me was something I think that many others need to understand. Currently, our country is up against someone that hates immigrants, and doesn't want them them here. Mainly Latin American ones, but it's important to understand that our country is made up of immigrants, and it has been since the beginning of time. All people that come to this country fleeing from something, looking for a better future, we don't know their story, and I don't think we should be allowed to tell them not to be here.
"In the forty years between 1971 and 2010, almost 20 million immigrants arrived in the United States legally, and millions entered illegally, the vast majority of both from the Latin American/Carribbean region and from Asia."
Memey's illegal move Malaysia is a move that many people do in order to give themselves a better future. Chapter 22 talks a lot about global migration and how we've seen a significant pattern of it since the 1960s. People from developing countries like Asia, Africa, and Latin America moving to more industrialized parts of the world like Europe and North America. Many of these people move to other countries illegally, for many reasons. Some may be wanting a better future for themselves and their children, escaping dangerous situations in their countries and knowing they can have a better future draws them to other places.
"By 2003, some 4 million Filipino domestic workers were employed in 130 countries. Young women by the hundreds of thousands from poor countries have been recruited as sex workers in wealthier nations, sometimes in conditions approaching slavery. Smaller numbers of highly skilled and university-trained people, such as doctors and computer scientists, came in search of professional opportunities less available in their own countries. All of this represented a kind of reserve "development aid" -- as either cheap labor or intellectual resources-- from poor countries to rich. Still other peoples moved as refugees, fleeing violence or political oppression in places such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Sudan, Uganda, Cuba, and Haiti."
This paragraph in the textbook for me was something I think that many others need to understand. Currently, our country is up against someone that hates immigrants, and doesn't want them them here. Mainly Latin American ones, but it's important to understand that our country is made up of immigrants, and it has been since the beginning of time. All people that come to this country fleeing from something, looking for a better future, we don't know their story, and I don't think we should be allowed to tell them not to be here.
"In the forty years between 1971 and 2010, almost 20 million immigrants arrived in the United States legally, and millions entered illegally, the vast majority of both from the Latin American/Carribbean region and from Asia."
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