They might come to New York to try to have a new life.

At the onset of our study on immigration students answered the question, “What do you know about immigration?” The next day we visited a mural in our neighborhood that seemed to also be focused on the theme of immigration. While we were looking at it, the artist walked up and introduced himself, Kobra. We are going to keep a look out for these faces during our study of historical immigration and Ellis Island.

Below are some of the students’ initial thoughts on the topic of immigration:

• Immigration is when people come from a place and move to a new place by force or it wasn’t safe or there they didn’t have resources they needed. It’s a long and sometimes hard journey to get to the place they’re going.
• This is usually because something in their country is not fair.
• I think immigration is when different people around the world go to America or somewhere else like it.
• Immigration is, I think, people who come from far away countries that are either poor or they just want a new life. Immigrants have to take jobs as taxi drivers sometimes.
• Immigration is lots of people moving from one place to America because they don’t like what their country is doing. They took a train or a plane. I think it was in the 1900s.
• Some reasons for immigration may be because of unfair treatment or hopes for a better life. When an immigrant arrives in a new place, they often have close to nothing only what they manage to pack and that is not often much when escaping war or natural disasters.
• Immigration is where people come from around the world because something bad happened in their country.
• Immigration is when people from different places move for certain reasons. They might come to New York to try to have a new life.  
• Immigration is when someone moves from another place like Peru and then become a legal citizen…they need someone to approve them if they want to become a legal citizen.
• What I know about immigration is that they are people who came from a different country because of war, dictatorships, or not enough freedom. They sometimes come because they are poor.
• There are some people that aren’t born here but are living here but they aren’t immigrants.
• Immigration is when a human goes from one country to another country. Or from one continent to another. A lot of people came to New York because people thought that New York was the place dreams came true.
• Immigration is when people from other places come to another country sometimes by plane sometimes by boat, most of the time they have to go to court to see if they can stay. If no, they are usually deported back to their country. People have been coming here since the 1600s.
• Immigration happened in the 1800s maybe. They did it because they wanted better lives.
• It could be happening right now. It happens because they have their own reasons.
• Immigration is a group of people traveling from a country to a new place. It could be a New Yorker traveling to Canada. They do it because there is nothing there for them or they can’t live there anymore because something happened there.
• I think immigration is when someone is not born where they moved.
• Immigration is a group of people who don’t have any money or home. They were a long time ago and they’re still a thing now.