Notion Spaces and exchanges: Why did people immigrate to the USA through the centuries ?

Today , we're going to talk about the notion Spaces and Exchanges so, to introduce the topic , I'm going to give a definition : An exchange is the act of  giving or receiving something in substitution for something else. Today , these exchanges can take several forms such as economis exchanges (work exchanges, exchange of goods, trading across borders) , they can be cultural exchanges ( exchange of ideas, information, education) or they can even be movement of people (immigration student exchanges ...).

Our modern-day world is changing quickly and seems to be a smaller place due to improvements in technology and communication. Information exchange has become easier thanks to the internet and international trade has enabled us to expand our markets for goods and services that might not have been available to us.  These different cultural, economic, sociological and language interactions have transformed and characterised our modern-day world – sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

I will personnaly focus on the subject of the immigration so I'm going to speak about immigration in America that is very important. In effect, when the first English settlers reached the New World, over 40 million people have migrated to the United States. All Americans are immigrants or children of immigrants. The exception is probably the indians. But some anthropologists believe that the Indians themselves were immigrants from another continent. So , we can ask ourselves Why did people immigrate to the USA through the centuries ?

To answer this question , i'm going to talk about 3 documents that illustrate the immigration :

The 1st document is the song "isle of hope , isle of tears" written by Brendan Graham , an Irish composer and novelist.The song is in fact a tribute to Annie Moore , who was the 1st immigrant to pass through Ellis Island that is a gateway located in the harbour of NY that was open from 1892 to 1943.

"Isle of hope , Isle of tears" was actually a nickname given by the immigrants because they were hopeful to came to America to have a new start and a better life. They had new opportunities , they left poverty behind themselves but they were also sad of leaving their country , their families and never see them again . It's difficult to give up the references of our past.

Annie moore was 15 when she passed through Ellis Island and all she had was her memories, she didn't forget her past and that's what "the isle of home is always on your mind" highlights.

Immigrants arrived on Ellis Island looking for a peaceful country since their homeland was poor and unsafe. The writter is the narratior here and he reports he went to Ellis Island to understood how it felt when you were 15.

The song is both sad and hopeful because immigrants were sometimes torn apart between what they expected from the USA and the fact that members of their families were deported to their homelands.

The 2nd document is the cover of the famous weekly magazine TIME whose headline is "the new face of America" . The document deals with immigration to nowadays , which give a perspective of the immigration today , unlike the previous document.

Some years ago Time magazine published a special issue on multiculturalism in America. The cover featured a beguiling mestizo woman over the caption "the New Face of America." The cover girl was at once familiar and exotic. With her ambiguous features and coloring, she looked like someone you might encounter in a multiracial city like Los Angeles or Toronto — not Asian, Middle Eastern, African, or Anglo-Saxon, but something of all of them.

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