The Connection of Immigration
Sara T. Cook
Academic Setting
School Setting
Cleveland Middle School is located in the northeast section of Albuquerque, bordered by Louisiana and Montgomery, two busy city streets. The school has approximately 1,000 students in grades six through eight. About 230 of those students receive special education services. The school population consists of 55% Caucasian students, 38% Hispanic students, 4% Native American students, 2% African-American students and 1% of the students come from a different ethnic background than those mentioned. The students come from a variety of financial backgrounds, ranging from upper middle class families who own their own homes to fixed income families who rent low-income apartments. Thirty-three percent of the students in the school receive free or reduced meals at school: the other students either buy meals in the cafeteria or bring their own food.
Our school is one of ten schools in New Mexico that belong to the Coalition of Essential Schools. This is an organization that encourages teachers to follow the ten common principles developed by the coalition. These principles help teachers focus on what is important at our school, giving us recommendations about how to think about teaching and learning (teacher as coach, student as learner), how many students each teacher should be responsible for (less than 80 at middle and high schools), what our curricular focus should be (less is more, limited number of essential skills to focus on), and how to treat students (tone of school focused on trust and high expectations, non-discriminatory practices). Part of becoming a Coalition School was creating smaller learning environments for the students. At Cleveland we call these families.
Class Setting
I work within a four-teacher family at Cleveland where I teach language arts and social studies to two groups of regular education students. I have a partner who teaches math and science to those same groups of students. The other two partners teach content area courses to the special education students who are in our family. We teachers meet twice weekly for 90 minutes to discuss curriculum, field trips, students and intervention strategies.
This year we will be teaching eighth grade curriculum to the same students we had last year for seventh grade. We chose to loop with our students based on research that proves that looping provides the students with a deeper understanding of the curriculum (because they are already aware of expectations and personalities of the teachers). The teachers are also given a chance to personalize the education process for the students in a way that isn’t possible when teachers have students for only one year. Because we have the same students, we are able to build on what we learned together throughout last year. One project we focused our time on was a project on the Rio Grande. We looked at the importance of the river over time to people as well as the scientific role of the river. Now we will look at the bigger picture of the role of the Rio Grande (and other water sources) in the movement of people to the United States from Mexico.
I will use this unit in my social studies class. The focus for eighth grade is U.S. history, and this unit will help the students understand the complexity of immigration in the past and now.
Goals and Objectives
- Students will apply economic terms to the ideas behind immigration, studying the relationships between the wealth of the United States to the poverty of Mexico.
- Students will read a fiction and nonfiction book on the topic of immigration and relate what they have learned previously to the book comparing and contrasting facts and ideas.
- Students will compare and contrast the immigration of Mexicans to the immigrations of their own ancestors focusing on reasons for coming, routes used, hardships faced and treatment once they got here.
Narrative
Rationale
When studying history, students learn about how the United States is a nation made up of immigrants, of people who came to the New World because of persecution in their own countries. Students learn about Columbus and later The Mayflower. These are important parts of our history, and the students need to learn about what happened in the past that created the country they now call home. It is also important for the students to learn about the immigration issues of today, and why people are leaving their homes and coming to the United States in the twenty-first century.
It is estimated that between 600,000 and 1,000,000 people enter this country legally each year, and about 300,000 or more enter this country illegally yearly. Many of these people are emigrating from Mexico. It is important for my students to understand why people are coming to the U.S. from Mexico, what they risk coming, and what they face once they are here. This will help my students connect the histories of their own families to the present immigration issues that face our nation today.
Each year the estimates change as to when the majority population will shift from Anglo to Hispanic. Some U.S. citizens welcome this change while others find it a threat to the culture of the U.S. We share 1,900 miles of border with Mexico. That is the longest land border by which a third world country is separated from a first world country, with a fence. All of this makes it necessary for the students in my class to begin to think critically about what this information means to them personally and what it means to the U.S. as a country.
History of Immigration
It is often said that our country is one founded by immigrants, and although Native American cultures were here long before settlers from Europe, immigrants who had traveled many miles to come to this "new land" produced much of our governmental system. Former president John F. Kennedy spoke of these immigrants being the core of our country when he said,
This was the secret of America, a nation of people with the fresh memory of old traditions who dared to explore new frontiers, people eager to build lives for themselves in a spacious society that did not restrict their freedom of choice and action. (Stewart).
