Issues of Geography
Prepared
by Amparo Rivera-Gonzalez, Central Park East High School, Manhattan
Materials
Handout "Why People Families Move," Tables 1-5 from the Statistical
Yearbook of China.
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Discuss the
reasons why people in general move or migrate.
- Compare the
reasons why people move in this country to why people in other countries
move.
- Identify some
of the economic reasons why people in China move or migrate from the
rural area to the urban areas.
- Identify some
of the hardships these migrants encounter in terms of adjusting to
city life, linguistic differences, and rights to social services.
- Use data from
tables to conclude some things about why people in China move.
Possible
Development of Lesson
- Have students
(as individuals or groups) complete the Student Handout, "Why People
and Families Move." The handout may be given out as homework the night
before or can be used as an in-class assignment.
- Have students
share how their families came to this country or city and why their
families decided to do this. This sharing can be done in pairs or
as a whole class activity or discussion.
- Distribute tables
1, 4 and 5. Ask students to come up with some conclusions. This activity
is best done in pair or in groups of three/four. Have students make
some assumptions and connections about the relationships between the
tables being given to them and why peasants in China may decide to
move from their provinces. Students can use the Student Handout, Economic
Reasons for Peasants Migrating in China. Of course additional tables
and questions can be created for this activity. The students can also
be encouraged to research how these figures compare with current statistics.
The teacher's
main role during this group activity, in addition to modeling positive
cooperative learning techniques, is to help students decipher the
connections between the tables and migration. Students may actually
need the entire class period or a little more to make connections.
A class discussion can follow this activity the following day as
well as some general information about the plight of migrant workers
when they arrive to the cities and do not have access to social
services.
Follow Up:
Since the handouts for this activity are long, these could be assigned
for homework. A writing/literary connection may be to assign a section
of the books mentioned, asking students to use what the learned about
Chinese peasants migrating or other characters and write a diary/letter
entry taking the perspective of a Chinese peasant who has migrating or
to ask students to write this same piece without a literary connection.
Subsequent
Lessons:
If this lesson is done towards the end of an unit on China, then a subsequent
question or topic to cover might be to compare the income of people
in China to these in the United States, along with comparison of other
socio-economic indicators. (Cities in China and the, emerging middle
class may have very similar lives to the middle class in this country)
Another very important
connection to be made will be the one looking at the Chinese Diaspora,
not only in the present but in the past and of course the treatment
of the Chinese in the United States.
Connections
To Literature: Bone, The Good Earth, The Woman Warrior, The Joy Luck
Club.
To Other Historical
Events: Europeans searching for wealth and better economic opportunities
thus colonizing Africa, Asia, and Western Hemisphere. Indentured servants
coming to the US to make a better living, migration of Irish during
Potato Famine, Westward Expansion in American History, Aztecs searching
for a new homeland in 1300's, the Chinese coming to the US in order
to improve their economic lives, along with other ethnic groups such
as Latium, Africans, and other Asians groups, as well as European fleeing
poor or war stricken countries. Another very important connection is
of to the People's Revolution in 1949 and why the peasants in many parts
of China decided to support Mao.
To Topics: What
circumstances pull or push people to migrate or emigrate? How are migrants
and immigrants treated by their now communities? What are the consequences
to families when members leave? What happens when women raise families
alone because fathers are away from home? Just how much economic advancement
to immigrants actually achieve? What is the impact of migration on the
children and grandchildren of immigrants with regards to identifying
with the country of origin of their ancestors?
To Movies: Mandate
from Heaven, The Chinese in the Americas (Both discussed in this session).
NOTE:
The following pages are formatted for classroom duplication.
