Coming to America: Chapters 11 & 12

It was shocking to realize how directly correlated each historic event had triggered some type of immigration to a new country or back to a homeland. The chapter specifically talks about the The Great Depression in the 1930's , war and Hitler coming to power which have created changes in the immigration patterns that were seen in earlier migration years. 

I was surprised when I found out that the number of of people leaving the United States exceeded the number entering during the 1930's (p. 294). Obviously this was a direct correlation due to the Depression in the United States which isn't hard to imagine but I didn't realize that it impacted people's lives so much that they moved elsewhere.

The text continues to mention World War II which I am very familiar with as I have relatives who were placed in concentration camps and forced out of the United States because they couldn't handle the anti-Japanese sentiment that occurred as a result of the war. What was shocking was that many of the Japanese Americans, like my relatives, were native-born  American citizens. The book states that more than two-third of the Japanese Americans were native born citizens and placed into internment camps.

I have always wondered why my relatives aren't politically involved within their home and community in the United States. Almost none of them vote or talk about politics and if they do some of it isn't too positive.  Much of their reason has to do with that fact that they don't agree with American politics but mainly the way the government dealt with the result of World War II.

I have always thought that there were many Natives within America prior to the "discovering of the New World".  It was surprising to see that the there were only 80,000 between the three states of California, Texas and New Mexico prior to becoming part of North America. It doesn't make sense that some Mexicans feel a sense of entitlement or feel like somethings been taken away when their population was somewhat small. But I do understand how and why they would feel like that way.