You should care about the topic about immigration because without immigrants, our nation would not be the nation it is today. Immigrants from all over the world have built our country from the bottom up. Diversity makes America what it is. Hispanics, a minority group that is soon growing to become a larger group of peoples in the United States, have attributed to the success and growth of our nation. 

To settle the dispute of placing stricter border restrictions, more action on the national level would have to be taken in order to make a grand difference. However, an individual, you, have the right to vote and every vote counts. It is imperative to educate yourself on Hispanic history and to be aware of the trials faced by them throughout time. Being educated on this background will help you when the time comes to vote for the next governor, president, or any government official. It is essential to listen carefully to their campaigns and to also analyze if what they are proposing could really be done. It is important to analyze if they are trustworthy and educated people themselves before making the choice of voting for them. You can also help increase public awareness of the different resources that are available, especially regarding the second social issue meshed into the large spectrum of Hispanic immigration, that being the discrimination against Hispanic immigrants. Technology has many pros and cons, such as social media, since it can be used for beneficial purposes but it can also do lots of damage. However, in this case, you should most certainly take advantage of social media to help raise awareness about various situations, moments in history, and events that have arisen that need widespread attention in order for the spurring social issue to be solved. Additionally, partake in volunteering at organizations that support the Hispanic community! Hispanics are more vulnerable to various harms than whites. Moreover, be conscious of labels and appropriate names of Hispanics racial groups. Be careful with stereotypes, especially regarding who you assume to be an illegal immigrant or not. Last but certainly not least, be more accepting of your own background and heritage if you are Hispanic. There is strength in numbers, and the Hispanic community is growing by the day. The Hispanic community is one who deserves to be treated with human dignity and decency, just as every other racial group deserves to be.

On the local level, in our very own university, we celebrate diversity through clubs and organizations. However, even our university can take action in trying to better welcome Hispanic immigrants. As a college, we can create lounges that are designated for the Hispanic community. I know there is one by the fish bowl that is designated for the LGBTQ+ community. We can even establish clubs that are divided further to appreciate specific Hispanic groups, such as Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and so on. More events such as seminars and fiestas can be held to appreciate and celebrate the Hispanic culture. To better support the Hispanic immigrant community, we can create an office that works specifically with immigrants as well as counseling services that can serve as a safe-haven and solution for any mental health issues Hispanic immigrants may deal with due to bullying and other forms of persecution. We should found an anti-bullying pledge or contract that we are all made to sign and agree to the terms, accepting the punishments if it is violated.

Nationally, we can try to increase quotas for the different countries to welcome Hispanics. We need more acceptance regarding the ability to hold political positions as well. To try to reach a happy medium between Democrats and Republicans on the topic of placing stricter border regulations, a huge national debate should be held where this is discussed. Policies and papers should be altered to ease the process for the Hispanics, and having translators available would additionally help since that can describe more clearly how the immigration process works to them. Making sure the immigrants are updated on their status and on the status of refugee camps and if they need to be deported is equally as important since there are many stories where they travel by foot and spend fifteen years at a camp and are forced to be deported back to their home countries, having to restart their lives and form new connections.

There are millions of Hispanic organizations that help these causes such as The Committee for Hispanic Families and Children (CHFC) that was founded to advocate for Hispanics and to aid in improving their quality of life. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), with their vision of an educated Hispanic community that actively, locally, and federally participates in taking action, aims to create the Hispanic leaders of the future. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund protects and promotes the Latinos’ civil rights, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) empowers Hispanics to participate fully in American politics. These are only to name a few of the countless organizations that show love and support to the Hispanic immigrant community.[1]

Bibliography:

[1] “Latino Organizations You Need to Know.” Diversity Best Practices, 11 Sept. 2014, www.diversitybestpractices.com/news-articles/21-latino-organizations-you-need-know.

Immigration is a topic worth continuing to discuss in these blog posts because now with the preparation for the upcoming presidential election, the candidates are talking about ways to solve immigration as a social problem, convincing the United States population to vote for them. In my honors Global Awareness class, we had to watch Ai Wei Wei’s documentary called “Human Flow.” It was an eye-opening piece of art for me since it bore witness to many of the immigrants’ journey of immigrating to a new country. It mainly focused on refugees, meaning these are immigrants who do not desire to leave their country but flee it for political or economic reasons and purposes such as war, oppression, and other forms of persecution. 

