Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Inadequate Immigration System For Asylum Seekers At The Us-Mexico Border, Kyli F. Soug

Ballard Brief

The history of immigration in the US goes back to its founding. However, in recent years, immigration trends at the US-Mexico border have gained media and political attention as more migrants flee to the border and face challenges as they seek refuge in the US. The inadequate immigration system has been exacerbated as legislation like the Migrant Protection Protocols and metering complicates the legal system and forces asylum seekers into border towns. Border patrol's misuse of resources and insufficient immigration data also contributes to the inadequate immigration system. Families and individuals seeking legal asylum at the border are being detained …

Inadequate Immigration System For Asylum Seekers At The Us-Mexico Border, Kyli Fox Soug

Ballard Brief

The history of immigration in the US goes back to its founding. However, in recent years, immigration trends at the US-Mexico border have gained media and political attention as more migrants flee to the border and face challenges as they seek refuge in the US. The inadequate immigration system has been exacerbated as legislation like the Migrant Protection Protocols and metering complicates the legal system and forces asylum seekers into border towns. Border patrol's misuse of resources and insufficient immigration data also contributes to the inadequate immigration system. Families and individuals seeking legal asylum at the border are being detained …

Remembering Our Unsung Pioneer Ancestors, Jim Lewis

The Bridge

My great-grandparents, Niels Jensen Norgaard (1848-1920) and Karen Sorensen Norgaard (1852-1949) immigrated to America in 1869 and 1871, respectively. They had both been raised in the Aalborg area of northern Jutland. Niels left his family and a comfortable home at the age of twenty to travel alone to a new, yet unknown, destination. His immediate objective was Harlan, Iowa, where relatives had a farm. It was twelve hundred miles across unfamiliar land between New York City and Harlan, Iowa. Niels was alone in a strange land, didn't know the language, and had little money to sustain himself. He traveled on …

Explaining Variation In Support For Refugees And Recent Immigrants In The United Kingdom, Katy Smith, Joshua Gubler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

On the heels of the Brexit vote and growing anxiety accompanied with leaving the European Union, immigration in the United Kingdom persists as a breaking point between native Britons, immigrants, and recent asylum seekers. To dispel the fervent animosity between these groups, humanization needs to occur in order for each party to see the others as their equal and develop long-term peaceful solutions. Decreasing ethnic conflict is often accomplished through increased positive interactions between groups. The perception is that many more refugees are being admitted into the country and yet most Brits are not acquainted with any. Introducing citizens to …

Revisiting Refugee Caps: A Legislative Proposal For Executive-Congressional Compromise, Jason Gardiner, Tyler Day

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The current system for setting the annual refugee admissions cap calls for consultation between the president and Congress; however, that consultation is not happening to the extent prescribed by the Refugee Act of 1980, an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act (the INA). We propose that the INA be modified such that the Committees on the Judiciary in the Senate and the House of Representatives must approve the president's proposed refugee cap by a two-thirds majority. Given the steadily worsening refugee crisis, this legislation is both timely and important. Our proposal will foster compromises between the executive and legislative …

The Joss House As An Insight Into 19th Century Chinese Immigration, Joshua Bernhard

BYU Asian Studies Journal

“From the theater we went to the principal church or joss-house,” an anonymous author wrote about the San Francisco Chinatown for the Christian Recorder in September 1875. “Up three flights of stairs, rickety, worn, and uneven, and through the dark passages full of sickening odors, I reached a dismal, dreary, mysterious, and silent worship-house of this mysterious and superstitious people. Here and there in the temple a dim taper burned, but there were no lights in the halls, stairs, and passages, and the flickering flames only added to the oppressive and, if I may so call it ghostly feeling that …

Intervention And Reinvention: Rethinking Airport Amenities, Jens Vange

The Bridge

Over the past eight years, I’ve had the rare opportunity to explore in excruciating detail one of the most mundane spaces that most of us have experienced: airport restrooms. My immigration experience influenced the outcome of this exploration. My father, erik Vange, immigrated to the US from Denmark during World War II and never moved back. My mom, Lissi, and my sister, Katrine, came over about ten years later. They settled in the Chicago area, and after a few years my parents decided to adopt a child from Denmark. Fortunately, that turned out to be me. I immigrated to the …

Child Prisoners: Asylum-Seeking Detainees In The U.S. And The Violation Of The Flores Settlement Agreement, Miriam L B Sweeney

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The Flores Settlement Agreement allows for asylum-seeking minors to be released from detention if the minors are in unsafe circumstances. Children are experiencing physical and mental harm in asylum-seekers’ detention. This harm constitutes a lack of safety. Therefore, the current conditions of detention for asylum-seekers violate the Flores Settlement Agreement.

