Artifact One Reflection

The first artifact I found was an online article called Americans Worry that Illegal Migrants Threaten Way of Life, Economy, an article on reuters.com by Alistair Bell. This article focuses on how most americans, seventy percent to be precise,  believe that people illegally moving into the United States threatens the current way of life of americans. These same Americans also believe that the ecomony will not be stable if too many illegal immigrants come to America. According to the poll done in this article, 70 percent of  Americans actually believe that illegal immigrants are threatening are way of life and customs, not just the economy. However, they do also believe that they are hurting the economy.

This article clearly relates to the events in The Distance Between Us. In the book Reyna, her dad, and her siblings Mago and Carlos illegally cross the border. During their time in America you can clearly tell that Reyna's father knows the threat they could be putting on Americans because he often times reminds Reyna, Carlos, and Mago to never tell anyone that they illegally crossed the border because they would be treated terribly in America if people knew that and eventually they would be deported back to Mexico. However, in The Distance Between Us Reyna's family doesn't ever pose any threat to America's culture or way of life. In fact they conform to the culture in America more than they oppose it. Though they keep certain things from Mexico, mostly the family tries very hard to act American in any way possible.  When they get to America, everyone in Reyna's family tries very hard to learn english so they can fit in in America.

In conclusion, I think that, though in some cases their claims may be legitimate, most of the people who feel threatened by immigrants are basing their claims mostly around stereotypes and biases. I believe that these claims are exaggerated and not very legitimate. Any beliefs based around stereotypes or biases are often far from the truth. I believe that though they might cause some small problems with our economy, most immigrants will not threaten American culture in any way whatsoever.

Artifact found here