OH+Topic+Interview+Q's

Oral History Topic Questions

**__Topic__**: Hispanics in the Civil Rights Movement and Immigration

1.) What were some of the goals for the Hispanics that fought in Civil Rights Movement? "The Hispanics had the same goals as the African Americans. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote to César Chávez, 'our separate struggles, are really one. A struggle for freedom, for dignity, and for humanity'".

2.) Who was the leader and can you describe what he did for the movement? "César Chávez was born in Yuma, Arizona in 1937. He was the grandson of Mexican immmigrants and the son of a prosperous farmer. He did much to secure for farmworkers: wages, increase healthcare, and safer working conditions. John F. Kennedy called him "one of the heroic figures of our time". César Chávez launched the United Farmer Workers. This organization had the objective to improve the quality of life of farmworkers and to inform them of their civil rights. Through his work, he was able to create agricultural labor relations act that modified the relationships between farmers and farmworkers."

3.) How long did the movement last? "The movement started in the 50's and it's still around today."

4.) How many immigrants come to the United States every year? "In the 90s,the inflex of immigrants was around 1.2 million people per year. From those, more than 700,000 come from Latin America, and the other 500,000 come from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In this first decade of the century, that number has dropped to less than 1 million people per year."

5.) Can you describe the process of immigration? "Immigration has been part of humankind since the beginning of our race. The first immigrants moved from Africa to Europe. The main reason why people migrate was because for the search of better opportunity and quality of life improvement. In today's world the United States represents the 'American Dream', an opportunity to improve the quality of life for many people around the world. Today's immigration process, has a different component than in the past century, and that is the talent needed to fuel the economic development of the countries. Today you can see a talent drain from any other country and also you still see the migration of people because of a potential opportunity. There are three types of processes: one way migration (people that seek opportunity of better quality of life), second, circular migration (a person that moves to another country to get a better education and working experience, and then plan to go back to their home country to apply their learning skills) and third, talent drain (a person that is drawed by the better opportunity, but wasn't planning to leave and probably won't go back to their country)."

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