The Battle Of Birthright Citizenship, Joshua White

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

This article examines the legal case behind denying birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens born on U.S. territory and thereby correcting the present interpretation of the Citizenship Clause. Currently, children of illegal aliens born on U.S. territory are automatically granted citizenship jus soli. This removes the sovereignty of the American citizen by supplanting the citizen with an illegal alien in determining who can become citizens of the United States. To resolve this problem, Congress must enact legislation specifically restricting birthright citizenship from children of illegal aliens. While other articles focus on the morality of accepting refugees or illegal …

Ethnic Preservation Or Americanization: A Study Of Language And Ethnicity In The Danish Brotherhood In America, Nick Kofod Mogensen

The Bridge

Once European mass immigration to America began in the mid-nineteenth century, roughly 400,000-450,000 Danish immigrants made their way to the United States,2 with approximately 300,000 of them arriving between 1880-1920.3 Immigrant historians agree that Danish immigrants assimilated rather quickly into American core society, i.e., the white Protestant majority population of Anglo-Saxon descent.4 One of the main reasons for this ease of assimilation was the relative scarcity of concentrated settlements of Danish immigrants compared to other immigrant groups, as Danes oft en sett led in areas in America with few other Danish immigrants.

Finding Sanctuary: How Danish American Churches Helped Immigrants Navigate Life In Uncharted Waters, Krister Strandskov, Russell Lackey

The Bridge

The summer before graduating from Grand View University, I set out on a journey throughout the Midwest and California to photograph Danish American churches.1 My purpose in visiting these churches was to discover what stories their architecture told. I wondered what tied them together as well as what made each unique. I also hoped to learn more about my own Danish American heritage by visiting the very places many of my relatives worshiped and even pastored. Here is what I learned.

Soil And Salvation: Danes In Montana, 1906-10. Part I: Soil, Jakob Jakobsen

The Bridge

When I discovered that my great grandfather and his fiancée had participated in the founding of the Dagmar colony in Montana in 1906, I did not expect my initial interest in this to lead to a research grant from DAHS that would enable me to dive even deeper into their adventure, for which I am very grateful. My fascination with their story follows from its connection to the collective history of Danish America. In this sense, my ancestors acted as individuals, but their “navigation” took place in a “landscape” that changed due to larger developments. As a result, they can …

Assimilation Vs. Multiculturalism: An Analysis Of French Attitudes Towards Immigration, Caleb Porter, Renata Forste

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Through the use of the 2008 European Values study Dr. Forste and I initially examined factors associated with France’s nationalistic and assimilative tendencies by modeling how religiosity, education levels, and socioeconomic status predict French attitudes towards immigration. Our results showed that religiosity and spirituality played a dynamic and intriguing role in immigration attitudes. As a result of these findings I first attended and presented a poster at the Mary Lou Fulton conference here at Brigham Young. Our research in France has lead to an expansion of our initial findings and we have since gone on to further examine the effects …

Immigrants And Voting: How A Personal Relationship To Immigration Changes The Voting Behaviors Of Americans, Mandi Eatough, Jordan Johnston

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

In the last thirty years the number of immigrant voters, in the U.S. has increased from less than 5 percent of the population to more than 13 percent. With such an unprecedented increase in such a short amount of time, immigration reform has become one of the most significant and controversial issues in elections nationwide. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has faced consistently increasing levels of both legal and illegal immigration, an issue that is personally relevant to all immigrants regardless of legality (Tichenor 1994). This influx of immigrants has made immigration policy more important for politicians. Understanding the attitudes …

A Danish Lad In America, Fred Delcomyn

The Bridge

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” So said L.P. Hartley in The Go-Between (1953). Looking back on myself as a young immigrant child in Detroit at mid-century, the phrase seems especially apt. In my past I was quite literally in a foreign country.

