Group Theme Read: June-Voluntary Immigration

These are some suggested themes to consider while reading. It has also been suggested that recommendations for specific titles be posted under the general immigration topic previously established, and that we use this topic for the books we have each chosen and our comments/reactions/reviews.

Suggestions for focus on immigration:(Thanks to SqueakyChu)
1. Alienation
2. Cultural/social blunders
3. Underlying reasons (for immigration)
4. Successful (or unsuccessful) adaptation
5. Keeping customs from country of origin
6. Communication
7. Use only one culture (i.e. Koreans, Japanese, Jews, etc.)

Here are some questions that might be helpful in discussing our reading:

1. What country/culture are the protagonists from? Where did they go?
2. What prompted their move?
3. How easy or difficult was it for them to adjust to life in their new country?
4. What, if any, specific cultural issues hampered or assisted with their adjustment?
5. In what ways did the new country meet or fail to meet the characters' hopes, dreams and expectations?
6. Did the characters ever feel integrated into their country? Why or why not? What were some limitations to that integration?

Good questions! For those who feel inclined to make book recommendations for this theme, we ask that you do so on THIS 'immigrants, immigrations & its issues' thread. That will leave this disucssion thread relatively uncluttered. We can talk about the book we have chosen to read and report back on them.

One question I'd really like to see discussed is whether immigration (in the book each of us choose) is depicted as a uni-directional process in which immigrants go to a new country and more or less sever their connections with their home country or if immigration is depicted as a multi-directional process in which connections between the new country and the old country are strengthened or maintained.

I'm interested in this question because of Akram Khater's Inventing Home, which I recommended in the other thread a while ago, and which shows how Lebanese migrants to America who returned to Lebanon helped construct new notions of gender, class, and nationality based on their American experiences. The book was fascinating because it talked about immigration that didn't "work out" (in the sense that the immigrants failed to join the melting pot and eventually left their destination country) and because it discussed the impact of migration on the country of origin, rather than the country of destination. I hope its clear what I'm trying to ask. :0

I'm also interested in multigenerational issues.

1. Did the immigrants' children that were born in the new country or come to the new country at a very early age feel any ties to the old country?

2. How disappointed were the immigrants, if at all, if their children did not feel those ties to the old country?

The inheritance of loss might fit the criteria - one of the characters is a voluntary immigrant

My Antonia is another

The heart of redness - a voluntary immigrant returns to his former home country

Ignorance by Milan Kundera

My traitors heart - one of the grandchildren of the founders of apartheid returns to South Africa after immigrating

Shame by Salman Rushdie has a lovely gloss on translation and immigration--using the Rubaiyat Omar Khayam to explore what is lost (and gained) in the "translation" of both people and literature.

Please feel free to talk about what you've decided to read but please leave recommendations on the other thread. See link in message #3.
Thanks! (the list of possible books is virtually endless in this case and we'd like to leave this thread open for the discussion of books being read in June. It also gives us an idea of who's participating with us).

I'm going with Brick Lane by Monica Ali. It sounds very promising.

I'll be reading Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, which I picked up awhile ago and have been wanting to read.

Spotted this review of Paradise Travel, which looks as if it would fit the bill.

To add a twist, we might consider this issue from a slightly different angle. I've read a fair number of novels and memoirs that deal with issues of empire and colonization. One theme that has always interested me is how former imperialists (or their children) handle the return home when the colony declares its independence. Based on my reading, a lot of these people experience considerable trauma and do not easily adjust (if at all) to life in the home country. They, two, are immigrants in a sense. However, we don't usually focus on this group of people. Rather, we tend to focus on refugees, the disenfranchised, or those seeking new opportunities elsewhere.

I have chosen Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami.

#12 That would, indeed, be an interesting view. If there's enough interest, perhaps we could do month under a title such as "Post-Imperialism and Post-Colonialism"

>14 whymaggiemay: I would be interested, for sure.

>12 urania1:, 14 it does sound interesting; however, 'post colonialism' does generally refer to the literature of former colonial states/countries and likely not to the literature of former imperialists/colonists or their descendants who no longer live in the country.

I do recommend Brick Lane. As I mentioned on my Kindley group, I'm fascinated with those people I don't know, but wish I did. I live in Queens, so there are many Bangladeshi women in their hejabs, who inhabit their own worlds.

I'd love to share your thoughts on this one.

Pamela

Hello! This is my first theme read. I look forward to the discussions on some of the questions that have been posted. I'm going to read the namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. I'm interested in the challenges of adapting to a new culture while still honoring your heritage. Plus, it's been in my TBR pile for months and I can fit it into my "888" reading challenge! ;-)

Without even realizing it, I picked the perfect book for this challenge - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. This non-fiction work chronicles the cultural conflicts between the doctors and parents of a young Hmong girl suffering from severe epilepsy. The parents have not adapted to life in America at all, nor have the doctors made any effort to adapt to the parents spiritual beliefs about the nature of life and illness. I am about halfway through and utterly fascinated.

I loved The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down -- it was the book that started me reading everything Anne Fadiman writes.

We read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down in my book club and unanimously found it fascinating, which is not a common occurrence in our group.

I know it's not technically June yet, but I whipped through The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down much more quickly than anticipated. I'd like to post about it while it's still fresh in my mind.

Brief description The Spirit Catches You is the story of a conflict over the medical treatment of a young Hmong girl suffering from severe epilepsy. Her parents, who came to the United States as Vietnam War refugees, are unable to understand their doctors' instructions and deeply suspicious of Western medicine. The girl's doctors, on the other hand, make no efforts to bridge cultural gaps or understand the family's spiritual beliefs about the illness. This is a non-fiction work.

1. What country/culture are the protagonists from? Where did they go?
The family are Hmong refugees from Laos who immigrated to the U.S. after the Vietnam War.

2. What prompted their move?
The family occupies an uneasy border between voluntary and involuntary immigration. If not for the war, the Lees would have happily remained in their small mountain farming village for the rest of their lives. Although no one forced them at gun point to come to come to the United States, they immigrated out of desperation rather than desire.

