A Tale of Illegal Immigrants

Mexico

to the USA

MEXICO TO THE USA

Why do people try to cross the border illegally ?

What are the push factors ?

What are the pull factors ?

The border at night

Around 1,000,000 people a year are caught by the United States Border Patrol trying to cross the border. Many of these are repeat offenders.

What would make you risk a crossing ?

What do you think most American’s think of the ‘illegal aliens’ or ‘pollos’ as they are called ?

Why are some people glad to see the illegal immigrants?

Creative Writing...

• You are now to begin a piece of creative writing about migration from Mexico to the USA.

• Imagine that you are one of the many Mexicans desperate to get into the USA, bearing in mind the numerous push and pull factors that you are aware of….

• You cannot cross the border legally; you must sneak across.

• You are to produce a piece of writing telling the story of

how you managed to cross the border (or not!!)

How to write creatively…

• use the past tense• first person viewpoint (ie. “I”)• in chronological order (ie. Order of time)• opening paragraph: describe your situation, your

feelings and your plans• 2nd paragraph: the start of your journey, perhaps

mentioning the push factors• 3rd paragraph: your journey over the border, still

mentioning push but also pull factors• use adjectives to project the mood and describe your

feelings• include lots of your feelings; how would you feel if you

got caught??

Try to include:

• Details of the push factors that are making you want to move. Think about money, housing, crime, lack of employment opportunities, natural hazards (earthquakes), transport systems

• What was attracting you towards the USA (pull factors) ?

• How you travelled over the border ?

• Any danger you experienced along the way; did you meet the border patrols, did you pay a ‘coyote’ to help ?

• What you did if you managed to cross the border

Final 3 slides adapted from Carly Goodwin’s presentation, available from

http://www.sln.org.uk/geography

Possible formats:

A diary

A statement to the border patrol, or in court

A letter home

An e-mail home

A poem

A phone conversation