Space and exchanges

The notion "Spaces and exchanges" deals with the geographical and symbolic areas that all societies occupy and the interactions between men and different societies. Our world is built on the exploration and conquest of new spaces. The different cultural, economic, sociological and language interactions have shaped and characterised our modern-day world.

Among the whole of the propositions offered by the notion "spaces and exchanges", I chose to speak about immigration, mainly in the United States. "A nation of immigrants" describes the United States well since almost everybody there is either an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants.

Firstly, the document "Becoming an American part 1" talks about the history and the causes of immigration. Immigration started in 1492. The first wave of immigration took place in the 1500s, the country of origin of immigrants was Spain and they settled in Florida, Mexico and the Carribean. The second wave of immigration took place in the1600s and the countries of origin were England, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Africa, it's not said in the documentary where they settled.

The African immigrants came as captives on slave ships. America is a multiethnic, multicultural country. One third of soldiers in George Washington's revolutionary army were born overseas.

Secondly, the document "A Nation of immigrants" is an extract from the book "A Nation of immigrants" written by John. F. Kennedy. This text is about immigration in America. People immigrated to the USA because they were looking for riches, freedom, religious toleration, a better life and because they were escaping from poverty, political oppression, religious persecution and economic hardship in their own countries.

The immigrants had to face a lot of dangers and difficulties on their way to America. They had to save up money for the trip. They had to leave their home country and say goodbye to people they loved and would never see again. They had to travel to the ports of embarkation. On the way, they could be attacked by outlaws. Sometimes, they had to stop on the way in order to work for food. They had to wait in the ports until they found a boat. The trip was wery long, hard and dangerous. There were storms, boats were not very safe at that time. They could get ill and die on the way.

Life was better for immigrants in the USA than in their country of origin because in the USA everything was new, there were no social barriers. The immigrants could forget about who they were in the old world and the fixed place that they had in that society. They had to turn to the future. In the USA, if they worked hard, they could make money. In the USA, there was no political oppression or religious persecution as in their country of origin.

To conclude, I wonder if the lives of immigrants in the United States are really better than the ones they might have in their country of origin since they earn too little money to live in good conditions. Indeed it is harder for them to integrate and they face discrimination because they don’t share a common culture with the USA.

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