3. How easy or difficult was it for them to adjust to life in their new country?
Adjustment was nearly impossible. Uneducated and illiterate even in their native language, the Lees made no attempt to learn to speak or read English, believing from the start that they were doomed to failure. The family had also heard terrifying rumors about life in the United States, like that doctors ate their patients' organs. They never interacted with Americans other than bureaucratic officials, which left them ill-equipped to cope with their daughter's medical crisis. The Hmong language does not even contain words for the body's internal organs, so they were completely unable to understand their daughter's medical condition. They also held deep spiritual beliefs and felt that their daughter's epilepsy was a result of a sickness in her soul. They were continually frustrated by their doctors' lack of concern for their daughter's soul and seeming lack of respect for their judgment as parents.

5. In what ways did the new country meet or fail to meet the characters' hopes, dreams and expectations?
First, the Lees, like many Hmong families, expected the American government to provide for them. Many of their tribesmen died fighting for America in the Vietnam War and they felt the CIA owed them a comfortable living in the U.S. once their homes were destroyed.
To them, this "comfortable living" meant a small amount of land to farm and materials to build their own homes. Instead, they lived on Welfare in inner city slums where they lacked the ability to support themselves. As members of a culture which highly valued independence, they found it intolerable to be so unable to find jobs.

Second, the Lees arrived in America expecting freedom. Because child rearing is so essential to their culture, their strongest desire was for autonomy to run their families according to their own beliefs. The Lees believed (partially accurately) that the medication they received from the hospital made their daughter sicker. They also felt traditional Hmong medicine was vital to her recovery. However, when they failed to administer drugs correctly, their daughter was seized and placed in foster care. Due to the lack of interpreters, they had never fully understood the severity of the situation.

6. Did the characters ever feel integrated into their country? Why or why not?
No. The Lee family always felt uncomfortable with American culture, which they found judgmental of their lifestyle. Their negative experiences with the medical profession deepened that distrust. The mother of the family repeatedly calls herself stupid because she is not able to learn English or integrate into American society.

#22 What a very sad situation. Given that the author(s) researched into this case, do you know whether the publication of the book (and, perhaps, the fact that there are more Hmong in the U.S. now who might translate) ever come to the aid of the Lee's in getting their child back and gaining an understanding (on both sides) of each other?

Well, I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, but I will say that the legal situation is resolved by the end of the book. As for building acceptance in the medical community, I think that the multiple interviews each doctor and family member went through helped clarify each other's position, though at that point it was really too late to help the child in question. The last chapter in the book details changes in medicine since the original situation, which began in the early 1980s, and the publication of the book in 1998. Reading the book really reminded me that in terms of tolerance and acceptance, the United States was a very different country not that long ago. As much as we valued the melting pot rhetoric, I don't think people really had much respect for other cultures. It's certainly not perfect now, but I think it's improved a lot. A couple of friends and relatives in med school mentioned that they were asked to read this book, which I thought was encouraging.

I, too, finished early a book which fits the June read. Hearts West, True Stories of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier by Chris Enss. It was not a book I intentionally read for this group, but it fits the criteria.

Because many of the mail-order brides who were the focus of the book were migrating from the East Coast to the West Coast, most of the questions posed don't apply to them. Generally, their reasons for migrating were that there was a lack of marriagable men in their area due to the Civil War or that life in the West where they would have the protection of a husband and a home were monumentally better than what they currently experienced.

For those who were truly immigrating (Russian, German, Irish, and Spanish) they chose the West for the same reasons as the American brides--opportunity. Because it was the 1860s to 1880s, these women were forced to turn their backs on their old lives and embrace the new husband, country, and way of life. Language was sometimes a barrier, but they quickly learned their new language and soldiered on. Nearly all seemed to be very satisfied with the parts of the country they were going to (North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Texas) and, mostly, the husband they were taking on faith. On occasion, the match didn't work out, which appears to have been apparent from the beginning and the engagement (or marriage) was quickly ended.

Though I found the book interesting, I was disappointed that there wasn't more quoted from their diaries. I also wondered about the numerous Chinese women who migrated to the West. I'm sure that, assuming that they kept diaries, the translation of the language would have been an impediment to using their material. Still, I thought it was a fertile area which was perhaps discarded or overlooked.

#24 I appreciate your not wanting to spoil the story and giving me some info at the same time. I would agree that in terms of understanding of foreign cultures, we've made some inroads in the last few years, but we still have a long way to go.

I'm just beginning my June read, which is Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. But I begin by discovering that Unaccustomed Earth comes from a Hawthorne quote imploring people to put down their roots and those of their children in new soil (unaccustomed earth) rather that in old, so clearly I have chosen a good book for this theme. Indeed, story one seems to tackle multiple levels of "immigration" - the prior generation's from India to America, and this generation's within America, from the right coast to the left.

Hi--
I'm new here, but this seems like an exciting group. One of my favorite things about reading is the ability to discover other worlds, particularly other worlds within my own.

I want to second the recommendations of Brick Lane and anything by Lahiri (although I haven't read Unaccustomed Earth yet.) I'll be excited to learn what you think.

As far as what I'm reading, I'm thinking of doing Amit Chaudhuri's Afternoon Raag which I just got as a gift from one of my professors.
Lots of South-East Asian books in this thread, it seems. It'll be great to hear from everyone.

I'm reading Brick Lane at the moment, and the very first thing that struck me (even though I'm not very far into it yet) is how important language is. Navneen can't communicate with anyone except a select few from the community she lives in, because she doesn't know English. This leads to an incredible isolation, and is, I think, one of the reasons immigration can often be so difficult.

I see it in my own country, where a lot of Maroccan or Turkish women (especially the older ones) don't understand or speak Dutch. They can't communicate! I see it a lot in my line of work, a lot of time their children have to translate. Just imagine, a woman is called by an employee of a bank about her account, and her eight year old son has to translate! It's ridiculous, but it happens.

And because they don't know the language, they can only communicate with other Moroccan/Turkish people who speak their language, and they don't integrate, because they only know their own culture. Language, I think, is a big reason of the problems with immigrants.

