Week 8–9 Discussion Post

Week 8

In the writing about “the work of waiting” by Kwon, a larger picture is provided for people to see the whole story behind the immigrant workers. The example provided in the writing is about the Chinese workers that moved to South Korean during the end of the 20th century. Due to the unstable economic situation in China during that period of time, many Chinese workers decided to seek working opportunities outside of the country. Korean, who just regained freedom from the imperial Japan and whose economy started to grow exponentially, became a great option for the Chinese worker. They intended to seek a more rewarding and stable working environment in Korea. Ironically, even though they did receive a certain level of fortune working in South Korea, the cost they paid may have over-compensate the gain. They face a great period of time of separation from they families, which defeats the purpose of them working in a different country to begin with since they were supposed to provide a better life for themselves and their family. Such situation drives the reader, at least me personally, to think that the immigration policy shouldn’t be too strict on the immigrants when they try to reach their family back in their home country. All immigrants should have the right to either return to their homeland or contact their family members by their will.

Week 9

From my perspective, music is a special form of art that people can deliver message through. Most importantly, it provides a less aggressive way of protesting and speaking up for the truth the people believe than an actual marching or a violent protest. At the same time, music has the same level of or more exposure of the protesting. All these factors, in my opinion, makes music one great option when fighting and standing up for migrant justice. In the beginning of trailer, the fact that there are 85% worker in Korean during its rapid economy growth were undocumented, which was a similar situation comparing to the Chinese workers in Jamaica. Music here also plays a huge role of connecting people together, like what happened in Jamaica, the Chinese retail shops had a great influence on the production of Jamaican music, which had a great exposure around the world, the music production in South Korea also has the ability to bring people’s attention on the topic of migrant justice.