He uses specific artistic techniques to make it such a moving production. Ai Wei Wei shoots with a drone to emphasize the motifs of masses and also of there being no way out. However, he secondly gets intimate and shoots closely to the immigrants, pausing for periods of time so that the audience can take the time to look at them. This technique compensates for the lack of individuality created by the first technique through filming on ground-level. The film opens and closes with aerial shots. The beginning opens with a bird flying over the ocean, which is a symbol that also appears throughout the film, one instance being the scene of an origami bird trapped in a wired fence at 0:58:38. This reminds me of Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird” that echoes the value of human dignity through the depiction of the struggles and anger of the oppressed in contrast to the blissfulness of the free. In the beginning of the film the ocean fills the entire frame and the bird is minuscule compared to the vastness of the ocean, underscoring the immensity and omnipotence of nature, and how indifferent it is to creatures and human beings. 43 seconds later, a boat of immigrants comes into view. The boat is tiny and is kept to one side of the frame, again placing emphasis on the vastness of the ocean and of nature in general, which can sometimes pose as a trap, especially to the immigrants who have been declined a refuge. Other examples of aerial shots include 0:05:06 where their tents look ant-sized, almost looking as if it was edited using a cloning effect, and at 0:15:54 where the immigrants were entering the ship in masses of people, all of them appearing as one group; they are not individualized in this sense but through the second tactic the artist uses, he becomes more personal. One instance is from 0:07:30-0:08:38 where people of different ages and genders are filmed standing still, centered in the frame. I believe this back and forth between showing large masses of immigrants and their tents and then seeing them on a face-to-face level is to break stereotypes of all sorts that we may have against immigrants. We tend to see them as a large, invasive group entering a country, but Ai Wei Wei wants us to look at them as human beings and to stop categorizing and generalizing them.

When borders are closed, the immigrants feel like there is no way out; they dread returning home because the time they could spend at a camp can vary between months and years, causing them to have to restart their lives once they are deported back to their place of origin. Connections have been lost, and what was once familiar has become foreign. The Pakistani immigrants fleeing to Europe, for example, protested with signs and chanting in Arabic at 1:04:47, pleading to not be sent back. Some signs said “Are we not human beings? We mercy for stay please. EU-Don’t send us back to Hell.” In my research, I discovered that Cuban refugees did not want to leave either; they loved Cuba and had national pride. However, in order to find peace again, they needed to flee for a better life, and most of them did not ever wind up returning to Cuba once in the United States.

My project so far is going well but it could be progressing even further. I had to ask for an extension, and on top of that, like everyone said last class, this process is taking much longer than I anticipated. I have about 780 more words to add to my website in order to fulfill my first 2000 word requirement. 

I mainly worked on my “About Me” homepage where I mention that I go to Ramapo College of New Jersey and that I am a participant of the honors program. I added that my Social Science Inquiry class was assigned this research project and that I chose to research on Hispanic immigration. I expanded on why I chose this topic, mentioning that I was adopted and am therefore an immigrant. I also explained why I chose to do Hispanic immigration since I did not immigrate from a Latin American or Hispanic country, but rather from Russia. I mentioned how I was adopted into a Cuban family and that many of my family members are first-generation immigrants and the fact that my parents own a preschool in North Bergen inspired me to narrow my topic down even more to Hispanic Immigration in Hudson County, New Jersey.

I firstly typed all the text I wanted to include in my homepage on a google doc. My homepage was originally going to include an overview of my topic and the information my readers will find throughout my website in addition to the background information about me. When I copy and pasted the text from the google doc into the website page, I realized that the readers are going to be overwhelmed with all the text on that one page and will probably not wind up reading everything I wrote. This prompted me to add an additional page that introduces my website to my readers. It is called “Research Objectives” and provides the expectations and goals I have concerning what I want to get out of the experience of researching about my topic along with what information my readers should expect to find when navigating through my website. 