People kept coming to this new land; so many, that in 1798 congress passed a law hoping to keep Federalist rule by shutting out the immigrants who largely voted Republican. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 set a fourteen year waiting period for immigrants wanting to obtain American citizenship (previously the wait had been five years). This act gave the president the power to arrest disloyal immigrants and order them out of the country. Within a few years of this law’s enactment the new congress let it expire and the flow of immigrants continued. This was still a time when there were no guards at the entry points, and people could come and go as they pleased. It was in the late 1800s that guards were placed at the ports.
In the 1880s, the largest groups of immigrants were the British, Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians. These people came mostly in the steerage of a large ship that carried supplies from Europe. Hundreds of people were packed into the small area in the bottom of these boats. Many became sick, and about 5% died making the long journey to the new land. These Immigrants were considered the "old immigrants." The "new immigrants," from eastern and southern Europe and small numbers from China, Japan and the Philippines, started coming in the late 1800s.
The reasons for the large numbers in immigration were due in large part to what sociologists call the push-pull factor. There were many issues influencing the decisions of these people to move away from their homeland. These were the push factors. The issues varied, among them was population growth that caused overcrowding and lowered job opportunities. Poor harvests in a variety of countries were a big push for those who wanted to start a new life. And there was a great desire to flee governments that had a reputation of horrible treatment toward certain religious and ethnic groups. The factors pulling these people toward America were better jobs and more opportunity to own land. Possibly the greatest pull was the hope for a brighter future.
German Immigrants
The Germans were the largest immigration group of the 1800s and had the most influence because they arrived with good skills as farmers and artisans. The German influence continues to make the names of these immigrants household names. We still have Steinway pianos, Bausch and Lomb eyeglasses and Heinz processed foods. Because of the Germans we have the tradition of the Christmas tree, marching bands, gymnasiums, kindergartens and foods like the hamburger and frankfurter.
Italian Immigrants
Between 1880 and 1920 more than four million Italian immigrants entered the U.S. No other group had such large numbers come in such a short period of time. The large numbers of Italians in big cities created neighborhood systems called "Little Italy." Most Italian immigrants came as unskilled workers and began working for the railroad and coal and steel companies. Once they were established some opened up shops and restaurants in Little Italy. Nativists, who were fearful of the numbers of Italians in cities, accused these Catholic Italians of spreading crime and taking jobs from other Americans.
Jewish Immigrants
In 1881 the Russian Czar adopted many anti-Jewish policies, and many Jews searched for a better place to live. They came to the U.S. where they settled mostly in New York City. There they lived in crowded housing and found jobs where they could, often in sweatshops. Although they were hoping to escape the treatment of the Russian Czar, they were greeted here by anti-Semitism and barred from most housing, jobs and social clubs. Despite this treatment, Jews became one of the highest achieving groups in the country. Many went to night school and entered colleges and universities. Some gave up their customs, but many held on to the old ways.
Irish Immigrants
In the 1900s the great potato famine struck Ireland forcing many Irish out of Ireland. Of those who fled, many went to America. So many came, in fact, that at one point there were more Irish in America than there were in Ireland. Most were unskilled laborers who had arrived in America with little money or education; the men worked construction and the women worked as cooks or servants, while some took in washing and sewing. The Irish stuck together and helped each other out, forming real communities largely based around the Catholic church. Although one newspaper wrote in 1850, "Waterpower, steam power, and Irish power run the United States, the last works hardest of them all." (Mason) Despite the working ethic of the Irish, not everyone was pleased to have them in the country.
The coming of the Irish brought about prejudice and anger especially among Protestant members of the community. They were afraid that these Irish Catholics would obey the Pope instead of the new American law. There was fear of Irish politicians being brought into office. Nativists didn’t want foreign - born people to have any part of the government. They formed their own party called the Know-Nothing Party whose main goal was to limit the power of the Irish. The party only lasted about ten years, and eventually the grandchildren of these immigrants became part of the mainstream culture, and, for the most part, they were accepted.
Asian Immigrants
Although most immigrant groups faced prejudice because of their religion, they could usually assimilate because they were white. This was not true for the Asian immigrants who came to America. The first large group of Asians to come to America were the Chinese in the mid 1800s. First they came for the gold rush and later to help build the transcontinental railroad. Afterwards many decided to stay.
