Immigration and Immigrants: Between the Border and Norwood 

Seas of tents and ragged refugees, wooden rafts full of children, their homes far behind them, armed men on horseback running people down. This is not some far-off foreign land or strange dark prophesized future. This is America and this is reality.

Since 2014, the United States has declared a state of crisis on the southern border due to the number of unaccompanied minors that came and continue to come over the border. Seven years later, the crisis at the border has only gotten worse with social unrest and economic crisis plaguing many Central and South American nations.  

The biggest question is how to solve the many issues of immigration that plague not only the southern border but United States foreign policy as a whole.  

NHS history teacher, Laura John, weighed in with some more insight into the issue as a whole. “I feel like the United States foreign policy toward governments that are oppressive, or shall we say ineffective, is not helping to create a situation where immigrants are okay coming to our country legally or where they don’t need to come because things are fine in their country and they don’t need to come" she said.

Ms. John cites the many issues with the United States foreign policy and the difficulty of becoming actual legal citizens in the United States. A large part of this problem is that many of the requirements for becoming a legal immigrant are unclear and are in many cases unequal and unattainable for many of the frankly poor and economically destitute migrants flooding into the United States. 

 “A thing that can be done on our side is to make sure that the policies and procedures for Immigration are clear and equitable Because it seems to me that the things at issue are some inequitable policies that are applied to certain people trying to come in. she said. 

One of the main issues that John gives for the problems at the border is the lack of clarity and reason in many of these policies and hurdles that migrants have to get through. 

Another large reason behind the mass exodus towards the southern border is the lack of security and stability in many South and Central American countries. Many of these nations south of the border are currently suffering through several economic crises and issues of civil unrest mainly from organized crime. These issues are the bedrock of this mass exodus and must be solved in some form if we are to end this crisis. 

“One of the things the United States could potentially do is to attempt to use our outsized influence whatever the influence is to either help or make suggestions to foreign governments in whatever way needs to happen” John said.

An aspect of this issue that is much closer to home is the over 320 new ELL (English Language Learner) students coming into Norwood Public Schools this year. This new, unprecedented influx of non-English speaking students has led to new budgetary decisions from the Norwood School Committee, including the hiring of some new ELL teachers. 

Junior Natalia Barriga, who comes from an immigrant family has had some poor interactions with others based on her background.

“I feel that it has affected me because there have been times where people try to make jokes by saying that I jumped over the border and constantly say I am Mexican when I am actually Colombian and Peruvian.” 

In both Norwood and throughout the United States immigrants and their children do face the challenge of racism and general ignorance about not only their culture but their experiences coming into the United States. 

“Immigrants are treated poorly. I feel like, and maybe I am just biased because my entire family is immigrants, but the way they are treated really bothers me. For example, when they are told to go back to their country, it bothers me because their country, most likely, is in a terrible, place either it being controlled by gangs or there just being a lot of violence. And people move as well because there just aren't any jobs that pay enough. Immigrants come here for better opportunities for themselves and their families and I wish more people were able to see that" she said. 

While America has come a long way in terms of acceptance and racism against migrants, the modern-day is a far cry from the racism suffered by the original mass waves of immigrants seen in the 1880s and early 20th century. America still has a long hard road ahead in this front. 

While changes are slowly coming it is fair to say that they are not coming fast enough and that the glaring issues of the ineffective and unprepared response to the continued mass exodus toward the southern border.