I additionally customized the website’s theme, changing the boring grey background to one of a blurred picture I took that has purple and pinkish peach tones and that shows light leaks. This makes the website more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I also matched it with the picture shown at the top of my website’s homepage. I found two pictures, one of a collage of Latin American flags and the other of an American flag, and photoshopped them together. The collage of Latin American flags looks as if it is framed by the American flag. I blurred the Latin American flags slightly and I made everything monochromatic in a violet tone since violet, according to Bojan Lisjak, symbolizes dreams, the future, and spirituality, perfect for the exploration of my topic [1]. I believe this is a powerful edit since my intention for blurring the Latin American flags together, framing it with the American flag, and then making the picture violet is to symbolize unity, equality, and justice. It reveals my voice concerning this controversial debate, but it is also open to interpretation since I tried not to show much bias.  

I have not done much research nor looked into the digital tools much since I have been focusing on more of the preliminary steps of talking about myself and my topic. I have not adhered to my schedule and I believe I do have to restructure it since I am behind. For these last 780 words that I have to complete in addition to the 2000 words due next week, I have to shift some of my deadlines so that I do not cram in a load of work last minute. My next step will already be typing out the content for the pages that discuss the political perspectives of Republicans and Democrats as well as gathering information to construct my timelines since those were the first topics I found sources for.

Bibliography:

[1] Lisjak, Bojan. “Violet Color.” About Colors – All About Colors in One Place, www.about-colors.com/violet-color/.

For my website’s demographics page, I will be including quantitative data regarding the percentage of Hispanic immigrants that reside in four towns in Hudson County, those being North Bergen, West New York, Jersey City, and Union City. One data source I found that has been particularly helpful is the United States Census Bureau. I researched the statistical data of each of the towns’ population ratios. This source has provided me with additional helpful information as well, not just the amount of residents per race, but also per sex. It has various data sets; it also provides information on housing, businesses and employment, families and living arrangements, and population characteristics such as the percentage of how many people are foreign born, which is particularly helpful for my topic of immigration. Moreover, it includes numerical facts on computer and internet use, the level of education, and the health status of the towns, such as the number of people without health insurance and those with disabilities. 

I find that the statistics on the economy, such as income and poverty, as well as the percentage of employed and unemployed people per town will enhance my demographics section on my website. The data regarding the four Hudson County towns’ financial systems will help me when I conduct further research on the financial social issues of Hispanic immigrants. This can be connected to information that I found under the housing section of this data source concerning the numbers of people who are homeless. I can use the numerical data gathered to create graphs that will organize each town’s dynamics. The data regarding the amount of Hispanics living in each town will benefit me the most since that was the first objective I had in mind when I was researching this data source. I selected these particular branches of data since I want to provide my viewers with thorough background information on the immigrants living in these towns, and I also want to inform them on why I chose these towns out of the pool of towns in Hudson County: these are more known to have attracted Hispanic immigrants throughout history, and I am looking to explore the reason why. I also want to ask my data what relationship do the social problems of poverty and other economic issues share with the number of Hispanics living in each town? I also noticed that this data source included some demographic topics but not others, such as transportation, but not religion, but that is a question that does not really relate to my research topic. 

I do not find the data hard to work with and I believe it is helpful and easy to use for when I plug data into my map tool. I will include percentages in the caption and perhaps I will make an additional Tableau data visualization to organize the numbers more clearly, even though my original plan was that I would create a Tableau data visualization to discuss which regions of New Jersey are more populated with Republicans and which are more populated with Democrats. I would have to massage and clean up the data a little since it includes the amount of foreign-born inhabitants, but not where it calculates the level of racial diversity. I would have to find other reliable data sources that break this question down even more, dividing the number of Hispanics between immigrants and natives. It would be an issue to include only the number of Hispanics per town since I am primarily looking for the number of Hispanic immigrants per town. I feel somewhat confident but I also have my doubts that I will not be able to calculate the numbers properly. This doubt prompts me to find more data sources to compare it with this census to clarify the questions I have regarding the percentages. 

