Asylum and Podcast about Trump and Immigration

Today we learned what the term asylum means and how it applies to immigration. Asylum means to seek protection and safety because you aren't safe in your nation. We also talked about having a debate in class about the migration growth and if our class would be able to do it. We were using the example of how Trump is handling immigration. While we were talking about this we listened to a podcast to get some background information to support or go against Trump. In the podcast the question was, if the president is undermining the original concept of asylum in the United States, or is he restoring it to the way it started. Asylum started right before World War 2 in 1939 when 900 Jews fled Germany and went to the USA, Canada, Cuba, Argentina, etc. and were denied because they didn't go through the whole process of being able to enter a country. Because of this they were sent back to Germany and 700 of them died in Nazi death camps later on. The United States wasn't involved in the war yet, but after getting involved and helping the victory, they still had a guilt trip about not helping the first Jews because if they could help a war, they should've helped the 900 people. After the war in 1951, the United Nation decided that they had responsibility over immigrants who needed asylum and they insisted that they never turn anyone away again. But of course, you can't just take a bunch of people into your country for no good reason, so they made criteria for the people that could receive asylum. In order to receive asylum you must prove you're being persecuted by your own government either for race, nationality, political views, religion, or social groups. The biggest reason the United States took so many people in, even people they were in conflict with or didn't like, was because it made the United States look wonderful and the other countries look terrible. For example, nothing was happening to Albert Einstein, but they give him asylum because he was a famous genius and he would benefit them. They wanted to prove that democracy and the American way is the best. At some point though, if there were too many of your people, the United States would stop giving you asylum, especially if you don't benefit them in any way.

Interregional Migration and Westward Expansion

Today in class we talked more about migration and a little about Westward Expansion. Instead of just taking notes in our notebooks we used a packet of the textbook that the powerpoint is on. The packet was the same exact thing as our notes from yesterday, it just went deeper into each topic because obviously when you take notes you can't write paragraphs. The topics we read are what migration is, different types of migration, Ravenstein's Law, and the three main eras of migration in the U.S. Mobility is the most generalized term that refers to all types of movements, which is what migration is, people and animals moving from one region to another permanently. When people go short distances repeatedly that is called circulation. For example, college students going to school and then coming back for the holidays and summer. Although there is more than one type of migration, we only went over interregional migration. Interregional migration is when people migrate to better themselves or their families with economic opportunities and available land. An example of interregional is Westward Expansion. The Westward Expansion is the time period where Europeans discovered the west part of America and began to make a bunch of settlements. They migrated from the east to the west of America.

Migration

• Mobility is the most generalized term that refers to all types of movements
• short term and repetitive acts of mobility are referred to as circulation. Example: college students going to school and then coming home every year for holidays and summer 
• Permanent move to a new location is migration 
• Ravenstein's laws for the distance that migrants typically move 
• most migrants relocate a short distance and remain in the same country 
• long distance migrants to other countries head for major centers because of economic activity 
• International migration- permanent move, voluntary or forced, to a different country 
• Internal migration- permanent move in same country, interregional, intraregional 
• Approx. 9% of world's people are international migrants
• Global pattern reflects migration tendencies from developing countries to developed countries 
• Net-Out migration: Asia, Latin America, Africa (push force)
• Net-In migrants: North America, Europe, Oceania (pull force)
• US has more foreign born residents than any other country in the world
• approx. 43 million as of 2010-- growing by 1 million annually 
• 3 main eras of immigration in U.S. 
• colonial settlements in 17th and 18th centuries 
• Mass European immigration in late 19th and early 20th centuries
• Asian and Latin America integration in the late 20th and early 21st centuries 

Absent Again

I don't have a blog again because I am still sick.

No Blog

I don't have a blog because I was sick today and I didn't come to school.

3rd test reflections

Today we went over our last test on population and immigration. We did the same that always do, which is everyone reads a question and gives the answer to one or more questions so we can discuss the answer. I read question 11, which was how many people in the world do not have electricty (1,201,000,000)? I got a 97 because I got a 95 on the actual test part and then I got two points for an extra credit question. This test is the best test score I've gotten this year. The other ones were 90 and 93. I got the entire first page right and that makes sense because I found it very easy and wasn't surprised that I got them all right. I am actually a little mad about the two questions that I got wrong because they were very easy questions that I should have gotten right. For the life expectancy one I put the US instead of Monaco, which doesn't make any sense because I remember learning that Monaco has a lot of old people. The other question I got wrong was the one about what pyramid represents a country's population doubling in 35 years. I put pyramid C and it was pyramid A. When I saw the right answers it was really frustrating because I know exactly why I got these questions wrong. It wasn't because I'm not smart or I didn't know the answer, its because I didn't take my time and think about what the question is asking. My brain also sort of forgets really easy things that pop up on tests, which is annoying because I know the answer but I either can't think of it or forget that the question is pretty much answering itself. I have established that I'm not a very good test taker and that sucks because I am smart and I know everything, it just doesn't show on tests.

