The Immigrant Paradox: Outperformance of Immigrants and Non-Immigrants
The immigrant paradox has been recognised as the recent observations related to the outperforming of the most established immigrants and non-immigrants all over the United States. According to Tavernise, considering the UN declarations over the issue, it has been noticed that immigrants around the world have been subjected to acculturation and other issues. Despite all the barriers the immigrants and the non-immigrants have been known to have outperformed in areas like health, conduct, education and outcomes related to criminal activities (Wild). This essay aims to connect the various course materials related to food justice, evaluating dietary quality amongst the immigrants, participation of the individuals to work on the farms from the Queer community and others. The essay has been constructed as a critical reflection on the issues and progress taking place around the world connecting to academic discourse.
Considering the impending issue of immigration, the healthy prospects of the practice can be recognised as the phenomenon which directs to creating better health opportunities for the host country. The increasing immigration rate has also provided significant economic improvement opportunities for the United States at present. However, with this prospect, the evaluation of the mortality rates has provided concerning results. As highlighted in the article by Tavernise, it has been noticed that the mortality research indicates the longer mortality of immigrant parents compared to their American children. This pattern is considered to be moving against every notion as America has been focused on improving every aspect of life in the country. The country has become subsequently worried due to the concerning trend of decreasing mortality rate among immigrant children which in a way impacts the economic stability of the country. I have also learnt from the course materials that between all these concerning discussions it has been claimed by renowned demographers that the worries regarding assimilation for the 11 million immigrants in the countries are a misunderstanding of the real facts. Moreover, as argued by Wild, the outbreak of the pandemic has also been quite disruptive to the health and social well-being of people all over the world. It has significantly disturbed the global food system, hence vehemently emphasising the structural inequity. The unequal distribution of food leads to a major crisis barring access to healthy and traditional food to the immigrant working class within the country. Even though the country has been known for its ample production of food supply, the unequal distribution has significantly raised issues of access to quality food for the lower economic communities. With this context, I would draw the attention of the readers toward the socio-cultural influence of the rapid westernisation in American societies. As argued by Pérez-Escamilla, several immigrant communities are known to complain that the children have been considerably influenced by the American menu of ham and bread and develop less regard for authentic Mexican or other community food. Considering the impending context of the socio-cultural influence of the host country, the discussion can be turned over to the addressing mode of the Latinos and their dietary quality. To emphasise the fact that almost 78% of the Latinos are directed towards enhancing their communal tradition even in the immigrant countries, the enraging issue of degrading food quality, the JADA studies have indicated that the nutrition and health status of the Latin American and Latino children is quite serious. Due to the high intake of calories and fat-induced food, the children are noted to be subjected to obesity, high blood pressure and such major health concerns.
Healthy Prospects of Immigration
Immigrants have been identified as a paradigmatic entity by modern society. According to Manalansan, throughout significant discussions on the impending issue of increasing immigration, scholars have projected the immigrants as a vector to signify the discourse of various turn of natural and social events. With the context, I can further add from the earned knowledge out of the course materials that the immigrants have been considered to be a body supporting the cultural construct as a natural carrier of the undesirable sensory experiences. The negative stigma related to the perception of the immigrants directs to addressing the communities and their residential signs as signs of pollution and negative olfactory. Scholars have significantly directed that smells and aromas are essential components for creating social differences and inequalities in society (Manalansan). However, travelling back to the present it has been observed that the imperial societies have been gradually changing their course and patterns of treating the immigrants. Considering the article by Mok, highlights the increasing inclusivity within the working areas like farms at present. The recent phenomenon of the construction of the Rock Steady Farm and Flowers in 2015 by Maggie Cheney and D. Rooney can be regarded as a prominent example reflecting the involvement of the queer community in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The success of the program has been noticed with its growing popularity in New York City and other states of the US (Mok). The researchers from Anita Ashok Adalja have shown empirical evidence in the accumulation of her observations regarding the rampant discrimination faced by the queer and BIPOC farmworkers. Despite several attempts of struggle and efforts, she has considerably witnessed the abundance of racial microaggressions that pressured her activities to be identified as “Indian work”. Furthermore, as the issue has been further projected in the work of Wright et al., the US had subsequently made efforts in recognising the deep-rooted injustice and constraint claims in the presidential era of Barrack Obama. I have learnt that the former president had signed House Resolution 4783 which is otherwise regarded as the Claims Resolution Act of 2010. This act has been quite essential in defining the equal distribution of financial payments within the guidelines of the US lawsuit. The reason behind the action by the American president has been to address the impending claims of the African American farmers being discriminated against whenever they tried to apply for federal farm loans. It considerably made their presence in the business quite hard which created disruptions in the principles of the American Dream. To abide by the core values of the society about providing equal treatment and a chance to happiness for every individual the country finally attempted to liberalise the black farmers’ rights.
