Week 7 Lily Trang A04

In this week's reading by Hana E. Brown, Refuges, Rights, and Race,  she talks about the injustice and the discrimination refuges have to go through. I can definitely imagine what my parents had to experience due to moving to America from Vietnam in order to create a better life for me. It is eye opening how a group of individuals can be taken advantaged of and constantly used to justify the American racial hierarchy. The way America shapes us to be the "model minority". The reasoning that we all need governmental support and welfare just because they do not have anything else. The fear that they suffer just to retaining their citizen status. Most immigrants are even incorporated in the labor market. Brown states, "however, their lack of legal status affects their life chances, their economic outcomes, their health, and their social integration." There are so many communities experiencing the same discrimination, however, why are some ethnic groups receiving more attention and superiority within one another. Even though the two groups of people have the same exact skin color, why do they see one another differently? There is a big indifference between native born and immigrant. To separate and cause a division amongst the two to make sure the natives do not experience the same discrimination and prejudice that the immigrants have once experienced. To the Liberian refugees, the immigrants are looked upon as hardworking and motivational, however, native borns are looked upon as lazy and unmotivated. Even if they are native born or not, there is still a division within the same exact group. It is quite true when Brown states, "how a refugee shapes their views and expectations of their host country are through the legal benefits of their refugee status." A lot of ethnic groups feel different ways about the government based on how much aid they are offered. The idea of immigrants viewed as just an "alien"pushes how important it is to address the severity that immigrants are viewed as "criminals".


Question: What can we do to secure and provide immigrants with more stability to help ensure sanity in the United States?

Brown, Hana E. “Refugees, Rights, and Race: How Legal Status Shapes Liberian Immigrants' Relationship with the State.” Ocial Problems, Vol. 58, No. 1 , Oxford Journals, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sp.2011.58.1.144.