The Causes Of Vigilantism And Other Sacrificial Behavior, Skye Herrick, Dr. Joshua Gubler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In 2004, immigration issues surged to the center of national attention and 10% of Americans rated immigration as the number one issue facing America1. Since 2004, the economic downturn and healthcare reform have increased the discussion of immigration and its economic impact on average Americans and the economy as a whole. Hypotheses for opposition to immigration have included economic2, political, racial, and psychological cues3. None however, have focused on the effects of fear or hopelessness on a population’s mobilization against an outgroup. In addition to the lack of experimental research on the causes of opposition to illegal immigration, no experiment …

From Symbolic To Social Boundaries: The Utah Minuteman Project, Keaton Robertson, Dr. Charlie Morgan

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Social movements, such as the Utah Minuteman Project (UMP) play an important role in shaping public opinion on critical immigration issues. Utah, regarded as a sanctuary state by antiillegal immigrant movements, is one of ten states that grant in-state tuition to anyone who graduates from a Utah high school without proof of residency. Furthermore, it was the first state to offer driving privilege cards to “Individuals who are unable to establish legal/lawful presence and who are ineligible for a US Social Security Number,” including undocumented immigrants. After the emergence of the Minutemen, numerous so-called “anti-immigrant” legislation has been proposed at …

Germans In Slovakia: Settlement Patterns, Daniel Reeves, Dr. Samuel Otterstrom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

From the Middle Ages to the present there has been—to varying degrees—a German minority among the Slovak people. Though nearly nonexistent today, this minority has historically been an important part of Slovakia’s population. German settlers were drawn to Slovakia for several reasons over the centuries, and in the year 1400, with a population of 400,000, their influence on Slovakia reached its peak. Today, the German population in Slovakia is limited to adventurous businessmen and students. These dramatic changes form a base for this research, which has been designed to study the settlement patterns of Germans within Slovakia (Jahn, 1971, p. …

Where We Build And Live, Ivar Kirkegaard

The Bridge

It falls outside the framework of this small dissertation to give personal historical narratives of Danes who have put down roots in the American soil, starting from the time when Jens Munk (15751628) and Vitus Bering (1681-1741) came to America’s inhospitable northernmost regions during their travels of discovery and down through the time when the actual immigration from Denmark got its start around 1850. Some names can be recognized such as Jonas Bronck (died 1643), after whom the great section of the Bronx in New York is named, Hans Christian Fibiger (1749-1796), who served as an officer under Washington, the …

Young People’S Schools And Højskoler In The United States, J. Christian Bay

The Bridge

It can be said that an organized effort to preserve Danish language and culture has existed here in America since the beginning of the seventies. The immigrants considered it essential that they develop plans to strengthen and design general education for young adults. Among the immigrants who immediately joined the Church right from the beginning, there were few academics. However, because many knew about the højskole concept in Denmark, this concept became the foundation for their church-sheltered schools.

News From The Danish Emigration Archives, Torben Tvorup Christensen

The Bridge

The Danish Emigration Archives - Denmark's national collection of letters, documents, photographs, films, audio tapes and newspapers - tells fascinating stories about Danish emigration and contains important documentation and knowledge about migration and cultural encounters.

Danish Language And The Church, Robert A. Olsen

The Bridge

The first documented account of a Danish language church service on American soil were those conducted by the Rev. Rasmus Jensen, a Danish Pastor who was part of the Jens Munk led expedition of 1619-1620 to find the Northwest Passage to the Orient. Munk's diary states "We celebrated the Holy Christmas Day solemnly, as is a Christian's duty, with a goodly sermon and a mass. After the sermon we gave the priest an offering .... "1 Unfortunately only Munk and two of his 64 men who embarked on this journey survived the winter and returned home, thus resulting in no …

The Practical And The Sentimental: The Artifact Collection Of The Danish Immigrant Museum, Angela Stanford

The Bridge

Many of the things immigrants brought from Denmark were of practical value to them as travelers building new lives across the ocean. Trunks, blankets, tools, and clothes were obvious choices for anyone moving from one place to another. Photographs, knickknacks, toys, and other like items may not have been as practical, but held sentimental value by reminding them of the homes, families, and friends they were leaving behind.