Because of the increase in Chinese immigration during this time period, the Chinese Exclusion Act was brought to congress in 1882, and was successful in stopping Chinese immigrants from entering America. Many people called these immigrants the "Eastern menace;" some worried that the Chinese would change the societal structure of America. The California state legislature reported in 1876 that the Chinese immigrants "….have never adapted themselves to our habits, mode of dress, or our educational system…never ceased the worship of their idol gods, or advanced a step beyond the traditions of their native hive." (Stewart).
Japanese immigration to the U.S. began with Hawaii. In 1885 thousands of Japanese laborers came to Hawaii to work on U.S. owned sugar plantations. When the U.S. annexed Hawaii in 1898, nearly half of the people in Hawaii were Japanese immigrants. Japanese immigration was cut sharply in 1908 and banned entirely in the 1920s.
Filipinos began arriving in the U.S. after 1898, the year the U.S. took over the Philippines from Spain. Although Filipinos were not U.S. citizens, they could enter the U.S. freely. In 1934 Congress passed a law that would grant the Philippines independence within ten years. This law changed the system; Filipinos were now considered foreigners and Filipino immigration was limited to 50 people per year.
Asian immigrants were faced with the worse treatment by U.S. citizens than any other immigrant group. Their appearance and cultural differences stood out more strongly than the other immigrants. Many U.S. citizens looked at Asian immigrants as an "outside" group.
Puerto Rican Immigrants
The island of Puerto Rico became a possession of the U.S. after the Spanish-American War. In 1917 Congress passed the Jones Act that granted all Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. Poverty on the island was pervasive and people fled to the U.S. mainland. By 1940 70,000 Puerto Ricans lived on the mainland. They were targets of racism because they spoke Spanish and had their own form of Catholicism.
Mexican Immigrants
Mexican immigrants started coming in 1849 because of the gold rush and continued coming because of the revolution in Mexico in 1910. Farmers who wanted more land started the Mexican Revolution. In 1917 Mexico adopted a new constitution backing the goals of the revolution. Mexicans still had fewer opportunities than the Americans, and that cause about 700,000 Mexicans to cross the border between 1910 and 1930. Ranchers and growers welcomed the cheap labor provided by these men, women and children who all participated in the labor process. These immigrants were not allowed to live in housing areas with U.S. citizens, instead they had their own neighborhoods (barrio, the Spanish word for neighborhood took on a different meaning here because what the Mexican immigrants called barrios, the U.S. citizens took to mean substandard housing).
People often say that harsh treatment of immigrants comes in cycles, that the treatment of different groups is no worse than the history of the group before them. The most recent group to enter an area is the group most easily targeted with racism and violence. It is important to look at the history of the Americans’ treatment of newcomers to help us study our own treatment of people who are different. There is an old immigrant saying, "America beckons, but Americans repel."
Immigration Law
During the 1880s there began a general fear of foreigners in the U.S. that brought about the Johnson-Reed Act of 1920. By that time 14 million of the 106 million people in the nation had been born outside of the U.S. The law set up a yearly quota system that put a cap on the number of immigrants allowed into the United States from each foreign country. Quotas from Southern and Eastern European countries were much smaller than quotas for people from Western and Northern Europe. Most Asians were denied altogether. There are clear racial overtones in the laws that were set during this time period. The director of the Census Bureau complained that the United States was being overrun by "less desirable immigrants, beaten men from beaten races." (Stewart).
In 1929, with the great depression came anger and violence toward immigrants. U.S. born citizens feared the immigrants were stealing their jobs. In 1931 President Hoover ordered approximately 500,000 people, many of whom were U.S. born citizens, to be sent to Mexico.
It wasn’t until 1965 that Congress reformed the U.S. immigration policy and reopened its doors to Asians and Latin Americans. In 1986 the Immigration Reform and Control Act allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. and become U.S. citizens if they had arrived in the U.S. before 1982. The law then attached fines to companies caught hiring illegal immigrants. More than 300,000 immigrants are estimated to enter illegally each year.
The law now states that in order for someone to become a legal citizen of the United States he or she must either have lived in the country for five years (or three if they are married to a U.S. citizen), be of good moral character (no felony convictions), be of sound mind, speak and understand English, and take a test on the history of the United States.