I agree with you, Samantha_kathy. In fact, I lived that problem for myself when I lived in Tokyo. The language was so different from anything I had studied before. It just refused to stick in my mind. As a full-time student, it might not have been a problem. But, as a full-time employee of a busy English school, one that often required me to work overtime, it was almost impossible to take the time I needed to learn the language. I can only imagine how much worse this would have been if I had had children to take care of. I think the problem is compounded for a lot of immigrants because they may not have had much education even in their native language. I take for granted a basic knowledge of grammar that I can translate to other languages I learn, as well as some confidence in academic skills. Not everyone has that background. One of the biggest reasons that the parents in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down didn't learn English was that they were not even literate in their own language. Getting an education was such an intimidating prospect that they assumed they would be incapable without even trying.

Samantha_kathy, cestovatela
I agree. Also, as the child of an immigrant – one who happens to speak her adopted language quite well – I can see how the language barrier can easily create a generation gap. Their lack of language skills can make parents appear inept and even stupid to their kids, who tend to naturally pick up these kinds of things a lot faster. Add that to a – to a kid – illogical or backwards attachment to the cultural norms of the 'old country,' and many immigrant parents end up facing generation gaps that are far greater than the teenage rebellion and eye-rolling faced by even non-immigrants. I seem to remember I noticed some of this attitude in Brick Lane, although it's been a while since I read it.

I wonder if others have noticed that sort of dynamic in their books?

I've been reading The Belly Of The Atlantic by Fatou Diome, a book I bought because of LT - I think it was one of depressaholic's global reads. It's written by a Senegalese woman living in France.

Unlike I think every other book I've read about 'immigration', this focuses on the village left behind - and the way that the dream of a golden life in France is built up, so that many of the younger people only wish to emigrate. Although life for Senegalese immigrants in France is tough, those that do make it exaggerate both the ease with which they earned their living, and the level of wealth which they have ended up with.

The book is narrated by a woman who did manage to leave the village and live in France, a young writer named Salie. Regular phone calls from her brother - generally to ask about the outcome of a football match interrupted by the village's intermittent power supply - give her the opportunity to reminisce about life in Niodior. The book also looks at her identity, and the conflicts that she faces when she returns to the island: although she is settled in Strasbourg (and going through the process of naturalisation), she tries to talk her brother out of his dreams of going to France and becoming a famous footballer - although she welcomes the chance to return, she feels that she is treated like a foreigner (and that if she complains about the way that the villagers direct her life when she is back, it's attributed to her Westernised sense of individuality).

So this is much more about the ties between the immigrant and her/his home, and between the ex-colony and the metropole, than about the immigrant experience in the new country. It's not easy to tell how Salie really feels about France. Certainly, things haven't been easy for her there - but then, they weren't when she was in Senegal either. She concludes that as a writer, her home is a notebook: "Always in exile, with roots everywhere, I'm at home where Africa and Europe put aside their pride and are content to join together: in my writing, which is rich with the fusion they've bequeathed me."

#31
I did read this a while ago, and really enjoyed it. I thought one of the most interesting things was the contrast between the naive hopes of the boy in terms of the way emigrating would change his life, and the reality that Salie found herself living through in France. The two characters almost provide a 'before' and 'after' perspective on being eceonomic migrants from Senegal to Europe.

I've just finished listening to the unabridged audiobook A Free Life by Ha Jin. This was not a book I specifically picked out for this read; I picked it up at the library as my commuting-in-my-car book. The down side of an audiobook is that it's very hard to go back and refresh details.

Chinese graduate student Nan Wu was studying political science in the United States. After the Tienamen Square Massacre, he was involved with anti-Chinese government movements and due to some rash statements found his Chinese passport cancelled, stranding him in the US. He brings over his wife Ping Ping and three years later his six year old son Tao Tao.

This is the story of their life as they negotiate the complexities of every day US life.

Nan Wu gives up PoliSci and dreams of being a poet. After a series of jobs, he becomes a cook in a Chinese restaurant to support himself and his family. Eventually they purchase a Chinese Restaurant in Atlanta. Nan Wu and Ping Ping both work there seven days a week from opening to closing.

Because of the number of hours at the business, they have few friends, American or Chinese. They negotiate the hurdles of life with support only from each other.

They watch their son grow up and becoming less and less Chinese (he forgets the Chinese language he was so fluent in and refuses to learn the characters to write them.)

Throughout all this, Nan continues to long to be a poet; he is torn between writing in his native Chinese and English which, although he is a fairly fluent speaker, he cannot make sing and cry as a poet must do. He also continues longing for the woman who was his first idealized love back in China.

After Nan becomes a naturalized citizen he wins a short trip back to China. His vision becomes much clearer as he speaks to friends that have stayed in China, those who hope to leave, and those who have returned to China from foreign countries. He searches out his idealized first love only to find she is no longer in China.

All the Wu's found language a problem. Besides Nan's struggle with writing poetry in English, Ping Ping would have liked to go to the University, but had never learned to read and write English. Tao Tao wants only to forget Chinese.

The metaphor of 'learning a new alphabet of American life' is used several times. On a trip to China, Nan advices his brother not to emmigrate because it is very hard to learn a language after age 40. Another friend tells Nan that Nan himself will not be a poet--but his grandson could be.

I really loved the ending of this novel and found it very satisfying.

Author Ha Jinn himself was a graduate student in the US, and became a US citizen. I suspect this is written from his heart and his life. It gave me a much greater appreciation of the Chinese post- doctorial fellows I work with.

I highly recommend this book and will pursue more of Ha Jin's writing.

I liked both Waiting and War Trash by Ha Jin.

Enrique’s Journey, the Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite With His Mother is a non-fiction book about the trip that thousands of children make every year in following their parents (usually their mother) from their homelands in Central America and Mexico to the United States. The author, Sonia Nazario, chose Enrique as her main focus because his story is fairly typical, though he was much luckier than many who follow the quest.

