CRITICAL REFLECTION

Writing an academic essay is very important for university students. Although I've improved the writing skills, there are some aspects which need more development.

At the beginning of this course, I was not familiar with referencing in APA style and writing a thesis statement. Now, with a better understanding of them, it becomes easier to write a more fluent and academic essay. I realize that to avoid plagiarism, if I use the ideas from other writer's articles, I not only need to write in-text citation and reference, but also need to cite in a standardized form. Besides, I am also capable of writing a better thesis statement which contains the main idea of the whole essay. However, it is still difficult for me to paraphrase because using my own words might not convey the meaning of original sentences correctly or accurately. Hence, to master the skills of paraphrasing, I should practice more on understanding the original articles and paraphrasing by changing sentence structures or by replacing words with their synonyms.

In conclusion, during the English study in ES1102, I have learnt more about academic essays, including APA style reference and thesis statement. However, to write a better essay, I still need to put more effort on paraphrasing.

Essay (Final)

Globalization and Immigration Problem

As international interaction has increased and integration has spread to different aspects of life, globalization has brought significant advantages as well as disadvantages towards people around the world. While people are pursuing their self-interests, they have become worried about problems caused by increasing immigration issues. Immigration, induced by globalization, is a double-edged sword. Although it may facilitate academic exchanges and technological advancement, immigrants may result in a heavier burden upon the host countries, especially in the fields of job opportunities, culture and cost of education. To address these problems, two methods can be implemented: taking a stricter immigration policy and offering workers a path to citizenship. However, these solutions need to be carefully evaluated according to effectiveness before the actual implementation.

Increasing immigration has a variety of adverse effects on the global human society. First and foremost, immigrants may compete for job opportunities and increase the cost on education. According to the statistics updated by Singapore Department of Statistics in 2012, Singaporean labor force consists of more than 25% foreign workforce (Huang, 2013), which caused great concern among the native people because of difficulties in finding a job. Besides, due to more expense on language courses for immigrant children, the extra cost on education is approximately 11.2 billion US dollars (Mcnatt & Benassi, 2006). In spite of the more intense competitive market of opportunities and higher cost on education, immigrant issues may also threaten the security. For example, it was reported in 2007, that one fifth of the crimes in London were committed by the foreigners (Harper & Leapman, 2007). In order to minimize the adverse effects immigration brought, one method involves taking stricter immigration policies. For instance, UK has laws to increase fines on companies which apply illegal immigrant workers and to force native landlords to check the immigration status of their foreign tenants (Castle, 2013). Besides, the US is implementing a nationwide system of biometric identification for foreigners, which prevents employers from hiring undocumented immigrants (The White House, 2013). This method is relatively effective in ameliorating the immigration problems, because decreasing employment opportunities would eliminate the desire to come into the country illegally. Nonetheless, it may hurt business as technological immigrant labor may also develop the economic growth. In addition, this method may also cause immigrants to protest against the government in terms of equality. Hence, the government should identify what attracts immigrants most and reduce benefits of immigrants in that area. In this way, immigrants, considering benefits and costs of immigration, might be less willing to immigrate.

Another method is to grant workers a path to gain citizenship. The US government attempted amnesty in 1986 and benefited 2.8 million undocumented immigrants. Therefore, these foreigners who illegally gained entry into the US are forgiven and offered an access to legal citizens after payments of taxes and fines (Espinosa, 2013). This method is not as effective as the previous solution. Some assert this method works because the taxes and fines were costly, which led to a phenomenon that many illegal workers returned to their home countries (Espinosa, 2013). However, opponents claim that granting amnesty only encourages more illegal immigration, because illegal immigrants may have a chance to stay in the host country and become legal citizens. Hence, to improve this method, government could collect the more detailed background information of the applicants for amnesty, evaluate them in terms of a list of stricter criteria, and force them to pay their taxes and fines. In addition, establish a program that prevents fraud in the applications may lead this method to a more effective way.

In conclusion, immigration has caused many problems to the native population and the host countries. To address these problems, two possible solutions can be implemented: tougher immigration policies and offering workers a path to citizenship. However, as each solution has its advantages and disadvantages, no solution is a panacea to such a complex issue. Therefore, a combination of various solutions may solve the problem more effectively.

References:

Huang, E. (2013, Mar. 18). Growing number of migrant workers stirs debate in Singapore. Retrieved from http://www.aseannews.net/growing-number-of-migrant-workers-stirs-debate-in-singapore/

Mcnatt, R., Benassi, F. (2006, April. 4). Econ 101 in illegal immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-04-06/econ-101-on-illegal-immigrantsbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

Harper, T., Leapman, B. (2007, Sep. 23). Foreigners ‘commit fifth of crime in London’. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563890/Foreigners-commit-fifth-of-crime-in-London.html

Castle, S. (2013, May. 8). British government moves to toughen rules on immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/world/europe/britain-urges-tougher-immigration-laws.html?_r=0

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. (2013, Jan. 29). Fact sheet: fixing our broken immigration system so everyone plays by the rules. [Immediate Release] Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/29/fact-sheet-fixing-our-broken-immigration-system-so-everyone-plays-rules

Espinosa, H. ABS CBN North America Bureau. (2013, Jun. 6). Special report: the cost of legalization in US. Retrieved from http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/06/06/13/special-report-cost-legalization-us

Essay draft

Globalization and Immigration Problem

As international interaction has increased and integration has spread to different aspects of lives, globalization has brought significant advantages as well as disadvantages towards people around the world. While people are pursuing their self-interests like developments of income and living environment, people become worried about problems brought by increasing immigration issues. Immigration, induced by globalization, is a double-edged sword. Although it may facilitate academic exchanges or technological advancement, immigrants may result in heavier burden upon the host countries, especially in the fields of job opportunities, culture and social welfare. To address this problem, two methods can be implemented: taking a stricter immigration policy and offering workers a path to citizenship. However, these solutions need to be carefully evaluated according to its effectiveness before actual implementation.

