Anthopology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Anthopology - Essay Example According to the researches of Chavez, Pedraza and Rimbaut; there are clear distinctions between a migrant and a settler. Migrants could be regarded as people that temporary residents of an area; thus migrants are people that leave their permanent place of residence and live in other areas temporarily in search of greener pastures. On the other hand, settlers are people that have the privileges of a citizen of a particular country or region after living there for a particular number of years. Thus, Chavez believes that undocumented immigrants are people that start out as illegal immigrants and they could actually attain the status of a settler after staying there for a particular number of years. The notion about undocumented immigrants is what actually affects the way that undocumented immigrants carry out their duties as workers in the United States of America. These undocumented immigrants do not see themselves as permanent residents, but as temporary workers that have a short sti nt in the United States of America. The undocumented workers are faced with the challenge that they would have to go back to their native countries someday (Chavez, 1998). ... The three phases are separation, transition and incorporation. The separation phase is the stage that the undocumented immigrants are separated from their friends and families and this represents an emotional period in the lives of the undocumented immigrants. The transition phase is the stage that the undocumented immigrants are presented with the opportunity of moving to a higher level in their lives as they try to become a member of a society that is actually alien to them. The incorporation phase is the stage that the undocumented immigrants try to in integrate themselves into their new home and society and they identify with the values and norms of this society during the incorporation phase. And this is just like the rite of passage as it takes place when someone makes a reasonable progress by changing from one status to another (Chavez, 1998). Chavez carried out his fieldwork by conducting interviews among undocumented immigrants living in different places. He organized struct ured interviews and informal interviews for these undocumented immigrants. The difficulties he faced in the course of his field work are that most of the interviews were usually time-consuming (Chavez, 1998). Chavez chose to refer to them as undocumented immigrants due to the fact that he felt that was the most polite and neutral term to use to classify these groups of individuals as other terms that were used were too harsh on these people. Chavez characterizes the social diversity of northern San Diego based in the different backgrounds of the people that reside there. He also characterizes them by the number of years they have stayed in the United States and the factors that affect the way they live. The undocumented immigrants fit into the larger society in areas that