When Enrique was five years old his mother, Lourdes (a divorced mother of two), left for the United States to try to make more money for her children. It was not an easy decision for her to leave her children and travel thousands of miles from her home, but economically a very necessary one. Her intent was to stay for only two or three years and then return. Feeling it was wrong to burden anyone with both her children, she placed Enrique in his father’s care, and his older sister, Belky, with her sister.

After she reached the U.S., Lourdes called her children at least once a month and sent them money, clothes, and toys. She did not forget them, and tried to save enough money to have them brought to her. However, her children don’t understand the sacrifice she’s made for them; they only want her home. They’re confused and angry by her desertion. Belky adjusts better than Enrique as she’s several years older, understands the issues more fully, and because her aunt does an excellent job in nurturing and raising her.

Enrique feels completely abandoned. His father is distant and disinterested in his son, and eventually remarries, driving a further wedge between them. Enrique is eventually shuttled off to his grandmother, who loves him very much, but is too old to care for a troubled young child and her health suffers. Enrique begins to rebel against her and as he gets older begins to use drugs (alcohol, marijuana, and sniffing glue). Because his grandmother can no longer control him and she fears him when he’s on drugs, she arranges for Enrique to be taken by his uncle, his mother’s brother. Enrique sees this as yet another rejection.

Luckily Enrique and his uncle get along well and Enrique begins to make great strides in school and getting away from drugs. Then tragedy strikes when his uncle and another relative are murdered. Enrique is emotionally devastated, and his aunt, now a widow with several children of her own, sends him back to his grandmother.

For the first time, in his phone conversations with his mother, Enrique begins to talk about traveling to see her in the U.S. Lourdes knows how dangerous the trip is, riding the trains, dodging the bandits and the police. She fears for him and desperately tries to talk him out of it. Enrique finds people who know a little about the journey and he begins to plan.

In the meantime, Enrique has grown and is now sixteen. He has a girlfriend, Maria Elena, who loves him, but is confused and angered by his drug use (to which he returned after his uncle’s death) and his talk about leaving her to go to the U.S. to see his mother. Enrique cares deeply for Maria Elena, but he’s consumed by the fantasy mother he has created in his mind. One day he steps off the porch and begin the quest to find his mother. It is indeed a perilous journey, and it takes him 8 attempts before he is finally successful (with the aid of a coyote paid for by his mother). Mother and son are finally reunited when Enrique is 17.

Which country/culture are the protagonists from? Where did they go?

When he was 16 years old, Enrique left Honduras for the United States.

What prompted their move?

He was hoping to find his mother, Lourdes, who had left his home 10 years before to come to the U.S. to make enough money to support her two children.

How easy or difficult was it for them to adjust to life in their new country?

Language was their biggest problem. Because we have Spanish language programs on the television they found it easy to get news, sports, and daytime and evening programming in their birth language. Thus, they made little attempt to learn English.

Both Enrique and Lourdes found some things easy—finding jobs was fairly easy, they both loved how clean everything is in the U.S. and the great abundance of everything. However, they felt that they were looked down on by Americans. In fact, Enrique said they looked at him like he was an insect.

What, if any, specific cultural issues hampered or assisted with their adjustment?

Both were aided by the fact that there are so many Hispanics in this country that they could always find someone who could help them with whatever they needed—a job, car, information, whatever. By the same token, that same thing held them back from assimilating. They didn’t feel the necessity to learn English or learn our culture because they were so comfortable in their own while in our country.

In what ways did the new country meet or fail to meet the characters' hopes, dreams and expectations?

Lourdes did not see the U.S. as home. To her, Honduras would always be home. The U.S. was a nice place with pleasant people who often helped her, but it was only a stop gap. She wanted to return to Honduras (with Enrique) and be with her daughter. However, monetarily that was an impossibility. To return to Honduras was for everyone to starve.

For Enrique, the U.S. was the mecca and he wanted to stay and become a citizen. He had the quintessential American dream of bringing his girl friend and their baby to the U.S. and live here. He hoped to get a better job and eventually own a house, etc.

Did the characters ever feel integrated into their country? Why or why not? What were some limitations to that integration?

As indicated above, their inability to learn English was a huge drawback, especially because they were living in North Carolina, where there were fewer Spanish speakers outside their own Hispanic group. Otherwise, they integrated well, getting jobs, apartments, cars, etc. They were both, of course, being “paid under the table.” As a result they were not paying taxes and they were both sending money home virtually every month. When asked whether they thought something needed to be done about the immigration problem in the U.S., Enrique was the one who definitely felt it needed to be fixed because there were so many Hispanics living in the U.S. not paying taxes, and sending their money out of the country every month. I think in Enrique’s mind he is already a citizen; the U.S. is “his” country and he wants to be able to fix some things he sees wrong with it, including immigration.

I read Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami. This book was chosen for the 2008 "If All of Rochester Read the Same Book......" selection. In a literary sense, the book was nothing to write home about. However, it certainly felt like an accurate treatise on the motivations and potential hazards in emigration. The premise of the book is that four people are sharing an inflatable raft as they try to sneak into Spain from Morocco. The story goes on to describe the variety of experiences these individuals have.

Faten, in her efforts to convert to and be a devout practitioner of the Muslim faith, neglects studies and consequently runs out of educational and employment opportunities. She was successful in entering Spain, but ended up earning a living as a whore, not exactly in line with her Muslim belief system. She gave up everything to become Muslim and lost everything trying to survive.

Aziz, married, with technical training could not find work with his skills. He left his wife behind and was successful entering Spain. He found satisfying work, however, he was unable to reconcile the Spanish lifestyle with his Moroccan lifestyle and Muslim faith, so he left his wife permanently and chose Spain.

Halima fell from the raft and ended up back in Morocco. She was able to develop a satisfying, if less prosperous, life at home.

Murad was apprehended as he tried to get into Spain from the coast and was sent back to Morocco. His life continued to consist of failures and disappointments, apparently because he was always dreaming that his life would be better elswhere and got involved in many schemes.

