1) Assess your essay's progress in meeting the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) byanswering how and where you met each SLO, quoting any relevantpassages from your essay; then score your essay out of 1
Ajan Alhadeed
Mohamed Ajan Alhadeed
Kathryn Stevenson
Eng 1B
7/2/2020
Transnational Migration
The film a better life highlights the problem of transnational migration in the US/Mexican border. Transnational migration is defined by the migration and settlement of people from their country of origin to another country. In transnational migration, the people may maintain connections with other people from the country they migrated from. Transnational migration has increased due to the need of working better jobs and gaining better education. In this essay, the film A Better Life will be used to explain the issue of transnational migration in the US/Mexico border. The causes and problems resulting from transnational migration will be explained in details.
A Better Life is a trailer about an undocumented Mexican immigrant called Carlos, who holds traditional values, works hard, and keeps a low profile while working as a gardener for rich residents of Los Angeles. Carlos is being pulled apart by the American life as he lives hand to mouth daily in a small house with a garden; he uses to plant starters for his clients. Besides, he lives with his son Luis, 15-years old boy, who views his fathers as a looser and often misses school. Luis has not joined gangs, but he seems to consider joining because he often tells his father, “I’ll jack a little old lady” whenever he asks for money and not given any. This film addresses some of the real issues that are faced by immigrants in the United States.
The film focuses on the life of Carlos and Luis in particular. Carlos is a gardener while Luis attends school. At times, he skips school to hang out with his girlfriend. He sees his father as a poor and weak man and an irrelevant loser as he does not have a lot of resources. When he needs money he threatens his father that he will jack a little old lady to get the money if his father does not give him the money. On the other hand, his father works hard to make a living, take care of Luis, and to help him gain an education. The story takes a twist when a tractor he purchases is stolen by his driver. They embark on a journey to search for the lost tractor. In the search, they encounter various locations most of them characterized by gangs and drug abuse in Los Angeles. Luis hangs out with his girlfriend who is a member of a gang. The gang persuades Luis to join but he does not give in to their requests.
In A Better Life, Chris Weitz and Eric Eason, director and scriptwriter respectively, reveal the challenges and difficulties that illegal immigrants go through, thus avoiding any actions that may lead to their arrest, that helps them from being identified and being deported from the country, leading to making better choices. Citing the example of Luis’s father Carlos who is very careful with what they do to avoid being deported, such as choosing not to drive as he is not documented and any stop by a police officer would lead to his deportation.
Immigrants face several issues in the US, and one thing is that they fear to lose their jobs and being deported after they are found not to be citizens of the nation. The fears that an immigrant has hindered them from enjoying their lives and being proud of their families, especially if the case involves all members of the family. In A Better Life, Carlos works for a man called Blasco who offers to sell him his landscaping truck, but Carlos fears being deported because he cannot get a driver’s license. After lending some money by his sister, Carlos bought the truck, but it was stolen the next day. The truck symbolized as his way to end poverty, which he faces as an undocumented immigrant. However, he took matters into his hands of searching for his truck because he did not want to seek help from the police from fear of being arrested. This inevitability faced by most immigrants led to Carlos taking illegal measures. Unfortunately, Carlos was pulled over by police and set to be deported to his native country, leaving behind Luis, his son. This incident explains the challenges faced by immigrants in low socioeconomic status that affect different aspects of their entire life.
The film can be used to explain the causes and effects of transnational migration in the US/Mexico border. One of the causes of increased illegal immigrants in the US is the poor remuneration and lack of enough job opportunities in other countries, especially in Mexico. Therefore, people migrate illegally into the US to seek job opportunities and earn a living. That can be illustrated using the film A Better Life effectively. Carlos and Luis migrate into the US illegally to earn a living. From the film, i is evident that although Carlos lives hand to mouth, he is in a position to cater to his needs and that of his son. That would not have been the case if he was in Mexico (Pries). That can be used to explain why he is returning to the US at the end of the film. Additionally, Carlos’s friend and employer, Blasco, migrated into the US to earn a living. That is evident as when he gets enough money, he sells the property that he has earned and goes back to live in Mexico. The most common effect of illegal immigration is deportation. When an illegal immigrant is caught, they are deported back to their country. That was the case with Carlos.
