GUESS THE COUNTRY A Workshop on the History of Immigrants Rights

Transcription

1 GUESS THE COUNTRY A Workshop on the History of Immigrants Rights Acknowledgment: This workshop was a collaborative effort with the Youth Build Immigrant Power Project (YBIP). YBIP is a project of Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA) in Oakland, California. YBIP works to develop the leadership and organizing skills of low-income, English Language Learner (ELL) Chinese youth, primarily between the ages of 14 to 20 years old, to advocate for justice in their schools, workplaces, and communities. Size: For groups of 6 to 18. Estimated Duration: 45 minutes. Purpose and Overview: The purpose of this workshop is to show that contrary to the commonly held beliefs that America is a land of immigrants and welcomes all immigrants with open arms, in reality, immigrants throughout U.S. history have had to stand up and fight for equal rights. This activity is a fun way to learn about immigrant history in a way that encourages attentive listening as participants listen for clues to help them guess correct answers. The workshop is run like a game show with teams of 3, and there can be a total of up to 6 teams. For each question, the emcee reads a scenario describing an immigrant experience. The contestants need to guess what country these immigrants are from. Contestants ring in whenever they think they know the answer, at which point the emcee stops reading. In a few of the scenarios, actors act out the scenario. These require either a co-facilitator or youth who are assigned extra leadership roles and can be prepped ahead of time. In a pinch, volunteer youth can be plucked from among the contestants to read the lines. WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country 87

2 The workshop ends with a reflection activity to help youth relate their personal histories to the events described in the game show. Learning Goals: l To discuss why immigrants come to the United States. l To learn how the United States has historically treated immigrants. l To get moved into action! Materials Needed: l Some kind of ringing in device, like a ball, or a soft foam object. l Furniture props for some skits, like chairs, tables/desks, etc. l 4 co-facilitators to act out the skits. These can be youth who are assigned extra leadership roles. Introductory Statement: Note: You should adapt the statement to fit with your organization s own mission, purpose, and experiences. You can include an explanation of why an immigrant haters workshop is necessary in your program, or important to the leadership development of your youth members. Ask participants the following questions. After each question is asked and certain participants stand up as appropriate, they should sit back down before the next question. 1. Stand up if you are an immigrant. 2. Stand up if your parents are immigrants. 3. Stand up if you believe you re getting a better education in the U.S. than you would have if you (or your ancestors) never came here. 4. Stand up if you believe you have a higher standard of living (more money) in the U.S. than where you (or your ancestors) originally came from. 88 WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country

3 5. Stand up if you believe you are less oppressed here in the U.S. than you would be if you (or your ancestors) never came here. As this exercise showed, a lot of you do have better lives here in the U.S. I want to recognize and not de-legitimize your experience. At the same time, there is a myth that America is the land of opportunity and that America (as represented by the Statue of Liberty) openly accepts all immigrants into the country. Those of you who worked in [INSERT youth group name] s immigrant rights campaigns know that this is not always true. The purpose of this workshop is to show that the campaign we re working on is not because of an isolated incident. While many immigrants have been able to find a better life in the U.S., America also has a long history of mistreating immigrants. This does not simply mean name calling on the streets, but it is the systematic mistreatment of immigrants by the U.S. government and by American institutions. The idea of this workshop is to show how the mistreatment of immigrants and the current anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. is part of a long history in this country. Once you view these issues in this light, you will be more inspired to take a stand now and fight back to end the oppression and mistreatment of immigrants. Directions: Guess the Country Game Show 1. Divide into teams of three. Determine a method to decide which team gets to go first for each question. Examples: l Give each team a ball, and the first team to toss its ball in a box gets to go first. l The first team to grab a soft foamy object placed in the center of the room gets to go first. 2. Co-facilitators will read or act out the scenarios (see below) that exemplify different immigrant experiences throughout U.S. history. As soon as a team thinks they know what country these immigrants are from, they can ring in using the method identified under Rule 1. WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country 89

4 NOTE: Inform youth that the co-facilitators will stop reading/acting as soon as a team rings in, so they do not get any additional clues. 3. If they guess right, the team gets 1 point. If they guess wrong, they are out for the round (and cannot guess again). 4. If the first team guesses wrong, co-facilitators will continue where they left off until another team rings in. 5. If a team guesses right before the entire scenario is completed, complete the scenario before moving on to the next question. After each correct answer, ask which clues let them know what country it was. 6. If no team has guessed correctly after finishing reading, give another 10 seconds for the remaining teams to ring in. Then just give the correct answer, and explain what the clues were. Reflection Put representations of the incidents described in the Guess the Country Game Show on the wall. Go over all of them again if necessary. Ask participants to think of an experience in their lives, or the lives of loved ones that are similar to these historical incidents. Give a description on paper of what happened and tape it on the wall under the similar historical incident. The description can be a paragraph, a poem, a picture, a cartoon strip, a list of words, etc. Youth can put up as many incidents as they want. Ask 3 or 4 youth from different historical incidents to share. Historical Scenarios (That the emcee reads or are acted out) Name the country of origin of these persecuted immigrants: 90 WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country