I liked the book, because it provides a valuable warning about the realities and risks of trying to emigrate, particularly illegally, into another country. It left me feeling that in many ways success depends not just on motivation and talent, but a whole lot of luck. There were two "morals to the story", in my opinion. First, that it can be dangerous to live in the future. Second, that when it comes to faith and religion, they are a luxury when one is just trying to survive. Nothing is 100%, the outcome of hopefulness or the danger of pursuing a dream.

I'm still working on Brick Lane, but when I read the scene where Chanu and Nazneen are visiting Dr. Azad, something jumped at me. It's always the women who want to adjust to the new culture and men who want to keep their own (at least in the house), especially when the women have more freedom in the new culture then in the old one.

It's logical, I suppose, that the women see the freedom and want to grab hold of it. It's also, I think, where a lot of extreme behavior stems from. Some women who are opressed by their culture (read: their husbands/men in their lives) in the new land, might have had substantially more freedom in their old country. But in the new country, the men see danger, the danger of loosing their total control, and keep the women on a much tighter leash.

Now is it just me that thinks that this is happening when I hear messages of women being kept prisoner in their own home, because of their 'fate'? Or would they have been locked up in a country where that religion was all around too?

>Samantha_kathy that's an interesting insight and question. Yes, definitely, I can see how being in a society that's freer for women would trigger a controlling man's fears. I haven't read Brick Lane, although I do have it in MT TBR--I'll definitely think about that point as I read it. Neither the book I posted about above, A Free Life, or my choice that I'm still reading , Roughing It In the Bush, were examples of women coming into a freer society.

>36 hemlokgang: hemlockgang Very interesting, thank you. I also have that book in the TBR mountain, and I am still thinking about reading it for this read--although I'll be somewhat late.

>whymaggiemay --Also very interesting! Amazing that a young boy could do that. I'm glad that you chose a story about Central America; it's an area I haven't read much from. These theme reads open up such a wealth of new books to read.

Questions for everyone: Do you think the people in your chosen book had a tougher-than-average time emmigrating? Are we only seeing the stories that are so full of hardship because they are 'interesting' and sell books? Or do you think their story is typical?

I'd definitely say that the people in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down had a tougher than average time. Not everyone who comes to the United States has an epileptic daughter. Also, many immigrants who come to the United States have at least a basic education in their home countries. The family in the Spirit Catches You could not even read in their own language and they did not even understand that the human body contained internal organs. This made comprehending their daughter's medical condition nearly impossible.

It's hard to say what's an "average" time for an immigrant, but I do think most immigrants have a harder time than they expect. I can't even count the number of people in my travels who have given me the "streets paved with gold" version of America. Everyone asks me how much money I make, which sounds staggering in local currency. Few people ask me how much rent or groceries cost. Coming here means discovering that the "American Dream" is harder to achieve than most people expect and that integrating/not integrating presents far more dilemmas than most people could imagine. And it's hard to believe that anyone could foresee the generation gap that can spring up between immigrant parents and their Americanized children.

I think my book's entire purpose was to describe the wide range of possible outcomes, one of the reasons I liked it so much. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

>38 streamsong: No, I don't think they have a thougher-than-average time emmigrating. But integrating? Maybe. My book tells the story from the woman's point of view, but as far as I can see it, her husband is well integrated, but the way his culture, and thus upbringing, shaped him, gives him a severe handicap in fitting in with the Western work ethic. Or maybe that's just his character. Hard to tell really. But I do think that most problems the characters in this book encounter do happen in most people in real life too. I see it around me when I'm in the bigger cities around here often enough.

streamsong ~ I think for Enrique the act of migration was the hardest part. In fact, it was extremely dangerous. The kids ride sitting on the top of the trains and/or jump from car to car while it's moving. There are bandits and rogue cops who try to rob, rape, and beat them up as well. Enrique survived more than one attack like that. Once they make it to the U.S. they have the desert to contend with as well as the Border Patrol. In addition, they are often caught and sent back (from various points along the trip) and then they start all over again. It took Enrique a year and a half to make it, and then only with the help of a coyote.

The story of Enrique was told by a journalist whose housekeeper was the mother of a child who had made the trip. That got her interested and she began writing articles in the LA Times as she did research and as she took the same journey that they did. She won a Pulitzer for the story and that probably led to the book opportunity.

I highly recommend the book. Nazario did an excellent job of discussing all the sides of the numerous issues involved in this situation. As a Californian I found it very enlightening.

I had thought to post following the reading of The Hiding Place by Tezza Azzopardi but the book is not really about immigration. Some background is given on the father of the family who has run from Malta as much as he is reaching for the UK. Instead, I may post around the collection of poetry I just finished, Leaving Yuba City by Chitra Divakaruni. Yuba City was a town in California where some of the first Indian immigrants to the United States lived. More after I've had time to reread them with this thread in mind.

Yay! I finished the first of the two books that I had set for myself to read: Roughing It In the Bush by Susanna Moodie.

This is an absolutely wonderful story of pioneering in Canada. In 1832 Susanna Moodie and her husband emmigrated from England to Canada. Belonging to the gentry, they had a unique pioneer experience--land speculation, bears, wolves, starvation, bitter cold, never ending physical labor, fires, and whirlwinds. Susanna Moodie published this account in 1852 to paint the true picture of pioneer life and to discourage others from reading only the rosy tales of land speculators trying to encourage the pioneering of Canada. It's an amazing story and an amazing psychological portrait of struggle. This is a landmark of Canadian literature; it is sometimes called the first Canadian novel.

1. What country/culture are the protagonists from? Where did they go?
The Moodies were gentry from England; they immigrated to Canada in 1832.

2. What prompted their move?
Mr Moodie was a younger son of an impoverished family. He was a 'subaltern' officer and believed that he would not have an opportunity to make his fortune in Britain. So they emmigrated to take advantage of the land in Canada that was granted to him as a British officer.

3. How easy or difficult was it for them to adjust to life in their new country?
Very difficult. They had all the standard pioneer hardships. In addition, they were handicapped by their station in life--they weren't used to doing hard physical work. Even while starving, they had both household help and help for the farm.

