The Observations of Immigration

By: Destin Estrela, Emily Everett, Mitchell Lising & Ari Petrou
April 21st, 2016

I. Introduction
Undocumented immigrants are heavily discriminated against and face many difficult
obstacles to become US citizens, even though America is a country founded by immigrants.
Because of harsh controversial immigration plans our group has chosen to focus on

discrimination against undocumented immigrants in the United States. Many people agree with
the harsh plans that would deport many undocumented immigrants even though most of our
ancestors did not originate in America. This video will be very eye opening for our audience and
will show that we all share an immigrant story, regardless of whether or not they were born
American Citizens. The solution to this problem is not straightforward, but it starts with
spreading the message. Americans need to learn not to discriminate against undocumented
immigrants because they are people just like our ancestors who were trying to find a better life in
America. Our proposal will portray the social experiment aspect of our video and will enlighten
readers about how undocumented immigrants face many obstacles relating to discrimination in
America. Some of the obstacles that will be discussed are comprised in the next part of the
proposal which covers the history behind waves of immigration to America, and a future section
of this document that explains personal challenges our group might have. The proposal will also
feature an immigration expert, specific locations for filming, and will cover the specific audience
were aiming our video towards.
II. Motivation
Prejudice against immigrants in the United States has existed since 1820 - 1890 when the
second wave of immigrants came to America. These immigrants originated mainly from
Ireland and Norway. They were the first wave of immigrants who came to the United States after
it gained independence, creating tension between them and the colonists. It was at this point
being an immigrant in America made them an outsider rather than a part of the country. The
immigrants were typically very poor, thus making them much more willing to do cheap, physical
labor in farms and factories. This cultivated the stereotype that immigrants are poor job stealers
who carry disease and increase crime rates. A stereotype that has been prominent throughout
Americas history to present day. People have historically blamed our nations problems on
immigrants. In 1882, the US passed a law completely restricting immigration in the form of the
Chinese Exclusion Act. People blamed the nations issues on the Chinese as the gold rush lost its
charm and the economy began declining. Another example of this happened during the Great
Depression, when America deported many Mexicans, regardless of documentation or citizenship,
with the Mexican Repatriation Act. America failed to realize that the immigrants were needed,
and the act caused a labor shortage with the introduction of World War Two. During the war,
America drafted many Mexican immigrants to temporarily come back into the country for cheap
labor, but countless Mexicans overstayed their welcome and became undocumented immigrants.
However, another mass deportation happened under the name Operation Wetback.
This issue is interesting because everyone living in the United States (besides the very
small minority of Native Americans) is either an immigrant or descended from one. Currently the
US is in its fourth wave of immigration, consisting mostly of Asians and Latinos. There are 11.3
million undocumented immigrants in the US, making up 3.5% of our population. 49% of them
are Mexican (Five Facts about Illegal Immigrants in the US). It can be very expensive and time
consuming to legally immigrate. Many American citizens label them as rapists, murderers, and
terrorists. Donald Trump, a current presidential candidate says, Theyre sending people that