Links to the census per town:

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/northbergentownshiphudsoncountynewjersey

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/westnewyorktownnewjersey

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/unioncitycitynewjersey

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/jerseycitycitynewjersey,US/PST045219

James Addams, a progressive activist, wrote this document, listing proposals to defend the immigrants. According to The New York Times article, Jane Addams devotedly fought for labor rights and immigrants, even though she was most famously known for her role in fighting for women’s right and civil rights.[1] Addams’ article was published on September 29, 1912 in the Chicago Tribune under the heading “Jane Addams Tells of Progressive Plans to Protect the Immigrants.” The source can be found here.[2] I was looking for documents dealing with the rights of immigrants and the different political perspectives regarding the issue of immigration and I was immediately hooked by the title of the newspaper article containing Addams’ work since it was exactly what I was aiming to find.

Another Chicago Tribune article called “Wave of Immigration May Be Only Starting” the growing numbers of immigrants into America, listing the data collected of the numbers of immigrants coming in earlier years. At the time it was published only a million immigrants were predicted to enter the United States, but it proved to be even more than that. It shows America’s concern and belief that this increase does not stop there.[3] Additionally, a newspaper article in The Times-Democrat states that Washington is trying to propose solutions to the immigration issue since they are stampeding into the nation in large numbers. Not only were the immigrants at a loss, but the rulers of the nation as well. Many come to believe that the reason for immigrants not finding work was that workers were unwanted to work where they applied, but the main reason during the Progressive era is that the nation had an aversion toward these non-English speaking immigrants.[4] Addams is against the fact that the government at the time had been making the immigration process stricter and harder to pass, especially for the immigrants who were regarded as “unfit” to contribute to America; that the government hastily fought to not let immigrants in when there was a high need of laborers in the nation, especially since America was starting to go through a transformative process from being an agricultural nation to an industrial one. In this time period, America began to have anti-immigrant sentiments, and this is what Addams was speaking against in this article. The fact that Jane Addams lived in Hull-House in Chicago is evident in her writing because, in the document, she makes the connection between her experience to those of the many immigrants who have no choice but to live in the small tenement houses. Her experience at Hull-House caused her to be more empathetic towards immigrants since she had been made more aware of their struggles by living in an identical environment.

In the document, Addams provides different stories as well as specific examples and statistics of some of the struggles immigrant families faced at the time, responding to local and nationwide events. According to the Library of Congress, the time period between 1900 and 1915 was comprised of a skyrocketing rate of immigrants coming into the United States. These “new” immigrants, however, differed from those that came before them since they came from non-English speaking nations.[5] In the document, Addams expresses her concerns about the unfair labor force that was unwilling to provide the future citizens with opportunities in the land of opportunity, mentioning that both industrial and agricultural jobs were still needed due to people fleeing the overcrowded cities and those fleeing from the farms to take the jobs in the cities. She also touches upon the unjust working conditions which put the health of the immigrants at stake. She additionally emphasizes how the government only aimed at pushing immigrants into the melting pot but does not help out concerning basic matters. The government officials refused to control situations that should have been overseen by the government since many immigrants had been left indolent, powerless, and dependent.

She alludes to the future, saying that immigrants will eventually become threats to society if they are left on their own in the new nation with nothing set for them to do, being left to degenerate, which will cause the nation itself to crumble. They are only becoming a bother to the nation because the government is not taking action or implementing any organizations for the immigrants; they are coming to America at a loss for what to do.

[1] Addams, Jane. “Jane Addams Tells of Progressive Plans to Protect the Immigrants.” Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois), Jane Addams Digital Edition, September 29, 1912. Page 4. https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/8875.

[2] Knight, Louise W. “The Story of Jane Addams.” The New York Times, May 3, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/opinion/the-story-of-jane-addams.html.

[3] Dorsey, George A. “Wave of Immigration May Be Only Starting.” Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois), April 6, 1910. Page 10. https://www.newspapers.com/image/349266823/?terms=immigration.

[4] “Exodus of Aliens: Thousands of Immigrants Returning to Europe.” The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, Louisiana), December 9, 1907. Page 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/166233430/?terms=immigration.

[5] “Progressive Era to the New Era, 1900-1929: Immigrants in the Progressive Era.” The Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/progress/immigrnt/.

My topic, political perspectives on immigration, can be looked at through two sociological lenses: an interactionist perspective as well as a functionalist perspective.