4. What, if any, specific cultural issues hampered or assisted with their adjustment?
The gentry were not respected as pioneers. In several place Susanna Moodie bemoaned the fact that those that came to Canada with a bit of money were set upon and swindled on all sides and became broke in a matter of a few years. In contrast, those who came to Canada with no money and worked hard were often successful in raising their station in life.

5. In what ways did the new country meet or fail to meet the characters' hopes, dreams and expectations?
At the end of this journal, the Moodies left the Bush and moved to town. They were not able to carve a farm from the wilderness.

6. Did the characters ever feel integrated into their country? Why or why not? What were some limitations to that integration?

At this point , I would say no. While there were aspects of the bush they enjoyed greatly, they gave up this part of the dream and moved onwards. I believe there were a total of 3 journals published (this one was 550 pages) so the story goes onward. She does say that she would never return to England; in part because several of her children were buried in Canada.

An amazing book. 5 stars.

Onward to the second part of my read: The Journals of Susanna Moodie by Margaret Atwood. This is Susanna Moodie's experience told in Margaret Atwood's unforgetable poetry.

The Journals of Susanna Moodie by Margaret Atwood

This is Atwood's poetic and artistic rendering of Susanna Moodie's journals. Wow. What can I say? I enjoyed Roughing It in the Bush so much--and yet Atwood cuts to its very heart, refines it and gets to its very essence. I've read reviews that say that these two books are almost cliches in Canada. But I had read neither one, and I am blown away. Is there a rating higher than 5 stars?

As Atwood says in the afterword--she is talking of Canada, but I think it applies to life itself: "We are all immigrants to this place even if we were born here."

So true, streamsong!

I’m starting to question my ability to select books for these LT challenges. Without first reading a book, how does one know if it will really work for the topic? For this challenge I read How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez. I was well into the book before I realized that their immigration may not have been voluntary at all. This is the story of four girls who move from the Dominican Republic to the US. As children, they had no say in where they lived. Their father decided to leave for political reasons, which seems voluntary, but he was also escaping from a future in prison, or possibly death, so hmmm, maybe not so voluntary after all. Yet, relatives and friends chose to remain in the Dominican Republic, and they survived, so did he really have to flee? And further, the family migrates back and forth between the States and the Dominican Republic, and I wonder if they are really transnationals and not immigrants. All of which makes me think how amorphous both terms “voluntary” and “immigration” are in our complex world. But the book touched on enough of the themes of voluntary immigration that I think I can squeeze it into this category.

How easy or difficult was it for them to adjust to life in their new country? What, if any, specific cultural issues hampered or assisted with their adjustment?

In the Dominican Republic, the family was upper class, living on an estate and having servants. The women were well-coiffed and manicured, and rigorously followed a lady-like version of Catholicism. They arrive in the US in the 60s, have lost status and fortune, and are now living a middle class life. The most interesting aspects of the sisters’ assimilation is their attempts to reject their traditional background and join the free-love, pot-smoking world of the late 60s. Of course they had difficulties, but nothing that other immigrants haven’t struggled with.

In what ways did the new country meet or fail to meet the characters' hopes, dreams and expectations? Did the characters ever feel integrated into their country? Why or why not? What were some limitations to that integration?

The girls definitely preferred the cultural freedoms that they gained by living in the US, yet they did not entirely reject the Dominican Republic. After their arrival in the States, there are frequent lengthy trips back, and as an adult, one of the daughters considers moving back. I think they become transnationals, enjoying the best of what is available to them, rather than immigrants who have to choose one country over the other.

I didn't actually plan to participate in this group read, but then on a whim I picked up the emigrant suite by Vilhelm Moberg and read it last week. (The individual books in this suite are 1. The Emigrants, 2. Unto a Good Land, 3. The Settlers, and 4. The Last Letter Home.) The plot does fit the bill and it is still June, so I might as well say something about the books.

This is a fictional story based on thorough research by the author about the large emigration of people from Sweden to what is now the United States during the mid-eighteen hundreds. I would call this a big story on many levels, not only is it thick (1800+ pages in my edition) and one of the more prominent classics of 20th centuary swedish literature, but it also spans a long period of time (from youth to death of the main characters) and portraits a fair number of people with their different traits, temperaments, believes, backgrounds, and development. They emigrate for different reasons and handle their situation in the New World in different ways. The whole of the first book takes place in their native district in Sweden and at the voyage across the ocean. In other words, I will have to drop SPOILERS of latter parts of the story in order to discuss the questions of this group read. You have hereby been warned! (Speaking for myself, I still found it a very good read though, in spite of being familiar with the story beforehand, having seen both the TV version and the musical based on the books).

1. What country/culture are the protagonists from? Where did they go?

They come from Ljuder, Småland in southern Sweden, which they leave in 1850 to eventually end up in Taylors Falls, Minnesota Territory, North America. The family of central characters claim a piece of land by Lake Ki-Chi-Saga (today Chisago Lake), a place where no white people had settled before them, so it's basically in the middle of nowhere.

2. What prompted their move?

Sweden had experienced a rapid increase in population, leading to a decrease in the sizes of individual lots of land. By this time, there simply wasn't enough farm-land to feed everybody in this part of the country. The central family in the story was lucky enough to own a piece of land of its own, but following consecutive years of crop failure they, especially the children, were starving and on the verge of death. The father (Karl Oskar), who is the more adventurous of the couple, has heard about good farm-land in America and wants them to try their luck there. The mother (Kristina) is more cautious but later agrees to the move for the sake of their children, hoping it will be the right thing to do.

Other people in the village decide to do the same journey, but mainly for other reasons, such as: pursuit of religious freedom outside the Lutheran state church, leaving a socially stigmatic situation to start over fresh, becoming their own masters without having to work for somebody else, or even leaving a bad marriage. In total a party of 16 people sets out together to find a new life in North America. They were the first to leave their community, and they didn't know much of what they had to expect.

3. How easy or difficult was it for them to adjust to life in their new country?
4. What, if any, specific cultural issues hampered or assisted with their adjustment?

I'll lump these two questions together.