have lots of problems and theyre bringing those problems [to us]. Theyre bringing drugs,
theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists (Mirror.co.uk). Immigrants are also labelled as job
stealers (because they work low paying jobs) and welfare feeders. Today's immigrants are denied
the opportunities that our ancestors had and our goal is to burn the negative bridge associated
with immigrants.
Immigration is a popular controversial topic of debate due to the proposed policies of
some politicians in the current presidential election. The problem is not yet solved. Racism and
stigma against immigrants remain today but Legislation passed by the Obama administration has
helped immigrants in the form of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which
gave illegal immigrants under the age of 36 a path to legalization if they came to America under
the age of sixteen. Some of the political candidates also want to progress the issue by providing
immigrants more rights and protections, and opening up more accessible paths to legal
immigration.
III. Project Summary
Our #breakfree project supports the idea of equal opportunity and through our social
experiment we plan to enlighten individuals on immigration by having them take the U.S.
citizenship test. This social experiment is meant to show our audience what immigrants must go
through to access American soil. In Are you even qualified to be a U.S. Citizen? (Social
Experiment) they made a good use of asking people questions from the test because students
that came here internationally will most likely have taken it. We learned that citizens of the U.S.
know almost nothing about their own country and people outside its borders know much more.
Our main focus is not for our social experiment, but for our interviews and statistics. Our video
is meant to show the flaws of the naturalization test, as well as have our "actors share their
viewpoints in regards to how immigration is controlled. However, this test has already been used
in social experiments so we plan to add personal interviews from immigrants so that we can
share their stories. We want to improve on the videos weve seen through our interviews with
experts on immigration law as well as the personal experiences of immigrants, like Fernanda. We
want our audience to be aware of the injustices within the naturalization process by sharing the
flaws of the test and peoples personal immigrant stories, this can change their perspective of
how immigration is controlled in the U.S.
We hope to achieve a spread of awareness for both immigrants and people struggling to
find their place in the U.S. This project helps achieve the goal of breaking free from stereotypes
and/or struggles of immigration. The U.S. is known to be the land of the free and the land of
opportunity, but in reality immigrants must work harder in order to achieve happiness and to
support their families. Our project is meant to inform our audience on the hardships immigrants
must face when they come to the U.S. and the citizenship test is a great way of showing how
hard immigrants must work to be a part of our country. US citizens are given much more
opportunity because they are born on U.S. soil and because of that they are able to apply
themselves to careers most immigrants are unable to do. In order for immigrants to gain more
opportunities, they must work harder than the average American by taking odd jobs or issuing for

naturalization. Our goal is to show that American citizens share the same struggle as immigrants
and we demonstrate that through the immigrant story.
IV. Project Details
Setting up the Environment
Due to the fact that our video is based solely on interviews, our group is planning to tape
on a college campus such as UCSD or USD because it would be easy to stop and ask a stranger
to participate in our social experiment. There are also more international students who have to
deal with student visas and a diverse group of students who might be willing to participate in our
social experiment.
The participants that weve planned to be in our video are strangers we meet at our
recording locations and possibly Fernandas contact who majored in immigration law. Her name
is Carolina Valdivia and well be contacting her through her email address,
valdivia.carolina89@gmail.com. We are going to send Ms. Valdivia a few questions to answer on
camera in order to have an experts opinion in our video. We will also interview Mitchells mom,
who immigrated from the Philippines over 20 years ago, to acquire her first hand experience of
what its like to immigrate to America. If were unable to get an interview with her, our group is
planning on interviewing Fernanda on her personal experiences immigrating to the United States.
Getting someones story in our video will make our message that much more powerful by
portraying the irrefutable fact that each immigrant is a person with a story that deserves to be
told.
Our main audience is geared towards American citizens who were born in this country,
who may not fully understand the struggle of an immigrant. Our video and social experiment are
being made in the hope that a few viewers might change their ideals and opinions on how
difficult immigrating to America can be. Our #breakfree moments are going to be focused on the
main subject of each interview after weve asked the question, Do you have an immigrant
story?. If the participant answers No, we ask where their parents and grandparents are from, the
#breakfree moment happens when the participant realizes that their ancestors were immigrants.
This realization helps our participants understand that even though they are American Citizens,
the negative assumptions placed on modern immigrants apply to themselves as well. The whole
objective of this proposal is to end negative assumptions relating to immigrants. Meaning that
this #breakfree moment institutionalizes the idea that our participants, and their family members,
are directly associated with negative stereotypes of modern immigrants. We hope that our
participants realize that if they themselves are immigrants, why should their be negative
assumptions about them?
Our group is planning on using hardware that members of the group already own, like
cameras and tripods. The only software we might need access to would be video editing software
that can be used at school.
Implementation Issues and Challenges
Although our group has a strong subject that were focused on, we might have issues with
our social experiment. We were planning on interviewing people on their immigrant stories and