Current Mexican Immigration
Coyotes
The United States and Mexico have the largest income gap of any contiguous countries in the world (Huntington). This fact alone answers the "why" part of the immigration question. Mexicans living in the U.S. can easily make in a day’s work what it would take them weeks, possibly months to make in Mexico. The border is difficult to cross but not impossible. "Coyotes" (men who illegally smuggle Mexicans into the U.S.) in Tijuana can fit four people into a car - three in the trunk and one behind the dashboard. If they are not stopped at the border they can make it into San Diego without a problem. In Juarez, immigrants float down a polluted stream filled with sewage and chemicals. They know that even if they are seen, police probably won’t enter the stream to catch them. Naco, a town with a population of only 800 its name is the last two letters of (Arizona and Mexico) is home to 220 border patrol agents (and hundreds of underground sensors) and still people make it across. These people are making it across the border with help from coyotes.
Like salesmen shouting about better offers in their stores the coyotes stand on the corners in border towns shouting about better ways to get across the border. It is estimated that people will try six times to cross the border before they finally give up (McCarthy). This has provided lots of money for the coyotes; some make several thousand dollars in a week even after they pay the "tax" to the Mexican police.
The recent tightening of the border has increased the demand for coyotes. People are forced to cross the border in the desert where trails are almost impossible to follow and dehydration is a constant threat. The coyotes promise to show the hopeful immigrants the way to a better life, often times leading them instead to death. Last year it was reported that 383 people died trying to cross the border.
Fox and Bush
The president of the United States and the president of Mexico are trying to solve the problems facing the border today. One idea that Vicente Fox has is to open the border between Mexico and the United States allowing people to work on either side of the border and cross when they need to. This idea is facing huge resistance. People openly say, " Mexican immigration is a unique, disturbing, and looming challenge to our cultural integrity, our national identity, and potentially to our future as a country." (Huntington).
Materials Covered by this Unit
Time Magazine 11 June 2001
Time magazine recently ran a special issue devoted entirely to the issue of the U.S./Mexico border. The title of the magazine is "Welcome to Amexica." There are numerous articles, topics ranging from music to drug smugglers. The information is easy to read and informative. For this unit, articles from this issue will be used to discuss the issues facing the border right now. The Time issue immediately following this one is the June 18th issue in which there are letters written to Time discussing the content of the magazine. These are interesting to bring into class disussion.
The House on Mango Street
The House on Mango Street is written by Sandra Cisneros, the daughter of a Mexican father and a Mexican-American mother. The book is a collection of stories that are told from the point of view of a young girl, Rachel. Her feelings are revealed in the stories of a child living in a world where she feels different from everyone else. It is a wonderfully colorful book full of metaphors that liven up the vignettes that fill the pages. The stories Cisneros tells are stories that are easily relatable to lives everywhere. The titles are simple words or phrases: "Hips," "Hairs," and "Cathy Queen of Cats." Cisneros says that her book speaks to " the shame of being poor, of being female, of being not-quite-good-enough." (Trachtenberg). The book is funny and sad, sometimes in the same sentence. The stories can be used separately to focus on grammar conventions, or together to show connections between characters. The issues facing immigrants are brought up in many of the stories.
Illegal Immigrants
As part of The Other America series, this book tells the stories of four families coming to live in the United States. The stories are told in interview format with descriptions of their homes and neighborhoods. The stories speak to the questions we ask about why people are coming here. What do they do? How do they get here? The stories talk about hardships that are faced once the characters are in the United States, and what they do for work.
Starpower
Starpower is a simulation game in which a low-mobility, three tiered society is built in steps throughout playing. Plastic chips are used for money, and the chips are traded. Once the group has had time to trade chips, scores are added up and the group with the most wealth is given the power to make the rules for the duration of the game. Almost always, the group makes rules that will keep them in power. The other two groups usually get upset, and some conflict occurs. Directors are asked to stop the game at that point and have the group reflect on how it felt to play the game.
Implementation
The schedule I am using for the implementation is our new schedule for this year. We will have three classes a week, the first two will be 90 minutes long and the last one will be 45 minutes long. These lessons can be modified to meet the needs of other schedules.
Week One - Essential Question: What is power?
Objectives:
Students will understand that there are different forms of power (11A, 11C, 11D).
Students will apply economic concepts to ideas about illegal immigration (10A, 10 B, 10C, 10D, 10E, 10F, 10G).
