Reading Reflection

1. Census Bureau Predicts Diverse U.S. Future by: Genaro C. Armas

            Diversity is always regarded as the strength of a nation and a community and this reading is forecasting a declining diversity come the year 2050. This country has always been regarded as a country of mainly whites and blacks but that will change with tripling of Hispanics and Asian populations to unprecedented levels. The total outcome will be an increased integration of ethnicity and cultures.

            These projections are hard to conceptualize for anybody who is not a demographer but even the demographer themselves did the projections based on ongoing and current trends. It follows then that for a better understanding of the predictions, one has to be aware of the current trends and facts. An equally important fact is a sober mind that is free of racial or ethnic prejudice because if they exist in one’s mind, he/ she will tend to deny the obvious facts.

            This report arouses mixed feelings in a social worker. Integration of the races means that there will be fewer cases of discrimination and related cases of employment opportunities. At the same time, the population of the aged on social welfare will be an all time high of 21% which means that many social workers will be needed to take care of them. The overall effect is the increase of social workers that deal with the aged and a decrease of social workers that deal with the disadvantaged or discriminated populations.

            The important thing that the reading has inspired in me is a social worker to be is that the working environment in the future will be slightly different from now. The most challenging thing will be dealing with the social welfare department to release enough funds to cater for the aged.

2. A New Century: Immigration and the US by: Kevin Jernegan

            The reading raises the issue of immigration as the basis upon which the US arose from. This is an instrumental factor that contributes to the diversity among the American citizens. The amendments of the immigration and Nationality act in 1965 saw the reverse of immigrants from the traditional Europe countries to Latin, Central American and Asian people who helped diversify the American population further.

            Immigration is the best way to increase diversity in any population, but firm regulation must be enforced to avoid the negative side it impacts on populations. This is the other side of immigration that has to be understood fully in order to understand this reading fully. On top of understanding negative side of immigration, one needs to grasp the history of the US, the present population and what immigration holds for the current social amenities.

            This reading gives the impression that there is more work in the 21^st century for social workers given the influx of immigrants from third world countries like the Mexico. Illegal immigrants are also on the increase and owing to their removal from the social welfare amenities; it pushes the social workers between a rock and hard place in their efforts to fight for their rights. Unless a tight leash is imposed on immigration trends, it may overwhelm the workload of social workers.

            Despite the presence of illegal immigrants in US, they are human beings who deserve some dignity. Their presence in US is driven by a search for jobs and improved living conditions and this should not be a basis of their discrimination. This article exposes someone to the challenges that face a social worker in regard to discrimination and gives an insight on how to fight the problems associated with it.

3. Los Intersticios: Recasting Moving Selves, by: Evelyn Alsultany

            From the experience of the author in the reading, diversity has been reduced to a matter of ethnicity in the name of creating a sense of belonging. There is a close association between diversity and ethnicity that results into negative implications for diversity especially when people want to slide back to cocoons of tribal or racial affiliations. The negative aspect is also not restricted to the US between the blacks and whites but it is widespread all over the globe.

            The reading can be understood better by someone who has undergone the experience of discrimination and lived in a highly charged ethnic community. The best lessons are learnt through experience and what is learnt theoretically can always be complemented by going out in the field and learning it first hand. The connection between ethnicity and racial discrimination is also instrumental to understanding the reading since racism and ethnicity are commonly confused.

            The issue of ethnicity defragments the society into small parts that become hard to serve as a social worker albeit making social work almost unbearable. This negative attribute drives back the gains made on the social work front to the medieval era when men thrived through associations that had no bearing on national cohesion. Ethnicity is not restricted to the uneducated or the underdeveloped but it is a vice that afflicts all mankind.

            From this reading I get a better understanding of the current status of ethnicity which was thought to be a thing of the past especially in the US. There is a lot of eccentric polarization among people who are regarded as a minority and this is a starting point in tackling issues that are tearing apart the metropolitan American society.

4. Beyond Black and White, Hispanics in Census Pick Other by: Mireya Navarro

            There is an understanding that with multiracial marriages, and merging of cultures, many children born out of those associations lack a clear cut race. In the past, race was always associated with skin color and these children may have a light skin and a thick African hair which is hard to classify them as being black or white. This then calls for a new way of showing diversity without necessarily using race as the primary indicator.

            To understand this issue better, one needs to look at the basic units that make the American society and see the rate of racial integration. From studying the new ‘races’ that has been born from intermarriages of the main races, then new ways of classifying people can be devised. Understanding of the reasons why people classify the way they do is also important in order to arraign people in other acceptable classes other than education or social class in the society.

            The abolishment of classification of people according to their race should be abolished because to some they will always have a superiority complex. There must be other ways of studying the society other than through ethnicity which only increases discrimination through increasing the gap between the communities perceived to be superior and those that are inferior. The widening gap increases the work load of social workers in trying to correct the injustices that naturally occur incase racial divisions.

            As a social worker, the rift between the minority races and the whites in the US only makes working with a charged community hard and therefore one should champion for lessening of the gap and abolishment of using race as tool of classifying people in US.

Reference

Paula, S. (2006). Race, Class, and Gender In The United States (7^th Ed.). New York: Worth       Publisher.