Increasing immigration has a variety of adverse effects on the global human society. First and foremost, immigrants may compete for job opportunities and social welfare. According to the US government, the immigration increased by 6 million in the year 2012, which cause the national expenditure in accommodating asylums to rise from 100 to 200. A research also shows that more than half of cleaners in Singapore are Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian immigrants. In spite of the intense competitive market of opportunities and welfare, immigrant issue may also threaten the security. In order to minimize the adverse effects immigration brought, one method involves taking stricter immigration policies. For instance, UK has laws to restrict free access to healthcare for non-citizens (Casciani, 2013). Besides, US is taking a nationwide system of bio-metric identification for visitors, which prevent employers from hiring undocumented immigrants. This method is relatively effective in ameliorate the immigration problems. Eliminating employment opportunities or welfare would eliminate the desire to come into the country illegally. Nonetheless, it may hurt business as technological immigrant labor may also develop the economic growth. In addition, this method may also cause immigrants to protest against the government on equality. Hence, the government should identify which element attracts immigrants most and reduce benefits of immigrants on that area. In this way, immigrants, considering benefits and costs of immigration, might be less eager to move.

Another method is to grant workers a path to gain citizenship. The amnesty been attempted before in US and has benefited 12 to 20 million undocumented immigrants. In result, large numbers of foreigners who illegally gained entry into the US are rewarded with legal status for breaking immigration laws. This method is not as effective as the previous solution. Although some assert that it is the broken immigration system that results in large numbers of immigrants, opponents claim that granting amnesty does not work and only encourages more illegal immigration. Amnesty gives the potential immigrants an incentive to immigrate illegally, because they may have a chance to become legal citizen hereafter. Hence, to improve this method, government could collect the more detailed background information of the applicants for amnesty, and evaluate them in terms of a list of stricter criterions, then select people who deserve to become a citizen. Thus, granting workers a path to gain citizenship may be an effective way but needs lots of strict requirements as well.

In conclusion, immigration has brought many problems to the native population and the host countries. To address this problem, two possible solutions can be implemented: tougher immigration policies and offering workers a path to citizenship. However, as each solution has its advantages and disadvantages, no solution is a panacea to such a complex issue. Hence, a combination of various solutions may solve the problem more effectively.

References:

Casciani, D. (2013, Oct. 10). May: living in UK to get tougher for illegal immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24469584

Reading response

Reading response

According to the article Accessing Globalization, Kohut and Wike(2008) state that people around the world have different views on globalization, which brings about economic development as well as people’s concern. One of the most significant impacts of globalization is the tendency of losing traditions. There’s no denying that globalization is having a homogenizing influence on the local culture. As mentioned in the article, people are influenced by many American productions in their everyday lives, such as American movies and music, and they are worried about their own traditions fading away. While globalization promotes the integration of societies, the incoming culture can conflict or even substitute the local one. This is especially true for traditional societies, whose economic growths are tremendously fast. For example, some local beverages, like tea in some Asian countries, are at the risk of being replaced by coffee, as the number of Starbucks shops is increasing rapidly. Hence, with people’s concern becoming reality, it is very important to figure out a way of protecting their own identities.

Reference: Kohut, A., & Wike, R. (2008). Assessing globalization: benefits and drawbacks of trade and integration. Havard International Review.

Summary-Assessing Globalization

Kohut and Wike state that people around the world have different views on globalization, which brings about economic development as well as people’s concern. People in developing countries are more likely to support globalization, hoping for benefit from global trade, investment and free markets. However, globalization is less supported by people in the West  because international corporations become less popular. In addition, people also express concern about its downsides, such as a greater income disparity due to uneven distribution of wealth, environment destruction, and lost of traditional way of living as the costs of economic growth. Globalization also causes immigration issues. With more people moving in order to have better new and better opportunity, the increase in immigrants may also have bad impacts on some countries. As globalization has both benefits and drawbacks, majority support this idea cautiously.

Source: Kohut, A., & Wike, R. (2008). Assessing Globalization: Benefits and drawbacks of trade and integration. Havard International Review.

Scary Oil

Summary - Scary Oil

The most significant risk that today’s economy faces is the increase in oil prices. The rise is not due to supply, but due to the fear of a war between Israel and Iran, as conflicts in the Middle East caused the last three international recessions. The US has attempted to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapon. If it fails, the US will use military means to stop Iran. As a result, geopolitical tension may intensify, push oil prices higher and cause a global recession.

Reflection 1

My English language learning journey

I've been learning English since I was in primary school. At the beginning, we just learnt some basic knowledge: vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking. We had more chances to practice reading and writing skills afterwards. In high school, English teachers always taught what we could learn on our own, and we were required to take notes. However, English classes in Singapore are quite different from those in China. I could still remember how terrible I felt after I finished my first comprehension paper, because I was used to multiple choices while the questions required us to answer using my own words. We also learnt a lot about writing different types of essays, thinking critically, reading longer articles and writing summaries and reflections. Since English is quite important, I hope I could improve my English through ES1102.