Reflection #3

Nepalese immigrants risk everything for a better life.

Nepal's economy is in a very bad shape. It has been having many problems, mainly economic ones, ever since the 10 year Maoist insurgency. The war ended in 2006, but the after affects of the war are still being seen. The government still is unable to draft a functioning constitution. Nepal has many parts of its economy shrinking, but it's population is still growing. This is causing as many as one fourth of the people at any given time to be working out side of Nepal. Many people go to South Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They perform backbreaking physical labor, and in Qatar, there was evidence of Nepalese people being used as slaves! Some return to their country with HIV, presumable from sex trafficking; others return home dead, as many as five a day will arrive in boxes, often covered in shrink-wrap. This is the sad reality of how far people will go to escape poverty.

In The Distance Between Us, Reyna Grande's family went to "el otro lado" which means the other side. The other side is a term people in the small town of Iguala, Guerrero use for the United States. Reyna's dad and Reyna's mom both left for el otro lado when she was 2 and 4 respectively. The United States of America is a far nicer place then say Malaysia, and the leaving of their family didn't kill anyone; however, it did completely destroy the family. The parents got a divorce, the children had a hard childhood and had to be very self-reliant while being abused. Mago, the oldest daughter went slightly crazy, even feeding innocent children poop simply because they had a mother. In both Mexico and Nepal, people will go to great lengths to fight poverty.

I did not know that immigration was a problem in other countries. I knew that eastern Europeans were migrating into North Western Europe and other immigration existed, but besides that I was not very educated about immigration problems outside of North America. This book showed me that immigration is a bigger issue than I previously thought, and this article showed me how wide-spread this is. I honestly think that America has a low immigration problem compared to other countries. These issues need to be solved in more than just one country.

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