I have a strong feeling the issue of illegal immigration was either glossed over or not mentioned.

http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=221682

Published on Monday, December 05, 2005

Immigration is a personal issue for global studies class

By Miriam Haskell
Staff writer

Pedro Borrero spent just three years in Fayetteville before returning to his native Colombia, but he still calls this city “home.�

The high school junior hopes to immigrate to the United States before his senior year. He wants to graduate with his friends at Terry Sanford High School.

Pedro shared his wish with students in the School of Global Studies at Terry Sanford on Friday. The program hosts an annual symposium that includes speakers, presentations and classroom study around a topic of international significance. This year, the subject was immigration.

Pedro came to the United States in eighth grade when his mother accepted a job as a visiting teacher in Cumberland County. His family members stayed until their visas expired three years later, and they have been trying to return ever since.

“As much as I love Colombia and it is a beautiful place, there is always political violence,� Pedro said. Pedro visited Terry Sanford last week on his way to England, where his mother works this year.

Of nearly 400 students in the School of Global Studies, 27 are first- or second-generation immigrants. Director Taunya Moore said she hopes students will have a better understanding of immigration after the symposium. Besides hearing speakers and presentations on Friday, students broke into groups to discuss immigration policies.

“We like to give our students topics that we think are going to be hot-button issues,� she said.

Previous years have covered genocide, politics in the Middle East and the changing faces of Russia.

Identity
Nolo Martinez of the Center for New North Carolinians at UNC-Greensboro told students that immigration is no longer about simply moving from one place to another, but about identity formation. North Carolina has the fastest-growing population of Latino immigrants in the country, he said.

Martinez asked students at Terry Sanford if any of them are fully American-Indian. None was.

“We’re in a room full of immigrants or descendants of immigrants, and yet when the discussion of immigration takes place on the radio or TV, we do not think it is about us,� he said.

For many of the students at Terry Sanford, immigration is a personal issue. Senior Angeli Ebeza’s parents immigrated from the Philippines before she was born. She says they have different values and priorities than some of her classmates’ parents. They usually speak English at home.

“It depends how mad they are,� she said. “You can tell when they’re mad because they’ll start speaking in Filipino.�

There’s another cultural difference, Angeli said: “We make rice like every other day.�

Senior Rakhee Devasthali, whose parents are from India, said she appreciates her heritage.

“It’s given me another language, a culture. It makes life more interesting and more colorful,� she said.

Martinez said he was moved by students’ stories on Friday. He urged them to get involved and to remember that they will make decisions on issues such as immigration in the future.

“I can’t express how representative this is of the country we want,� he said. “That’s why we are the nation that everybody wants to be in.�

Staff writer Miriam Haskell can be reached at haskellm@fayettevillenc.com or 486-3570.