Not For The King, But For God And Country: Scandinavians And Ethnic Identity During The American Civil War, Anders Rasmussen

The Bridge

The history of the United States is essentially a history of immigration. From the Spanish arrival in Florida in 1565 to present-day America, immigration has been a continuous factor in the history of the United States, and it has repeatedly challenged notions of what it means to be American. Among the many immigrant groups which came to the United States were the Scandinavians. The Civil War between 1861 and 1865 forced these newly arrived immigrants to make important decisions in regards to ethnicity, politics and nationality. This article explores the Scandinavian Civil War experience through the prism of ethnicity and …

Autobiographical Constructions Of Danish American Identity Between The World Wars, Julie K. Allen

The Bridge

One of the most emotionally charged issues related to American immigration, past and present is the question of how quickly and completely immigrants should be expected to assimilate into mainstream American culture. Throughout the nineteenth century, the prevailing attitude in America was that assimilation of immigrants would happen naturally and gradually, but the first decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of nativism and a much more aggressive approach to the Americanization of immigrants.1 While these trends peaked during World War I, their reverberations continued to impact immigrant groups throughout America throughout the decades preceding World War II. One …

A Question Of Motive: The Chris Madsen Story Revisited, Johan Windmuller

The Bridge

Upon first hearing the story of Chris Madsen, I recall the vivid intrigue I experienced when learning of a Danish immigrant who had become a famous lawman in the United States. As an immigrant from Denmark and a member of the American police brethren myself, I seemed to have discovered a kindred spirit in Madsen. I promptly began reading bits and pieces of information and soon had the basics down. Here was a real life hero who had served in three armies, surviving wars and Indian attacks and on top of that had enough gusto to join up with the …

Danish Churches And Congregations In Indianapolis, 1868-1885, Barbara R. George

The Bridge

A look at the population make-up of Indianapolis and Indiana during the time period from the end of the Civil War (approximately 1865) until the 1880s shows that the Danes had little impact in the relatively small Indiana immigration picture. Indiana was less influenced by foreign born than any other northern state. Although ranking ninth in the number of German-born residents in 1880, Indiana ranked thirteenth in the number of foreign born, and was sixth in total population. As a state it was not particularly aggressive in promoting itself as a viable destination for immigrants, and ranked only in front …

Dealing With The "Third Enemy": English-Language Learning And Native-Language Maintenance Among Danish Immigrants In Utah, 1850-1930, Lynn Henrichsen, George Bailey, Jacob Huckaby

The Bridge

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, over 22,000 Scandinavians joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter referred to as the church or the LDS church) and migrated to Utah.1 Well over half of these Scandinavians, 12,350 (not including children age 12 and under), were Danes.2

This influx of people who spoke a language other than English and came from a cultural background different from that of the original Anglo-American settlers of Utah presented some perplexing challenges. Even Brigham Young, the territorial governor and LDS church president, found them difficult to resolve. According to local folklore, …

Defining An Immigrant, Helle Mathiasen

The Bridge

Before emigrating in August 1965, I had already experienced America while a child living in Denmark. My first American memory is the smell of Wrigley's Doublement gum. I also remember the green gum package containing the thin, shiny silver paper with the jagged edge you had to remove in order to touch the delectable candy. For me, as a child, chewing gum was America. I was born in Vangede in 1940, the year the Germans invaded Denmark. During much of the five-year Nazi Occupation, our family lived in Sydhavnen, in Copenhagen, on Sjcel0r Boulevard number 3, in a onebedroom apartment. …

The Danish Emigration Archives, Birgit Flemming Larsen

The Bridge

The Danish Emigration Archives was founded in 1932 as the DanAmerica Archives.

Max Henius, a native of Aalborg and an enterprising businessman in Chicago, was the immigrant behind the Archives. It might be seen as flexibility by Danish Americans and their descendants to place their own ethnic group's source materials at a distance to themselves. It did cause some discussions at that time.

The purpose of the Archives is to preserve the history of those Danes who left Denmark to settle in foreign countries. Through the years The Danish Emigration Archives has suffered under several changes due to World War …