Looking at immigration through an interactionist perspective is evidently appropriate since immigration is all about interacting with others. The main interaction that occurs is between foreigners and natives throughout the immigration process. Foreigners must interact with natives in order to assimilate into the new culture and way of life of the country they move to. Foreigners also must interact with other foreigners in order preserve one’s culture and carry on traditions in the new location as well as to learn about other cultures; one learns to become well-rounded and cosmopolitan. Natives also interact amongst each other, debating over whether they feel invaded or they feel that immigration is a positive. Interactionism looks at how people interact using symbols, aiming to explain social behavior and what takes place in these relations. According to interactionists, the way one views oneself is shaped by the relationships made with other people which result from the interpretation of symbols.[1] The act of migrating is a symbol in itself since, for the migrants, this act of moving symbolizes moving toward a hopefully better future. The way that people interpret this topic as a symbol differs though which is why this topic is a heavily controversial one. In regards to conversations between natives, some people embrace immigration while others view it as a threat to one’s home country. Associations to issues such as terrorism are symbolic and frame a native’s mindset into thinking that they are superior to immigrants. However, those who see immigration in a positive light do not view themselves this way but rather as human beings looking to make oneself more diverse and to help in whatever way they can. Immigrants are solely looking for a new home that would provide them a better livelihood; they hope for positive encounters with other people that would help them get accustomed to how this unfamiliar system works.

As for functionalists, who believe that every part of society serves a purpose to help it function properly and in a fine and organized fashion, they see immigration as a structure that greatly impacts society. Functionalists believe that these functions explain social behaviors and the vital structures that make up society. They additionally believe that these structures serve a beneficial purpose and that society will always move toward stability; thus, all structures in society, including immigration, try to do so in the best way possible.[2] Functionalists, conclusively, see immigration as a way to help society progress, not regress. It has served a purpose since the beginning of time. There has always been movement occurring in our world; presently, the rate of people moving has been skyrocketing which causes concern to arise. Immigration is part of American history and has made it the country and the strong national society it has become, enriched with culture and individuality. Functionalists see this as an asset to our nation, finding the positives in immigration as a societal structure.

Bibliography:

[1] Chegg Tutors, “Symbolic Interactionism”. February 10, 2016. YouTube video, 4:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=crZOxoAZGa4&feature=emb_logo

[2] Chegg Tutors, “Functionalism”. March 22, 2016. YouTube video, 3:43. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=JSmaNnU3uAI&feature=emb_logo

I was amazed walking through the tenement house, seeing how small the apartments were and finding out how many people lived in each; it was surprising to me that an eight-person family would have had to make due living and sometimes working in a space that small. Learning about two particular immigrant families touched me since each had their own story and way of life that were both similar to and different from each other. Learning about the garment factories that families ran in their own homes as well as the larger sweatshop factories that were established was an additional eye-opening experience for me. I remember learning about the sweatshop factories in middle school and high school, but to be put in the immigrants’ shoes by touring a legitimate tenement house, seeing printed government census reports as well as images of these families, of Orchard Street, and of the sweatshop factories impacted me.

I learned at the museum that mostly women worked in the sweatshops and they were paid very low wages, following the gender roles of the time. The health conditions were fatal, especially because of all the fabric dust they would inhale from the air. Additionally, they worked very long hours, ranging from fifty to close to one hundred hours per week. The larger sweatshop factories resembled a high school cafeteria; they were very crowded spaces with little to no sanitation. Unfortunately, immigrants had to deal with these conditions because they had just moved to a new country where they were unfamiliar with the language and had no idea where to start; they were desperate to find a job to start rebuilding their lives and to support their families. However, many joined labor unions and went on strikes, but this did not bring positive results. I believe sweatshops can be a good thing for immigrants to an extent, that being that they were at least employed and were paid. It is difficult for foreigners who have no idea how society runs in a country other than their own to find a job, and other jobs that do not require one to speak a certain language or to have a specific skill set, such as various housekeeping jobs, would have had equally unfair working traditions. Employers took advantage of the immigrants’ desperation to find a job, and found no shame in treating them unjustly.