First of all, the journey in itself was dangerous and difficult, stretching over half a year. Typically, ten percent of the emigrants didn't make it to their destination, nor does everybody in the book.

They did not speak any English when they first arrived in America and some of them could only read a little and hardly write at all even in their native tongue. This makes them easy prey for dishonest people. They also have very vague ideas about the geography and vastness of their new country. Once they finally arrive in the place where they decide to stay they literally have to start their new lives from scratch. They settle in a remote area without neighbors (besides some nomadic indians, with whom they don't interact much), so there is not much of immediate culture to adjust to, and in the beginning they mainly have to focus on mere survival. Nearly out of cash and too late in the year to grow food for the first winter there, they are in for a rough start. The whole group settles in the same area, but not as a concentrated village with regular contact with one another, though they do keep in touch and help each other when needed. Karl Oskar and Kristina prioritize finding and cultivating good farmland to feed their family much higher than integration into the culture. They come to lead a very isolated life.

Karl Oskar, the father of the family, is the one who undertakes the rare visits to Taylor Falls in order to buy or sell goods and to recieve news and letters from the outside world. For a long time this is that family's only interaction with the surrounding culture. Other people in the story interact more and a couple eventually even marry Americans and one gets a job as maid in a local family. These circumstances of course have huge impacts on their integration.

They were all very much aware of the no-going-back nature of their migration, but handled it in different ways. They knew, intellectually, that they never ever in this world were to see their kinfolks, friends, or the familiar places back in Sweden again once they had left. For a few, especially those with bad experiences, this was to a considerable part a relief and they happily embraced their new lives. For others, especially Kristina (the mother in the farmer family) it was a lot more agonizing to leave the old life behind and grow to feel at home in America. In her mind Kristina often goes back to Sweden, which remains to be "home" for her.

After some time in America, a newspaper in Swedish for Swedish immigrants is started. The family subscribes as they consider it important both to keep up with events back home and as it tells about events in the U.S. It becomes an important source of information for them in their remote corner of the country, thus helping the integration process.

5. In what ways did the new country meet or fail to meet the characters' hopes, dreams and expectations?

They really didn't know much about what to expect, but had made their images. They had read a little and heard a little by hearsay about North America -- some of it true, some of it exaggerative. The place the company chose to go to was the new home of the son of an elderly couple at the boat from Sweden. He had been writing home to tell his folks how great he was doing. Let's just say that he certainly hadn't expected anyone to follow him and show up on his doorstep to call his bluff ...

The farmers still had to work as hard in the fields (maybe not what they hoped for) but now it paid off and they had enough to eat. Karl Oskar is mainly satisfied with the new country thinking it is what they had hoped for or more, but Kristina feels terribly isolated and has problems coping with the loneliness and everything unfamiliar.

And yes, those who seeked religios freedom got to enjoy it. Some unexpected back sides of this were the difficulty to merge the few neighbors together to form a congregation in the new settlement and the schisms arising between people of numerous different believes who ended up living side by side in the new country, or between former members of one church who convert to another and their old co-members.

The one who adapts best is probably the former whore, who really gets a second chance in life thanks to the migration and ends up a respected member of society and being content with her life.

Finally, there is the dreamer of the group who always seeks something better than he has. He doesn't stay long in the settlement before he leaves together with a friend to go to California to dig for gold, and ends up crashing the hardest as the dreams meet reality.

6. Did the characters ever feel integrated into their country? Why or why not? What were some limitations to that integration?

As time passes most of them are able to create good lives for themselves and the settlement grows when new immigrants arrive. Most of the new-comers are Swedish or Norwegian, so their community constitutes a sub-culture, where they can keep their old language for daily use and build and keep a school and a church of their own. The language barrier continues to be a main obstacle for many of them in their integration with the outside community. Especially Kristina hardly ever leaves the farm. She only has a few Swedish friends, and never learns English beyond some vary basic phrases and words. She gets upset with her husband's language as he forgets to speak his native tongue properly and starts mixing English words and grammar into it. (I read the books in Swedish and I don't envy the people who had to translate these novels from Swedish... It must have been a great challenge. I don't know how well they succeeded in mirroring the language used by the immigrants.) She reaches the point of accepting her life for what it turned out to be, but she probably never stopped thinking about her own country.

As Karl Oskar becomes elderly his life and mind is not occupied by work as before, and like so many old people his early memories stand out more prominently than the more recent ones. In addition he feels somewhat left out from the life of the younger generations, resulting in him spending an increasing amount of time thinking about his old native country.

The children, who were either very young when they arrived or who were born in America, are integrated on a totally different scale. They learn English well and forget the Swedish language to a large degree. The two oldest siblings may have very vague memories of their native country, but still Sweden is more like a fairy tale country to them, something their parents talk about. As they grow up they are ashamed of their father's bad English and some of his ways (regarding dressing etc) and they make efforts to become Americans themselves.

>>Annix Thanks for your post. I've read book three of this series, The Settlers. I found it well written and true to what I know of my German grandparents' homesteading experience.

I didn't knowthese books were considered a Swedish classic. It's interesting to me that Sweden has classic literature about people leaving and emmigrating to a new country, rather than about the joys of immigrating to Sweden. But then, this may be my US-centric view when there is so much US writing about coming to the US and pioneering, carving out new civilization etc. I can think of classic US literature about ex-pats living abroad such as Tender is the Night, but not of a pioneering experience in another country.

It's once more time to add to my tbr pile to read the other books in this series.

>47 Nickelini: Nickelini I think from what you've said, your book fits in nicely as another face of the choice to leave one's homeland.

I've written a review of Brick Lane, the book I read for this theme. It can be found here.

>49 streamsong: Streamsong, thanks for your input! I'm glad you liked The Settlers and hope you'll enjoy the rest of the series as well!