having them answer a few questions from the US Citizenship test, but after researching prior
experiments online we may have a problem with originality. If we focus on our reason for having
our participants take the test, we might be able to remain a unique source as a possible solution
to our problem. After researching other social experiments relating to immigration, our group has
found a few that directly correlate with a citizenship test. But those videos focused solely on
their social experiments, while our group is focusing on our interviews. The only reason we have
the questions from the US Citizenship test included is to prove that the test should not be a
necessary factor in determining who deserves citizenship.
The goal of our social experiment is to generate viral attention. In order to do that we
need to make sure our experiment and concept are a unique duo that compliment one another.
A lot of social experiments related to immigration are circulating because of the current
presidential candidate elections. All of these experiments are extremely strong in bringing
together a community and defying stereotypes that many Americans may place upon immigrants.
Our project is unique because were using our interviews to show our audience the
personal stories of immigrants, instead of just focusing on our social experiment. Although we
are using some questions from the Citizenship test, our video is focused on the personal stories.
Even though using questions from the Citizenship test isnt original, we still want to use
Americas own test to see whether people who are born with the right to live here actually
deserve it compared to an immigrant. Because of our unique concept and the current elections,
focusing on immigration (which is a major political debate) and the privilege that US citizens are
born with means a lot of controversy and attention. Also, when there are unique videos that have
important concepts created by children, people are more likely to share them on social media
because Americans have low standards when it comes to the amount of change a child can make
in someones mind.
Deliverables
Our group is hoping to ignite a change of opinion in every one of our viewers who have
negative feelings about undocumented immigrants. Were hoping to produce a greater number of
people who want to positively impact an immigrant's life, whether that means changing who
theyd rather vote for or just ending negative comments about immigration that circulate on
social media. Our #breakfree moment will be the most powerful part of our video because it will
show that there should be nothing held against undocumented immigrants and that regardless of
where someone is born, everyone has the right to try and become a US citizen.
Phase one of our video shows actors talking about their personal opinions on immigration
plans. Hopefully this will portray how many Americans have negative opinions against
undocumented immigrants. Phase two asks participants questions from the US naturalization test
and asking the participants if they think these questions should be a requirement when becoming
a US citizen. Phase three will be a personal experience from someone who immigrated to
America. This phase will produce empathy for immigrants and show our viewers at home what it
takes to become a citizen in the United States. Our last phase will be when we ask the
participants whether or not they have an immigrant story. This will be our main #breakfree

moment. Our participants will realize that their feelings towards immigrants are unfounded
because they themselves share an immigrant story.
Over the last few days of filming our group has changed our Call to Action. Thanks to
Joanne, we are planning to ask all of our participants to write down what they think an immigrant
is or is not on a white board. An Immigrant Is then whatever message they want to spread
through our video and through their social media. If they choose to post an image to their social
media, well ask them to use the hashtag #AnImmigrantIs. We want a country where immigration
is easier and where immigrants are appreciated and accepted instead of deported.
V. Conclusion
Our country was founded by immigrants, which makes undocumented immigration
discrimination ironic. This topic is important to our group because we are all immigrants and the
fact that most Americans have forgotten that crucial fact is disheartening. Our video will have a
diverse group of people in it and American born citizens will be questioned on their knowledge
of American History from the US Citizenship test. Through these interviews our group will
investigate what people really think about the subject. After we present the fact that some
Americans have harsher views on undocumented immigrants well ask them whether or not they
themselves are immigrants which will be the turning point in our video, the #breakfree moment.
We hope that our viewers not only spread our video but spread positive attention about
undocumented immigrants.
Timeline
April 22nd- Proposal Due
April 25th - 26th - Project Proposal Presentation
April 27th - 29th - Project Work-time/Breakfree (Individual)
- Final Interview Questions Compiled
- Specific US Civics Test Questions Compiled
- Contact our Expert Contact
- Final Expert Contact Interview and Video
May 9th - May 15th - Filming @ USD
May1st - May 15th - Final Expert Contact Interview and Video
May 16th - May 21st - Video Editing
May 23rd - Video Critiques
May 24th - May 25th - Rehearsal + Video Completion
May 26th - #breakfree Exhibition @queenbees

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"Waves of Immigration." - Samfunnsfaglig Engelsk. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
"Becoming a U.S. Citizen: An Overview of the Naturalization Process."USCIS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr.
2016.
MikeOxfloppinFilms. "ARE YOU EVEN QUALIFIED TO BE A U.S. CITIZEN? (Social Experiment)."
YouTube. YouTube, 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
"5 Facts You Need to Know about the DREAM Act." USA TODAY College. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 15
May 2016.
"5 Facts about Illegal Immigration in the U.S." Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., 19 Nov. 2015. Web. 15
May 2016.
Smith, Mikey. "27 Donald Trump Quotes That Made Us All Ask "...did He Really Just Say That?" - Mirror
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