Population and Health

Population Concentrations

• 2/3 of world inhabitants are clustered in 4 regions 
• East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe, site and situation of population clusters
• low-lying areas with fertile soil and temperature climate 
• near an ocean or near a river with easy access to an ocean

Sparsely Populated Regions

• humans avoid cluster in certain places 
• dry, wet, cold, high lands 
• too harsh places diminished over time 

Population Density

• density can be computer 3 ways
• Arithmetic Density- total number of objects in area, divide populations by land area 
• Physiological Density- number of people supported by a unit area of farmable land, divide population by farmable land 
• Agricultural Density- ratio of number of farmers to amount of farmable land, divide population of farmers by farmable land
• Most places are industrial not farms  

Components of Population Growth

• Geographers measure population change in a country or the world as a whole by using three measures 
• Crude Birth Rate (CBR)- births per 1000 live births 
• Crude Death Rate (CDR)- deaths per 1000 people
• Natural Increase Rate (NRI)- birth rate minus death rate 

Test on Population

Today we took our 3rd test of this year, that was on populations. I thought I was going to do super good on this test and I still think I did. The first page where we were timed was very easy and I finished in 5 minutes. I am glad we were told what the GDP was though because I would not have been able to find that and also I didn't know if we were supposed to put the unit of the answer, so I just put the number and hopefully I don't get it wrong. The second page was fill in the blank with all of the definitions of the terms we learned, which was very easy as well. The third page was fine until the questions about which country has a higher net migration rate and what country has a higher birth rate. I think I got the first one right because I remember Canada has a higher migration rate than the United States but I had no clue on the second question so I just put the United States. The last page was all about population pyramids and answering which pyramid has different qualities like a high birth rate. I am pretty positive I got those right unless I accidentally put the wrong letter next to the wrong question. Overall the test was fair and had everything we learned about on it, no surprises.

3rd Test

Today we went over what our test is going to be like on Thursday. We also practiced the timed portion of the test where we have to use the world fact book and learned what GDP and PPP is. For the first part of class we had to use the world book website and look for specific things about a country. For example, we had to find the population of the United States and to find that you would go to the United States and then to people and society and it is the first thing listed. We also found the infant mortality, airports, and other populations. The point of this was to see if we knew where to find certain information and how fast we could find each thing because we only have 15 minutes to find each answer. While we were doing this we had to find Liechtenstein's GDP per capita (person). GDP is the amount of money per person a country makes. For Liechtenstein their GDP is $139,100 and the United States is $59,000. After looking at the world fact book we answered questions about the vocabulary like net migration rate, rate of natural increase, and total fertility rate. Then we went over population pyramids, the shapes of them, and what the shapes mean. The last thing we went over were push and pull factors of immigration and emigration. Push factors are reasons why people would want to leave their country. For example, people in Mexico might want to leave because of over-employment meaning they have too many people and not enough jobs or people in Chad would want to leave because they have a really poor health system which gives them a high death and infant mortality rate. Pull factors are reasons why people would want to move to a different country. For example, people would want to come to the United States because we have better job opportunities and religious and political freedom or people would want to go to Canada because it has less crime and cheaper health care so it is much safer.

Population Pyramids for Certain Cities

Today we looked at the population pyramids for different cities and we came up with the reasons why their pyramids are shaped that way. We also looked at a website that shows us the population for different countries from the past and the future. Like I said in my last blog, not every population pyramid is the three shapes (cup, box, Christmas tree). For Buffalo County, South Dakota, the pyramid looks like a Christmas tree, which is because it is a poor place that has a good birth rate but there isn't as many jobs so once the kids grow up they move. For Manhattan, New York, their highest group of people is ages 25-39. Manhattan is known for their jobs and moving their to pursue a good career like fashion, film, art, and business so people are not going to have kids because they are completely invested in their careers. Lastly, for Punta Gorda, Florida their highest group of people is older people because a lot of retired people like to move to hotter places so they can relax and not have to worry about cold weather and shoveling. On the website for population pyramids it only goes back to the year 1950 and up to the year 2100. The world's population slowly rises and reaches 11 billion people, but the pyramid starts to look like a box which means the birth rate is going down and we still have a long life expectancy. The United States population does the same thing as the world and turns into a box and the population is 450 million in the year 2100. We also looked at Japan and their population decreases over time starting at over 100 million and ending under 100 million because there birth rate is really low but they have a lot of old people.