Immigration: The World of Many Colors.
Globalization has caused the world to open the doors between its people. It has allowed people to move between different countries if they choose, oftentimes resulting in permanent settlement in a new country. As a result, over 150 million people are living in countries that are not of their native origin (Peoples and Bailey, 351). These 150 million immigrants, not including refugees seeking political asylum, are encouraging the creation of a world-wide economic and cultural system.
There are immigrants who actively participate in California culture and who have voluntarily acclimated to California's norms and values, and there are immigrants who isolate themselves from outside influences, maintaining the values and traditions of their original culture. Despite the differences between these two types of immigrants, each is being influenced by globalization while simultaneously promoting it. Globalization is the process in which all of the world's populations are being incorporated into a single world-wide economic system, (Davis, Lecture 4, 10/8). .
During my interviews of immigrant students on the UC Davis campus, I came to an exciting conclusion. I discovered that globalization is encouraging people to immigrate. I also discovered that despite the fact that all immigrants foster globalization simply by immigrating, they each encourage it in a different way. There are many different types of immigrants, but I will explore the two extremes that I found in my ethnographic research on the UC Davis campus. .
The two immigrants that I chose to explore each demonstrate an extreme, which is why I chose to further investigate their circumstances. One type fosters globalization by voluntarily (and sometimes easily) adapting to the new lifestyle of the United States. The other isolates him or herself from people other than those of his or her own culture.