hilos

this study analyses the different immigrant populations that live within the metro chicago area. this area is made up of 13 counties and so is quite big reaching towards indiana and even wisconsin.

the part about the report i thought most interesting was looking at the different levels of education attainment by the different immigrant groups. The report acctually went into more detail then i’ve seen before by having charts that refers to specific nationalities and all the different socio economic stuff they were analysing.

some of the more interesting results to me were that these levels of education varied significantly according to population. Some of the groups that had below avarage completion of the 9th grade and below were people from Iraq (29.2%) and Mexico (46.9%)  with the avarage for all groups being 24.4%. Other groups had super low percentages like even 2%. this points to not just the variety of people who are coming into the country but also to the resources they have available both in the country they are coming from and here in the u.s.

From here i draw a couple of conclusions. one, that the people who are coming here from places like mexico and iraq have low access to education and there are probably ecomomic and political reasons for this. for example there is a war on iraq right now. how do we expect a country to function when it is under attack from the u.s. government and other imperialistic forces? And in mexico the devaluation of el peso, plus the exploitation by both foreign and native companies/governmental agencies, sure don’t help in terms of access to education.

it’s not like these problems don’t exist in other places, but that people find the best means for them to find better situations than the ones they are in, and these vary from country to country. For exmaple one could try to make the argument that it is easier to come to the u.s. from mexico than from guatemala if you are crossing the border, becasue ideally speaking you’d only have to cross once (provided the border patrol does not catch you, and that the coyotes don’t trick you, and that you’re alive at the end, etc) as oppose to having to go through the border on the south of mexico (with the same concerns applied) and then through the border on the north. in terms of non-u.s. gov-sanctioned immigration. not to trivialize border crossing becasue either way it is not a good experience. and really ideally speaking there would be no borders. also there would be a redistribution of wealth and resources so each community controls these.  

the other thing the report brings to my mind is how u.s. policy heavily affects the people who come into the country and those who are not allowed in. The u.s. has a number of visas that it gives out. they vary from country to country and the u.s. gets to pick who gets what. it can give preference to engineers and doctors from certain countries and restric people from others. These laws heavily influence who has access to getting in.

here in the u.s. access to education, specifically higher education and education for people who have other responsabilities, ie work and kids, is severily curtailed. i mean it’s not only like this for immigrants but for citizens as well. more specifically for people of color and lower class people (none of which are mutually exclusive).

it’s hard enough as it is for people who are citizens to pursue a higher education becasue of tuition hikes, lack of access to schools with a lot of resources, racism, etc. Now, imagine coming here and not knowing how to navigate the school system or not knowing the predominant language at school or work. or not having access to government sponsored scholarships becasue of your migratory status. These are barriers some immigrants have to face. There are always those that come having learned english and who have a degree and so are better off and have more access. they still face problems of discrimination but might have an easier time navigating the systems we live in.

my concern is how do we change things so that people have access to higher education? i mean to really address this problem you ahve to address racism, sexism, classism, lack of access to health care, to primary education (with a lot of resources), to immigration laws, etc all this stuff!! the factbook gives some tools to move points forward but we are so far from this goal that there is gonna have to be a big fight around the subject. 

To end on a happier note. education is not a static thing and it is not confined to the educational institutions that are currently in place. Everyone should have access to these institutions but there should be and are alternatives. People educate themselves all the time. through reading, political activity and discussion etc. education is something we need to take up as communities who access are systematically denied. but as to how, well, i think a lot of people are still working on that. but one way is by creating alternative education pockets that spread and serve to connect up people and issues. maybe even coordinate actions. i think this is a positive direction in which to move forward.