Students will play Starpower and evaluate how power fits into relationships (14B, 14D, 6G, 6H).
Students will form responses into writing (3A, 3B).Day one
1. Have students write to the prompt: Mexican President, Vicente Fox, wants the border between Mexico and the United States to be open. What do you think? (seven minutes to write). Have students turn these in and save them for the end of the unit.
2. Students will discuss with each other (in groups of two) their thoughts on a list of prompts. One minute will be given for each student to talk without being interrupted, then the other student will get to express his or her ideas. At the end of the round (a round being when each person has spoken) the students will list their ideas about power. One relationship pair should be given at a time, and the prompt should be repeated with each pair. Once the students have some ideas about power written down, the group can discuss the different symbols that show power in relationships (20 minutes).
Prompt: For each relationship, describe who has the power in the relationship and discuss what it is that gives them power over the other person.
parent/child elderly/young student/teacher black/white boss/worker pet/owner wealthy/poor friend/friend girl/boy husband/wife 3. Introduce the game Starpower. After the instructions are given, give students time to ask questions. Start the game. As the director instructs, take notes on what you see going on during the game (make sure these are notes-events not thoughts). After about half an hour, stop the game and have the kids discuss what happened in the game. Bring up the issue of power, and lead a discussion about how power was or wasn’t a part of this game (one hour for game and discussion). Have students write their thoughts after the game for homework.
Day 2
- Allow students to share what they wrote about the game giving time for discussion (1/2 hour).
- Hand out copies of the article "The Coyote’s Game" by Terry McCarthy. Have the students read the article, taking notes on where they see relationships in the article (20 mins).
- As a class discuss the ideas that the students had about who has the power in the relationships shown in this article. Have the students talk about how this is different or the same as events that go on in the United States. Can the coyote/immigrant relationship be compared to relationships in the U.S.? (1/2 hour). Homework: Give students economic terms to make a crossword puzzle, using the words and definitions; these should be review words (e.g., institutions, economic systems, corporations, taxation, consumer, supply and demand, household, goods and services, scarcity and abundance).
Day 3
- Have students switch crossword puzzles and try to fill out one another’s puzzles (10 mins.).
- Have students draw a web in which one of the main players from the article (coyote, INS agent, illegal immigrant) is the center of the web, and indicate how these economic terms apply to him or her. Use arrows pointing to the person who has the power in the relationship. Write a paragraph explaining their webs using the terminology used. Use as summative assessment.
Week 2 - Essential Question: How do we know what we know?
Objectives:
Students will use the "Habits of Mind" to analyze a fiction and non-fiction work. (11B, 14A, 6B, 3A).
All week:
- Assign groups stories from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and Illegal Immigrants by Gail Stewart. Depending on the reading levels the students can read from three to all of the stories in Mango Street and from 1-all of the stories in Illegal Immigrants.
- When the students finish a story, they should analyze the story based on the "habits of mind" (developed by Deborah Meier):
- How do you know what you know? What’s the evidence? Is it credible?
- What point of view are you hearing, seeing, reading? Who is the author? Where is she/he standing? What are his/her intentions?
- How are things connected to each other? How does "it" fit in? Where have you heard or seen this before?
- What if…? Supposing that…? Can you imagine alternatives? How might things be otherwise?
- What significance does it have? Why is this important? Who cares?
3. When the students come in each day, they should be prepared to discuss their findings from each story with the class. Take the discussion back to last week’s class and the lessons learned about power. How does that fit into this? The students should be keeping their answers to these questions in their notebooks to be checked as ongoing assessment pieces.
Week 3 – Essential Question: How does the Mexican Immigrant’s experience compare to the experience of my family?
Objectives:
Students will compare and contrast the history of their own family to the history they have learned about the Mexican immigrants (11C, 14C, 1C).
Students will complete a project that shows this comparison including routes taken, hardships faced, reasons for coming, laws affecting situation and any other important information needed for making the comparison (same as above).
Students will write what they have learned from this unit (3A).Day 1
Introduce the idea for the project and develop a rubric with the students for the project. Make sure to include the criteria you as the teacher want in the project. Have the students develop a timeline of when the project is due.Day ? (last day of project)
When the project is turned in, hand back the responses to the prompts from the beginning of the unit (about what the students thought of an open border) and have the students write what they think now and what has brought them to that. Use as summative assessment.Documentation
New Mexico State Standards
I have indicated which standards I used from the New Mexico state social studies standards for each objective. For a full list of the standards, go to <sde.state.nm.us>.
