Spaces And Exchanges

Introduction :

Space and exchanges

This year in class, we talked about space and exchanges and especially illustrated these ideas with the example of New Americans, that designates the immigrants coming to the USA.

Link :

Talking about immigration in the USA is particularly relevant regarding the topic of space and exchanges since immigration definitely involves the idea of space as immigrants are moving across countries: they leave their home land to get a new start in America. Thus, it also involves exchange: immigrants come with their own share of cultural background that gets melt into a whole new lifestyle in their arrival country: the interaction between these two different ways of living defines multi-cultural exchange.

Plan :

So let's take a closer look at immigration in the USA:

1. Americawasbuiltuponimmigration

America started out as a nation of European immigrants, starting in 1492 with Christopher Colombus. Due to America's natural resources, the salve trade brought later another kind of immigrants: slaves from Africa, who influenced the American culture to some extent. At the time of the Gold rush, many Europeans tried and took their chances to have a better living by immigrating to the USA.

Across the centuries, immigrants from all around the world came to America, seeking a better life, and each one of them bringing their own contribution to what defines America nowadays. So both space and exchanges were deeply involved in the constitution of America as we know it today.

2. Stillanattractivecountryforimmigration

As of today, it appears that the USA remains a very attractive country: many people all around the work are willing to take their chances there as they believe in the American Dream: that America holds the opportunities to arise socially and provide a better life by working hard. This is why there are, for instance, so many Mexicans trying to cross the US border in order to get a job and workaround their way through living in order to give themselves or their children the opportunity of making proper studies and thus reach a better and more comfortable life. All around the world, America is seen as a country of opportunities for newcomers: the entrepreneur spirit, still alive in many ways, for instance in the Silicon Valley near San Fransisco (for technology), gives anyone the chance to start out a new business from scratch and bring out new ideas to the market. Since America is a capitalist country, competition is the market rule, so anyone has a chance of finding their way if their product is far superior than competitors.

Generally speaking, the main goal of the immigrants is the pursuit of happiness, by seeking a better life. This involves space and exchanges since immigrants come with their expertise and some specific ways of working, that mix with the American way of working.

3. Amulti-culturalcountry

The USA is commonly refereed to as the “melting pot”, which is a metaphor highlighting what a multi-cultural country America is. As a matter of fact, American culture is defined as a whole composed of many aspects that come from different communities, thus

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