Continuing with the context of discriminatory attributes faced by the immigrant communities in the United States, it can be shifted to the previous issue of discussion which is the service provided by the community health workers. According to Pérez and Martinez, the accessibility of quality food is one of the issues which is yet to be solved in society. The community health workers have been considerably growing towards a successive process of community building and policy development. With the issue of health and safety, the growing influence of fat food on children and adults has highlighted the conceptual issue of lowering the mortality rate for young individuals. I have contemplated the impending concept through assessing the course materials and have inferred that the special issue of fat food consumption is known to have emerged from the sense of disconnection resulting from the disoriented objectives of the Fat Food Justice League. As argued by Brady et al., the social reforms related to activism and the community-based justice process direct toward the scholarly discussions related to the conceptualisation of the community liberation of fat food. However, the growing influence of these fat food has severely impacted the health conditions of individuals, thus making the practice of valuing and respecting nourishment and equitability of healthy food. Since I have raised the context of the importance of healthy food consumption to maintain balanced demography, it vehemently directs the readers back to the issue of accessibility to good quality food materials and ingredients to the immigrants or the economically backward classes. As suggested by Hassberg, travelling back to the point of history, it has been observed that The Black Panther Party (BPP), was popular in the American history of socialism in revisiting the 167 march in Sacramento. The marching black men and women signified a united front against the discriminatory treatment of the elite sections of society. Moreover, the black power movements have been quite impactful in shifting the attention of the ruling bodies toward the communal development of the black communities residing in the States.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that societal diversification has yet to be challenged and improved to stabilise the influence of the immigrant paradox all over the United States. Even though constant immigration has its share of advantages and challenges, society has been impacted by the permanency of every race and community across history. The common societal event to be observed in both the past and present societies is the unequal treatment and social injustices against the immigrants or the underprivileged communities based on various grounds like accessibility to quality food, equal distribution of work, race and colour. The course materials provide an empirical analysis of facts and I formation related to the mentioned issues and implications which have been critically presented in the essay.
References
Brady, Jennifer, et al. “Fat food justice: where fat studies meets food studies.” Fat Studies (2021): 1-8.
Hassberg, Analena Hope. “Nurturing the revolution: The Black Panther Party and the early seeds of the food justice movement.” Black food matters: Racial justice in the wake of food justice (2020): 82-106.
Manalansan, Martin Fajardo. “Immigrant lives and the politics of olfaction in the global city.” The smell culture reader. Berg, 2006. 41-52.
Mok, Aaron. “Queer, BIPOC Farmers Are Working For A More Inclusive And Just Farming Culture”. Civil Eats, 2021,
https://civileats.com/2021/04/01/queer-bipoc-farmers-are-working-for-a-more-inclusive-and-just-farming-culture/.
Pérez, Leda M., and Jacqueline Martinez. “Community health workers: social justice and policy advocates for community health and well-being.” American journal of public health 98.1 (2008): 11-14.
Pérez-Escamilla, Rafael. “Dietary quality among Latinos: is acculturation making us sick?.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 109.6 (2009): 988.
Tavernise, Sabrina. “The health toll of immigration.” The New York Times (2013).
Wild, Sarah. “Post-Coronavirus, How Can We Achieve Food Justice?”. Horizon Magazine, 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/post-coronavirus-how-can-we-achieve-food-justice.
Wright, W. J., et al. “Race, land, and the law: Black farmers and the limits of a politics of recognition.” Black food matters (2020): 228-50.