1C Describe how the peoples of the world are connected over time, showing similarities and differences based upon social studies knowledge of why those similarities or differences exist.
3A Use social studies vocabulary and concepts.
3B Interpret and report social studies information from diverse sources.
6B Evaluate ways regional, ethnic and national cultures influence individuals’ daily lives.
6G Illustrate how conflicts can occur between an individual and/or communities’ belief systems, traditions, government policies and laws.
6H Examine concepts such as role, status, and social class in the interaction of individuals with social groups.
10A Describe examples of the various institutions that make up economic systems.
10B Examine the roles of governments in economic systems.
10C Define exchange systems of goods and services to include monetary systems.
10D Illustrate the role of supply and demand in the market place.
10E Examine the role of entrepreneurship and specialization in the economic process.
10F Examine influences of economic concepts and reasoning on contemporary issues.
10G Examine the relationship between scarcity and abundance as they relate to national sovereignty and global interests.
11A Analyze ways groups, societies and cultures meet human needs.
11B Demonstrate and explore how language, literature, the arts, media, architecture, other artifacts, traditions, beliefs, values and behaviors contribute to the development and transmission of culture.
11C Analyze complex societal patterns for preserving and transmitting culture while adapting to environmental or social change.
11D Examine patterns of behavior, reflecting values and attitudes that contribute to cross-cultural understanding.
14A Use art, music, language, technology, belief systems and other cultural elements to connect with individuals and societies.
14B Explain how individuals, groups and nations interact through conflict, cooperation and interdependence.
14C Examine, analyze and describe the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to persistent contemporary, and emerging local issues.
14D Examine the complexity of human rights issues.Teacher Bibliography
Cardoso, Lawrence. Mexican Emigration to the United States 1897-1931. Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 1980.
Very detailed descriptions of early Mexican Emigration. Helpful information.
Davis, Marilyn. Mexican Voices/American Dreams. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1990.
Compelling collection of stories about people immigrating to the United States from Mexico.
Dykman, Jackson. "The New Frontier." Time. 11 June 2001: 46-47.Ehrlich, Paul. The Golden Door. New York: Ballantine Books, 1979.
Complete information about immigration. Helpful quotes and end notes.
Garcia, Juan. Operation Wetback. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Focuses on the mass deportation of Mexican undocumented workers in 1954. Good overview of the bracero program and the events leading up to deportation.
Huntington, Samuel. "Reconsidering Immigration." Center for Immigration Studies. November 2000. Harvard University. June 13, 2001 <www.cis.org/articles/2000/back1100.html>
Online article stating what makes Mexico a special case when discussing immigration. Interesting ideas.
McCarthy, Terry. "The Coyote’s Game." Time 11 June 2001: 56-60.
Mason, Lorna. America’s Past and Promise. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell, 1998.
Textbook with good overview of immigration information.
Meier, Deborah. "Habits of Mind." Habits of Mind. Sept. 22, 2000, Habits of Mind. June 28, 2001
<nuevaschool.org/~Debbie/hom/habits>Website full of helpful information about teaching students
Shirts, Gary. Starpower, Director’s Instructions. CA: Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, 1969.
Directions for how to play the game, Starpower.
Trachtenberg, Peter. "The House on Mango Street." Teachers Guides. Sept. 23, 1999. Random House. July 16, 2001
<www.randomhouse.com/acmart/houmangtg.html>Useful teachers guides with summaries and questions.
Student Bibliography
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1984.
A collection of vignettes told by a young girl set in a neighborhood of immigrants.
Hewett, Joan. Hector Lives in the United States Now. New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1990.
A story of a young boy who moves from Mexico to the United States. Accompanied by black and white photos.
Lannert, Paula. Mexican Americans. Florida: Rourke Corporation, Inc., 1991.
Children’s research book with some photos.
Springer, Jane. Listen to Us: The World’s Working Children. Toronto: Douglas&McIntyre, 1997.
Children’s book with large photos of working children around the world, full of information.
Stewart, Gail. Illegal Immigrants. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1997.
Stories told by immigrants living in the United States illegally. Pictures.