Anglais Oral: espaces et échanges

NOTION 2 ANGLAIS ESPACES ET ECHANGES

Good afternon ! I'm going to introduce the 2nd notion : « Spaces and Exchanges ». First of all, I'll try to define these words.

A space is an area with definite or indefinite borderies. An exchange is the act of giving or receiving something else in return. All societies are, somehow, defined by geographic and symbolic spaces.

People and nations borrow the language and culture of others peoples at an increasing rate and mix with others countries.

We studied many documents about these themes but I chose only few of them.

Everybody knows that the immigration in the US is a very important phenomenon as it's shown in the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen's song : American Land extracted from the album : « Wrecking Ball ».

In this document, the comitted singer describes America as a Nation of Immigrants who come from Poland, Germany or Ireland, for example.

So we can deduce that the US is a country which welcomes everybody, including all the immigrants but it's false.

Indeed, I've got lots of examples showing this « fight » against immigration. For example, a state of the USA has adopted « Arizona Laws ». It's an anti-illegal immigration mesure. All the policemen of the state have the right to stop people who aren't citizen of this state.

The president, Barack Obama, doesn't support this law but he can't say anything. Indeed, it's the state which decide of his own laws.

Even if the USA want to finally stop these « human exchanges », people, especially from Mexico still want to come to this fabulous country. Nevertheless, they know they have to fight because it's very difficult to come to the USA as it's shown in the text « Texas » from Michener. This document deals with the way undocumented aliens, coming from Mexico and wishing to cross the border, are treated by inhumane, crual and pitiless smugglers.

The Mexicans were terrified and became aware that they have been tricked. Their slow descent into hell is that of the end of a dream but, the end of their life too.

The other document I'm going to introduce is a movie, called “Bread and Roses”

The film from Ken Loach illustrates the exploitation of undocumented workers. The migrants had to work for a pittance. Unions try to balance those exchanges as undocumented workers are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Yet, their integration is gradually improving through. Indeed, the US is portrayed as a multicultural society with universities opening up to undocumented immigrants. Besides, some of the legal migrants are well integrated and can have a high position.

Indeed, in the film, Perez is of Mexican origin and he is the one who has the power to hire and fire the janitors.

Those documents illustrate this notion because immigration is a sort of exchange between two countries. People from Mexico want to live this fabulous American Dream, described in the song of Bruce Springsteen. But there are others types of exchanges between two countries as the commercial exchanges or cultural with Erasmus' program.

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