The immigrants face a challenge of adapting to the mainstream culture, and this affects their life aspects. An immigrant has limited rights and freedom of living, which is not significant in the real world. Besides, they are often the subjects of a continuous era of problems that often led them to struggle always for a decent living. In A Better Life, Carlos wanted to create a better life for his son by establishing a successful pathway and leading as an example. However, Luis is a high school student who was socialized to gang-affiliated friends, and it threatened the lifestyle and the roles that Carlos wanted for his son. Carlos did not want his son to be affiliated with gangs, and he wanted him to abide by the law, but the pressure from the peers, school, and neighborhood made it difficult for him not to get involved. From this passage, it is evident that immigrants lack a means of improving their environment and their present status because they are subjected to daily conflicts and challenges posed by adapting to the mainstream culture.
Immigration also helps in the acquisition of knowledge and education. For instance, Luis gains education in the US. Although he skips classes at times, in the US he can gain more quality education. Some of the illegal immigrants that are deported back to Mexico are employed by an organization that needs some of the skills and knowledge gained from the US system.
Most illegal immigrants live in poor conditions in the US. From the movie A Better Life, the immigrants from Mexico stay in a kitchen. They stay there to avoid attracting the attention of the police so that they may not be deported. From the movie, it is evident that illegal immigrants always face a threat and thus they take every police officer as an enemy, and any challenges or crimes that thy encounter have to be solved without official help (López).
Immigrants face various challenges such as fears of being deported, socioeconomic issues, and difficulties in parenting, that impact their lives and may change the course of it drastically. These individuals often have to endure challenges and work hard to provide a better life for their families.
According to Multiple Manhoods, youth in the community of South Riverside seek to be respected and recognized. That is identified as contemporary masculinity (Rios and James 72). In the case of A Better Life, Luis seeks to gain masculinity but in a different way. He avoids joining the gang, where his girlfriend is a member. He believes in earning respect and recognization but not through being a gang member. From his deeds, it is evident that his style of proving his masculinity is through providing for one’s family and taking care of one's family. That is evident as he sees his father as an irrelevant loser. The reason why he sees his father in such a way is because of his struggles to earn a living and he does not have a lot of money. We also see that he threatens his father to jack a little old lady if he does not provide him with the money he requires. That indicates that he recognizes masculinity as being in a position to do what a person wants and also to be in a position to earn enough money. Despite being pleased to join the gang, Luis resists and also gets money from his father when he wants to. Therefore, he portrays synthesized masculinity. On the other hand, his father practices his masculinity through the provision of the basic needs of Luis (Watson).
Different people seek different types of masculinity for different reasons. Carlos, Luis’s father depicts his masculinity through the provision for his family. On the contrary, Luis portrays his masculinity by gaining whatever he wants to gain. The masculinity that different people seek to determine how they relate and their standpoint about life. That is seen in the search for the tractor when Luis and his father have different things in mind.
In a nutshell, the problems that illegal immigrants face can be illustrated from the film, A Better Life. Immigration from Mexico to the US is caused by the need of earning a living or education. It is also evident that deportation is a major fear that illegal immigrants go through. It also shows how people seek to achieve different Manhoods. Different people in film use different Manhood strategies and they depict what goes on in the real world. The essay also indicates the poor living conditions that immigrants have to live. That is because they have to escape all activities that can lead to their deportation. Therefore, the film A Better Life can be used to portray the challenges and benefits that illegal immigrants in the US from Mexico face. Despite all the challenges, today, there is a significant number of illegal immigrants from Mexico in the US.
Works Cited
A Better Life. (2011). McLaughlin Films, Depth of Field, Summit Entertainment, Lime Orchard Productions, Witt/Thomas Productions Comments.
https://cineb.net/watch-movie/watch-a-better-life-free-8759.2397857.
López, Jane Lilly. "Together and apart: Transnational life in the US–Mexico border region." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46.1 (2020): 242-259.
Pries, Ludger. "The momentum of transnational social spaces in Mexico-US-migration." Comparative Migration Studies 7.1 (2019): 34.
Rios, Victor M., and James Diego Vigil. Human targets: Schools, police, and the criminalization of Latino youth. University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Watson, Maurice Berger Brian Wallis Simon. Constructing masculinity. No. 11. Psychology Press, 2015.
