Campus Engagement 2

This morning YAYA hosted a 'friday movie' screening for core YAYA members called The Other Side of Immigration. The first half of this movie was excellent! The movie does a great job at connecting globalization to immigration patterns. It focuses on the mexican population and their need to immigrate to the United States in order to work. The movie opens up with a story of a family who is impacted by globalization daily. The father in this family has to make yearly trip to the United States in order to find work. The man recalls the gruesome journey to the US he has to make so often, were he has to pay over two thousand dollars to coyotes who in turn walk him and smuggle him across the Mexican border. He also talks about the many men and women who have died during the trips and the fact that the families only find out months afterward, through people who traveled along with them. In the movie, several farmers and government representative talk about the negative effects law like NAFTA had had on local economies. Many farmers have had to shut down their production because they could not compete with the big 'maquiladoras' that are now their neighbors. Many business owners have also had to shut down their locales due to big superstores like Walmart, that continue to open all across Latin America. It was heartbreaking to hear all of these stories, especially because this is exactly what my family went through. Because of globalization, many families who were well off and comfortable in their countries have to be displaced in order to survive. There isn't opportunities to work south of the border, and we all benefit from it here in the U.S. Another part of the movie I enjoyed were the many interviews of local folk who were affected by globalization. From farmers, lawmakers, district representatives to mothers, there were so many heartbreaking stories regarding immigration. There was a mother who had not seen her daughter who immigrated to the U.S for eight years. Her daughter was scared to even go outside for fear of deportation, and her mother could not afford to go, partly because it would take a lot of sacrificing to raise the two thousand dollars she would have to pay the coyote, and partly because she had to take care of her other children who were living in Mexico with her. Its truly devastating to hear stories like these. Broken families who are struggling to survive and want nothing more than to be together, and have access to jobs. It makes me sick to hear the countless hateful comments being made about migrant workers here in the U.S, I honestly don't think that people who are in this mindset have half a clue about what families like these have to go through. They risk their lives in order to come into a country were they will be treated as inhuman and work under dangerous conditions in order to survive. The second part of the movie was a little disappointing. A lot of the government officials started to talk about the drug problem in mexico and Nationalism. A lot of them were eluding to the fact that the Mexican community was divided and that was most of the problem. I feel that this shifts back responsibility and blame regarding the immigration system we have here in the U.S, and that its really unfair. I hope that in the future, there could be more films that talk about the U.S participation in globalization and how we are destroying many peoples lives due to it.