I can understand your surprise about the topic of emigration for a national classic, but as a Swede I have never really looked at it in that way. Unlike the U.S., Sweden does not have the identity of an immigration country. In the U.S. the vast majority – everybody apart from the pure native Americans – has immigrant ancestry only a few generations back, whereas in Sweden most people have lived here for as long as they can remember. Take me, for example. I actually do not have a single ancestor during the past 300 years who wasn't born in this country, and the same is probably true for a great part of the swedish population today, and even more so at the time when these novels were written (1949-59.) In that kind of historical setting it would be more peculiar to have much literature dealing with immigration to Sweden. It wasn't until 1930 that Sweden had a net immigration again after almost a centuary of massive emigration. (Since then immigration has continued to dominate and the trend has been toward increased migration both in and out of the country.)

To me the appeal of the Emigrant suite is that I find it easy to identify with the protagonists, not mainly because of their particular place in time or geography, but simply because they are so human. The suite portraits a group of rather different individuals and how they cope with their sometimes extraordinary circumstances in life. Even in my sheltered life 150 years later, I can relate to them as people. That, to me, is a sign of good literature. In addition to that it is a historical document (though fictional) of a time of major changes, and thus of great importance to Sweden. Most Swedes also have some more or less distant relatives who emigrated to the U.S. during the nineteenth centuary, which also contributes to the local interest in these books.

On the other hand, I admit that especially the first book in this suit focuses immensely on the problems in Sweden at this time, and it certainly isn't flattering at all. This point of view was of course not the whole truth for Swedish society at the time and in more patriotic countries that would probably be held against the work and decrease its possibility of becoming a classic. I think it is appropriate and necessary to make this story believeable, though. The protagonists were supposedely among the very first to emigrate from there and they would have needed very strong reasons to take such a leap into the unknown. There definitely were people living like this back then and I think it would be dangerous to conceal that part of history, obscuring the possibility to learn from our past.

And for the number freaks... Checking the census data at the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics ( http://www.scb.se/templates/tableOrChart____26046.asp ) it's seen that about 1.24 million people emigrated from Sweden between 1850 and 1914. Most of them went to the United States. To have something to relate these numbers to, 8.4 million people were born, 5.1 millions died, and 0.26 million people immigrated to Sweden during the same years, while the total national population increased from 3.5 to 5.7 millions. So, yes, I think this emigration era deserves its place in both the history books and fiction.

Edit note: Correcting a couple of typos.

Samantha_Kathy when I tried to get to your blog to read your entire review, I got a message that said "The blog you are looking for was not found". I've got Brick Lane in my tbr pile for an online group read later this fall.

Annix thank you so much for your thoughtful and educational reply. I learned a lot and it will really add to my enjoyment and understanding as I read the other three books in the series.

hemlokgang--I recently finished reading Hope and Other Pursuits. I enjoyed this portrait of those who make the desperate decision to become illegal immigrants. I'll try to be somewhat subtle, but ***possible spoiler alert*** There was one outcome which didn't happen, that I was expecting and dreading. I wonder why the author decided to not pursue that story of that outcome.

I only just got around to reviewing Afternoon Raag, by Amit Chaudhuri but since I read the book within the month of June, I'll post here anyway...

Here's the review.
And here are the questions for the theme:

1. What country/culture are the protagonists from? Where did they go?
I don't know if the novel is supposed to be autobiographical, but it's written in the first person and roughly follows what I know of Chaudhuri's life. The protagonist is from India (his family is Bengali, and overlaps the India/Bangladesh border.) For the duration of the book, however, the he is living in Oxford, England.

2. What prompted their move?
The protagonist is a young man doing his graduate work at Oxford University. In fact, I think the book is more about University life than it is about immigration, which I didn't expect when I picked it up for this theme.

3. How easy or difficult was it for them to adjust to life in their new country?
Good question. The protagonist and his good friend Sharma provide a study in contrasts in this realm. While the protagonist (a member of the Indian upper class) seems quite comfortable with English, Sharma (who comes from a rural family) reads anything and everything in an attempt to grasp the English language, with limited success. In other ways, though, it is Sharma who has it easier, because he eagerly embraces change and tries to 'better' himself. The protagonist, on the other hand, has developed routines and relationships (although it would seem only with other Indians), but he is nostalgic both about his home in India and his time in Oxford. He seems to be living in a bit of a bubble, completely immersed in his small corner of collegiate Oxford.

4. What, if any, specific cultural issues hampered or assisted with their adjustment?
He falls into a routine very quickly. He has a few friends, and his studies, and he writes as though all of Oxford (the University community, that is) was in a sort of time-warped alternate reality. So in a way, he is adapting to a very limited culture, one that all of his classmates are similarly in the process of adapting to, and so it is what they make of it. There are a few passages where he describes Oxford outside of the University, or parts of London, but he never expresses the same sense of belonging.

5. In what ways did the new country meet or fail to meet the characters' hopes, dreams and expectations?
I think he had hoped that going to Oxford would help him grow and mature, but instead he finds that it's a world unto itself to the point where nothing that happens there will ever quite seem real again. He likens Oxford's students to schoolchildren play-acting at adulthood until they finish their exams and go home.

6. Did the characters ever feel integrated into their country? Why or why not? What were some limitations to that integration?
It's certainly portrayed as a temporary move, and although he seems to feel at home in his college at Oxford, I don't think he would say he was 'integrated' into British culture as a whole. Nor, I think, would he want to be. The Oxford he describes is sort of an extension of India – the India that still remembers the Raj and considers itself a part of the Commonwealth, if not politically, then at least culturally. Chaudhuri's Oxford is a sort of finishing school, where young men (and women) acquire the experiences that make them part of an elite. But it is remote from the England that is inhabited by ordinary Englishmen, which the protagonist describes with incomprehension if not incredulity.
It was really intriguing to see 'India's Oxford,' if you will: it gave me a very new perspective both on the history of the university as an institution, and on India. It's interesting to note, though, that Chaudhuri now lives full-time in Oxford (or at least did at the time of writing, which was 1994.) So I imagine he's pretty well-assimilated, even if his character might not be (or maybe he wasn't when he was his character's age.)

Streamsong, there seems to be a problem with the links. I'll be fixing that tomorrow (or better said, later today), but here's the link to my full review of Brick Lane: http://bookwormsandtea.blogspot.com/2008/07/bookreview-brick-lane.html