According to Benjamin Powell, the author of the article Meet the Old Sweatshops: Same as the New, the conditions in the sweatshops of the past were worse than those in many currently operating sweatshops. Child labor was very common back then and the cities were dangerously swelling with people and disease.[1] However, an article published by Los Angeles Times about the factory workers for Forever 21 proves the unfortunate fact that sweatshops still persist today in America and that many of the unsanitary conditions in the early sweatshops exist in those of today. The claims made in this article parallel those made on our tour in the city. It is distressing to think that many of the articles of clothing we wear, even those that are sold to us at a high price, are made by laborers who work about 10 hours a day and are paid a few dollars an hour. As said in the article, these factories are “stifling” and “sweltering” and consist of only “one-room workshops” where workers sit “behind a sewing machine,” similar to those of the past. Additionally, the factories in America such as the one located in Los Angeles where the workers produce the clothing for the brand Forever 21, aim to keep the prices low so they hire immigrants, many of them undocumented, who are willing to work for below minimum wage.[2]

After the field trip to the museum and reading these two articles, my eyes have been opened and I have become more sensitive and curious about the past in relation to the present as well as about the stories of different immigrants.

Bibliography

[1] Powell, Benjamin. “Meet the Old Sweatshops: Same as the New.” The Independent Review, v. 19, n. 1, Summer 2014, ISSN 1086–1653, 2014, pp. 109–122.https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_19_01_08_powell.pdf

[2] Kitroeff, Natalie, and Victoria Kim. “Behind a $13 Shirt, a $6-an-Hour Worker.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2017. https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-forever-21-factory-workers/.

As I mentioned in my first blog post, I am adopted, so the social issue of abortion is particularly meaningful to me because if my biological mother had not chosen life, I would not be here today. I do not know the reasons as to why she could not raise me, but I am beyond blessed to have been given the chance to live. I am pro-life, but if I decide to base my project on this social issue, I am interested in analyzing both sides of the issue: those who are pro-choice and those who are pro-life. According to Wikipedia, “pro-choice” means believing that it is a woman’s civil right to decide whether to have an abortion or not since it is her body. Wikipedia also defines “pro-life” as placing emphasis that the growing embryo or fetus has the right to be born and that abortion is the act of killing a life.[1] I would like to research about adoption and the other alternatives to abortion and why people who decide to have an abortion do not choose to give birth to the child and put him or her in an orphanage or in the foster care system, for instance. I do not have much knowledge regarding the topic so I would be extremely interested in collecting and analyzing the results conducted in my project. There are certainly statistics I can use that will strengthen my project if I choose to do it on this topic, and I would construct a survey to gain a better sense of why it is such a prominent social issue. Some statistics include those gathered from New York Times: “‘about 8 in 10 Americans believe abortion is taking a life,” said Ed Goeas, president of the Tarrance Group, a Republican polling firm. ‘What you then have is a discussion about when it is acceptable.’” Additionally, the New York Times quotes Gallup which shows that “about 60 percent of Americans favor access to abortion in the first trimester (or first 12 weeks) of pregnancy, but close to 70 percent think it should be illegal in the second trimester.”[2] I would additionally examine the pros and cons of abortion being illegal and legal. Although abortion is a heated topic, like all social issues, it is important to look at both sides of the problem to gain a better understanding of it.

The social issue of immigration is a leading social issue today, especially in the United States. My parents own a preschool in North Bergen, New Jersey, a town filled with Hispanic immigrants. They help the parents pay for the education of their children with Urban League. Many of the immigrant parents are single and have had their children at a very young age. Most of my family members are immigrants, so I know many stories of the struggles immigrants face in assimilating and trying to adapt to a new way of life. I, too, am an immigrant, so this topic is especially important to me. Immigration is a significant social issue because of the concern of closing boarders and illegal immigrants trying to cross them. Immigration is another intense topic since, according to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, most Republicans view immigrants and refugees as a threat to the United States, whereas Democrats believe in continuing to embrace immigration as part of the nation’s history by being less controlling regarding border security. There are many statistics that would benefit my project if I were to base it on this social issue, especially since I am looking to analyze the claims made by Republicans and Democrats, including a statistic made by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs: 45% of Americans claim that limiting the amount of immigrants coming to the United States makes the country “safer.”[3] The belief that immigrants are “dangerous” and are “criminals” are occupying many people’s minds, and it is important to look past single stories that we may have heard of immigration and to educate ourselves on the bigger picture as well as on details and specifics.