5 The Foreign Miners Tax, which requires immigrants to pay a high fee for mining, was imposed. Almost all immigrant miners could not afford to pay the tax, so they had to give up their dream of striking it rich. The tax was also a way of intimidating those immigrants who tried to be miners. The Foreign Miners Tax targeted over 20,000 immigrants from this country who came to California in 1848, attracted by the gold rush. 1 Answer: China. Clues include the fact they were miners, the year, and the gold rush. Along with many other Asian families, Mr. C and his family were successful farmers in the United States at the beginning of the 20th Century. White farmers started arguing that these successful Asian farmers were driving them out of business and they got Congress and the State of California to pass the Alien Land Laws in 1913, 1920, and 1923 that stopped Asian immigrants from owning land and other forms of property. Mr. C loses his farm and can no longer grow cabbage to make kim chee. 2 Answer: Korea (because of the kim chee). Note that the law targeted all Asian immigrants, including many Japanese and Chinese farmers. Acting Requires 2 actors, if no co-facilitators are available. 2 youth can be prepped ahead of time. (Hint tell the contestants that this scene occurs in the immigrants home country, not in the U.S.) Person A approaches Person B seated at the desk. A: Hello. I would like to apply to emigrate to the United States of America. B: No, I m sorry, you re too late. WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country 91

6 A: But it s only 8 in the morning! B: No I mean there are no more openings. Don t you realize, the year is 1934? The U.S. passed the Tydings McDuffie Act that says only 50 people from our country can go to the U.S. each year. It seems like they don t want too many of us brown-skinned people in their country. A: But there are over 15 million people in our country. That means I literally have a 1 in a million chance of going to the U.S. Answer: Philippines Background: The Tydings McDuffie Act of 1934 placed a quota that only 50 Filipinos a year could immigrate to the U.S. 3 At other times, quotas, which are limits on the number of immigrants allowed to come in to a country, have also been placed on Japanese, Chinese, and Pacific Islanders. 4 NS came to the U.S. from her homeland with just the clothes on her back. Although she tried to find a job, she could not find one immediately, and had to go on welfare. But in 1996, the U.S. implemented the Welfare Reform Act, which takes away food stamps and health care from immigrants. 5 NS thinks, This is how the U.S. treats us after our people helped them in the CIA s secret war against the communists in our country? Answer: Mien or Hmong (Laos is the country), but the Welfare Reform Act targeted all immigrants and other poor people. Between the period of 1942 and 1964, millions of people were imported into the U.S. 92 WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country

7 from this country as braceros under the Bracero Program to work temporarily on contract to the United States as growers and ranchers. Workers were not allowed to live permanently in the United States and were paid low wages. 6 Answer: Mexico I didn t land on the United States. It landed on me. In 1898, the United States annexed my country, allowing over 300,000 military troops onto my soil. My people s living conditions declined, while the military bases controlled huge pieces of our land. My land became a U.S. state in Answer: Hawaii On February 19, 1942 Executive Order 9066 was signed into effect, evacuating and incarcerating 120,000 people of this ancestry, because of war hysteria and racial prejudice. 8 Answer: Japan Acting Requires 5 actors. If there are no co-facilitators, some of the youth can be prepped ahead of time. Scene is a hospital. A family with a crying baby goes into a health clinic. They go up to a nurse seated at a desk. NURSE. Hello, how can we help you at Good Hope Hospital? MOTHER: My child is sick. Can you help him? WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country 93

8 NURSE: (Looks over the family up and down). You look like you re immigrants. Can I see your proper identification? FATHER: We don t have any identification. Can t you help my child anyway? Look how sick he is? (Kid gives out a big cry.) NURSE: Sorry. Unless you can prove that you re legal immigrants, I can t help you. MOTHER: But we are here legally. We just don t have our green card with us because we rushed out of the apartment to get treatment for our sick baby. NURSE: Sorry. Not only can I not help you, but I m supposed to report you as illegal immigrants. (Waves to the cop) COP: (Arrests the families.) OK, so what country do we send them back to? NURSE: I think they said they were from Guacamole? Answer: Guatemala. Background: California s Proposition 187 passed in 1994 tried to cut off social services, education, and health care to ALL undocumented immigrants. It required public servants to report suspected undocumented immigrants to the immigration and naturalization office. It was successfully challenged in the courts and never implemented. 9 Between , almost 100,000 refugees from this country came to the United States seeking asylum after the Vietnam-U.S. War, escaping famine, genocide, and political repression. 10 When they came to the United States, families faced poverty, unemployment, and were placed in blighted, or poor and toxic, neighborhoods. 11 Answer: Cambodia. 94 WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country

9 Acting Need 2 actors. If there are no co-facilitators, 2 youth can be prepped ahead of time. Scene is outside s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration processing office. A lot of people are waiting in line to go in a building. A person walking by recognizes one of them. PASSER-BY: Hey Bijar, what s up. Why are you in this line? BIJAR: I got a letter from the Department of Homeland Security that I had to come to DHS so they can get my fingerprint and interview me, and make sure that I m not a terrorist. PASSER-BY: That s crazy. (Looks down the line.) Man this line goes all the way around the block. BIJAR: That s because every single immigrant from my country and many other Middle Eastern and Muslim countries got a letter saying we had to come here. PASSER-BY: Hey, that s just straight out discrimination. How can they get away with that? BIJAR: I don t know. I m just afraid that they ll think that I m not here legally and send me back. Many people of my ethnicity, the Kurds, are tortured and killed by the dominant Persian people, and by the Ayatollah. So if the U.S. sends me back, they might as well sentence me to death. Answer: Iran Background: The USA PATRIOT Act, enacted in 2001, required all immigrants from many Middle Eastern and Muslim countries to register with the Dept. of Homeland Security and also permitted immigrants to be detained for an indefinite amount of time WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country 95

10 and without a lawyer. As of May 13, 2003, 82,581 people had been forced to register, 13,153 are in deportation proceedings, 2761 are detained in prison, but 0 terrorists were caught because of the registrations. 12 Final Jeopardy (Every team gets to write an answer!) In 1790, the Naturalization Act, written and passed by the same people who wrote and passed the U.S. Constitution just one year earlier, restricted U.S. citizenship to free whites. 13 Answer: Anybody who s not a white person. 96 WORKSHOPS FOR CHANGE I Guess The Country

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