Jamie's Individual Blog Post #3

The House of the Scorpion novel by Nancy Farmer has several aspects, many of which relate to our grade 9 studies this year.  The one in the forefront of my mind during this novel is immigration- specifically of the illegal type.  The first thing that hit my mind was the slave trade, and how "slaves" used to go underground to get to other countries illegally.  However it took a lot of thought to make the connection to  the current date.  After a lot of thought I realized it happens all the time.  Unfortunately it's portrayed so negatively in the media, it's hard to see other perspectives on the issue.  In fact, in Canada there has been a recent incident of immigration illegally.  The case can be found at "http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/canadian_news/2012/03/12/3374.html"  and talks about a man 'organizing entry' into Canada.  The problem I see with articles in the news about illegal immigration is that they fail to see a different side to it.  They use words like "smuggling", which are intended to change our opinions.  The fact is, nobody (in their right mind) wants to just willingly be smuggled illegally into a different country if their home country is perfectly normal.  We are all human, and this is something the media never quite grasps.  They are not "aliens," nor are they "evil," they are simply people trying to get through.  In the book, Celia tells her story and refers to the smugglers as "coyotes" (Farmer 142).  They have to be secret, because our government refuses to see people in need of help from persecution in their home countries sometimes.  These are people risking their lives to come to our country, shouldn't we be flattered?  Understandably, there is an issue of space.  This leads me to believe that the government isn't evil, just concerned about their people's needs.  My only problem with this is that they focus on our wants more than our needs.