A third social issue I would like to explore is mental illness. Recently, my church called The Most Blessed Sacrament in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey was burned down by a mentally unstable young man. This arsonist committed a horrible crime, but I sympathize with him. This event impacted me immensely since I have grown up in this church, and to see it in rubble has me destroyed. It also touched me in a way that my eyes have been opened to a world where people are fighting battles on their own that no one else is aware of. Mental illness is a major social issue and if I were to base my project on it, I would focus on how family structure impacts the mental health of a person. A preliminary study conducted by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health shows that there is a connection between family structure and the levels of behavioral issues in children. They studied how single parents affected the upbringing of a child, and they also collected data on the rates of trauma and hospitalization. One statistic they established is that 71% of children “reported either a parent or a sibling with a psychiatric disorder.” [4] This is an alarming number which makes mental illness an even more urgent cause to worry about. If a child does not have a solid support system in his or her home, the child tends to keep to him/herself and may become anxious, depressed, or develop more advanced conditions of mental illness.

[1] “Abortion Debate.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 10, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_debate.

[2] Leonhardt, David. “Why Abortion Is Not Like Other Issues.” The New York Times, July 13, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/sunday-review/why-abortion-is-not-like-other-issues.html.

[3] Kafura, Craig. “Republicans and Democrats in Different Worlds on Immigration.” Chicago Council on Global Affairs, February 3, 2020. https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/publication/lcc/republicans-and-democrats-different-worlds-immigration.

[4] Behere, Aniruddh Prakash, Pravesh Basnet, and Pamela Campbell. “Effects of Family Structure on Mental Health of Children: A Preliminary Study.” Indian journal of psychological medicine. Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 2017. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5559994/.

In our previous class discussions, we examined how sociology can be compared to the “hard sciences.” In collecting data through processes such as surveys, sociologists, like other scientists, analyze numbers and trends to form hypotheses and eventually reach conclusions about the research topic. Unlike other sciences, sociology is composed of subjective material relating to individuals’ values and belief systems whereas the hard sciences are more concrete. Using surveys allows researchers to study patterns that reveal themselves over time by accumulating original data from groups that are too large to examine. Surveys are more personalized than other traditional research methods since the researches who conduct them are using them as tools to connect directly to their subjects to evaluate their viewpoints.

For conducting our research, conducting a survey is a great approach because if each member of the class intrinsically gathers results from a diverse group of people on Ramapo College’s campus, the results can be generalized for the overall Ramapo population. This can only occur if we carefully follow the proper guidelines and avoid any room for misinterpretation and confusion from the participants. To do so, double-barreled questions and words with strong connotations should be avoided as well as other forms of push polling. As noted by the Pew Research Center, the first step of conducting a survey is to decide what matters will be encompassed in the survey. The article mentions techniques such as open- and closed-ended questions and the ordering of questions that could have a significant impact on the way the participants answer the survey and whether or not they are likely to continue answering. Additionally, the article claims that asking demographic questions is always helpful for the researchers for when they make connections later when assimilating why some participants answered one way and others answered differently.[1]

I believe that conducting the survey will be a better learning experience than using more traditional research methods because of how customized it will be. We will be creating it ourselves by coming up with our own questions, using Google Forms as our platform, and asking a group of people that we share ties to. Although the participants will most likely remain anonymous, it is more eye-opening to study results from people who we personally reach out to, whether that may be through social media or in person, than to read articles that are already written, analyzed, and published. It will certainly be an interesting experience as well because no, people will not answer the same way as each of us do. I do not expect them to share the same opinions as me; even if they believe in the same overall picture as I do, I am sure that there are smaller and more technical subtopics that may cause us to differ in opinion. I do think that gender, race, and social class, as well as other factors such as religion and familial upbringing, impact the ways we see the world since these aspects form our identities and are what unite us as a human race as well as are what divide us, unfortunately. I expect to see these differences reflected in survey responses because just in casual conversation and in the manners people express themselves through their fashion styles and in social interactions, these traits are evidently revealed.

Bibliography:

[1] “Questionnaire Design.” Pew Research Center Methods. Pew Research Center. Accessed February 4, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/u-s-survey-research/questionnaire-design/.