Karolina's Research Blog

I watched a TED talk about someone's experience as an immigrant in the US. Many points that he made interested me and allowed me to think more deeply about the questions I would want to ask the person I will be interviewing. It also allowed me to think about the topic of my interview, a bit less general as the topic of immigration is. It helped me decide that I want to know about someone's experiences rather than discussing the political side of it with statistics and other known facts. He talks about the kind of prejudice people have about immigrants, and the source of this hatred. He talks about that the reason people don't want immigrants in their country is because they fear that it would change their way of life. Many people call the US the greatest nation in the world, however statistics showed that not as much people would want to relocate there as Americans think. He later on talks about his experience of being an immigrant, an illegal one at that. He que...

 Here is an extract from the book Immigration written by Ilan Stavans . The part that interested me most was this part: "While on the surface these developments of political incorporation seem to reflect patterns of Americanization among earlier European immigrant groups to the United States, this is a decidedly ambivalent Americanism borne of racial tension and antiforeign sentiment. One 1994 statewide poll in California found that 25 percent of immigrants in the state personally feared discrimination and violence directed at them by virtue of looking foreign. As sociologist Rubén Rumbaut has put it, “the moral of the story is we reap what we sow. When you welcome people to a community, you encourage them to feel they matter and that they have a stake here. But if you sow hate, you’ll reap the products of hate.” This showed me that many immigrants fear discrimination and violence, and showed me that not a lot has improved since 1994, as people still fear these ...

https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2019/01/25/donald-trump-government-shutdown-border-wall-mexico-pay-immigrants-republican-democratic-drugs/2671514002/ This article looks at immigration and the stigma against it in the US. It debunks all the points the president, Trump, has made against immigration and immigrants, and shows how his points against it don't make much sense. It talks about the wall that president Trump wanted to build on the border of Mexico to stop immigration and drugs from entering the US, however the author of the article said that illegal activity cannot be stopped by the wall and that it is just an excuse for Trump to want to build the wall. This article was useful to read as I saw how baseless Trump's plans and actions of discrimination are and in my opinion, is just excuses for his racism. This inspired me to think about the unjust prejudice against immigration and advanced my interest in interviewing someone who has had...

https://theconversation.com/how-brexit-is-making-young-eastern-europeans-in-the-uk-fear-for-their-future-98929 This once again is an article about Brexit as it has been heavily linked with the topic of immigration. The article is about how Eastern Europeans feel about this situation of the UK wanting to leave the EU. Eastern European youth was interviewed about their future, and they all really fear Brexit as they don't know what it will bring for them, whether they have to be separated from their families or if they have to move away to another country. This article raised the issue of the effect racism and xenophobia can have on lives. Many talked about being uncomfortable within their environment because of the fear of xenophobia, and that they didn't know where they belong. Belonging is part of identity, so to not know where one belongs can be negatively impactful on someone life, especially as young as the interviewees. I myself identify with them, as I am unsure of my f...

For my first bit of research, I had looked at some articles about immigration and read some that I found interesting. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1077411/brexit-news-immigration-eu-immigration-migrant-crisis-survey-ipsos-mori I know that a lot of people have a very negative view on immigration and immigrants, so this article immediately interested me. The article discusses how ever since the Brexit referendum happened, many people worry much less about immigration and some even think that it's a good thing. The article was interesting to read as I learnt how many people changed their minds about immigration, because not just in the UK, but all around the world, many people are not accepting of immigrants and view it negatively. This made me think about how hard it is for someone to restart their life in a new country because of having to leave their country of origin for different reasons, and how many who are against immigration and view immigrants as negative, don't...

For the topic of my research and interview, I had chosen immigration as I was interested in identity. I had brainstormed about identity as I was interested in this topic. I got my interest from my previous project, as one of the short films I looked at for inspiration was about homesickness. I thought about home, and origins, then I thought about how these are part of our identities. So I wrote the word identity down and came up with key words that I associate with identity. Then I also started thinking about my own identity as I wanted this project to be personal to me. As I finished brainstorming about my own identity, I had decided to focus where I came from. From which I got to the topic of immigration. 

From this point onwards, because I had started a new project, will be about the 2nd project that I am doing this year. This will consist of 2 parts: doing an interview with someone that has a unique story to tell, and then creating a short film, embarking on the ideas that I get from the interview and research process.