Making the Immigrant Soldier

Making the Immigrant Soldier PDF Author: Cristina-Ioana Dragomir
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 025205430X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Immigrants to the United States have long used the armed forces as a shortcut to citizenship. Cristina-Ioana Dragomir profiles Lily, Alexa, and Vikrant, three immigrants of varying nationalities and backgrounds who chose military service as their way of becoming American citizens. Privileging the trio’s own words and experiences, Dragomir crafts a human-focused narrative that moves from their lives in their home countries and decisions to join the military to their fraught naturalization processes within the service. Dragomir illuminates how race, ethnicity, class, and gender impacted their transformation from immigrant to soldier, veteran, and American. She explores how these factors both eased their journeys and created obstacles that complicated their access to healthcare, education, economic resources, and other forms of social justice. A compelling union of analysis and rich storytelling, Making the Immigrant Soldier traces the complexities of serving in the military in order to pursue the American dream.

Making the Immigrant Soldier

Making the Immigrant Soldier PDF Author: Cristina-Ioana Dragomir
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 025205430X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book

Book Description
Immigrants to the United States have long used the armed forces as a shortcut to citizenship. Cristina-Ioana Dragomir profiles Lily, Alexa, and Vikrant, three immigrants of varying nationalities and backgrounds who chose military service as their way of becoming American citizens. Privileging the trio’s own words and experiences, Dragomir crafts a human-focused narrative that moves from their lives in their home countries and decisions to join the military to their fraught naturalization processes within the service. Dragomir illuminates how race, ethnicity, class, and gender impacted their transformation from immigrant to soldier, veteran, and American. She explores how these factors both eased their journeys and created obstacles that complicated their access to healthcare, education, economic resources, and other forms of social justice. A compelling union of analysis and rich storytelling, Making the Immigrant Soldier traces the complexities of serving in the military in order to pursue the American dream.

Immigrant Soldier

Immigrant Soldier PDF Author: K Lang-Slattery
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780990674207
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy, based on the true experiences of a refugee from Nazi Germany, combines a coming of age story with an immigrant tale and a World War II adventure. On a cold November morning in 1938, Herman watches in horror as his cousin is arrested. As a Jew, he realizes it is past time to flee Germany, a decision that catapults him from one adventure to another, his life changed forever by the gathering storm of world events. Gradually, Herman evolves from a frustrated teenager, looking for a place to belong, into a confident U.S. Army Intelligence officer who struggles with hate and forgiveness.

An Immigrant Soldier in the Mexican War

An Immigrant Soldier in the Mexican War PDF Author: Frederick Zeh
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9780890966679
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Frederick Zeh, a young German immigrant, had hardly arrived in the United States when he was caught up in the war fever that swept his new homeland. He joined the Mountain Howitzer and Rocket Company of the U.S. Army. His impressions of the siege of Veracruz, the long march to Mexico City, the bloody battles that occurred along the route, and the occupation of the capital provide a vivid and unusual account of the Mexican War from an enlisted man's point of view. Although Zeh held the lowly rank of "laborer" in the army, he was well-educated and an astute observer, and his story is both lively and well-written. Besides the horror of battles, he tells about relations between officers and enlisted men, military punishment, and the day-to-day life of the soldiers. Numerous anecdotes and personal stories enliven his narrative. He is unusually candid about abuses that occurred in the American army and toward Mexican civilians. His is also the first book-length account written by a German-American participant - a significant contribution, given that nearly half the regular army was made up of immigrant recruits.

Immigrant Soldier

Immigrant Soldier PDF Author: George J Raunam
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
About the Book Immigrant Soldier is the story of one immigrant’s struggle from undergoing Soviet bombings in Tallinn, Estonia, to the devastation of the Dresden, Germany bombing in 1944 by the Allies. Then the uncertain years of living in a displaced persons camp after World War II in Germany. Born in Tartu, Estonia at the start of World War II in 1937, Raunam describes the struggle to understand the reason for all the random death and the fear of the unknown and for losing everything, almost. He finds a new life in America and military service as well as new meaning in friends, love, fun, and the sheer joy of working for a country that he chose. He enlists as a private in the National Guard at age seventeen, then serves in combat, is decorated with a Silver Star and retires as a lieutenant colonel, aide de camp to General of the Army Omar N Bradley. His lifelong desire to find his family takes on a new meaning with the fall of the Iron Curtain. The odyssey takes six trips to Germany, Estonia, and Russia to locate family members who did not know the status of each other’s survival after World War II. He discovers the feeling of unbelievable joy to find out that one has a brother and sister and the celebration of finding each other. About the Author George J Raunam lives in Texas. He has five children, fifteen grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. He sees his family frequently and has hosted European family members in California and Texas to share their love for America. This is his first book about how to find lost family members and the Immigrant Spirit.

America's "Foreign Legion"

America's Author: Dennis A. Connole
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476675430
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Immigrant American soldiers played an important, often underrated role in World War I. Those who were non-citizens had no obligation to participate in the war, though many volunteered. Due to language barriers that prevented them from receiving proper training, they were often given the most dangerous and dirty jobs. The impetus for this book was the story of Matthew Guerra (the author's great-uncle). He immigrated to America from Italy around age 12. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1918 and shipped to France, where he joined the 58th Infantry Regiment of the 4th "Ivy" Division and participated in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. Wounded in the Bois de Fays, the 22-year-old Guerra died in a field hospital.

Immigrant Soldier

Immigrant Soldier PDF Author: Kathryn Lang-Slattery
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780990674238
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Part coming of age story, part immigrant tale, part World War II adventure, Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy follows Herman as he evolves from a frightened and frustrated teenager, looking for a place to belong, into a confident U.S. Army Intelligence officer who struggles with the conflicting emotions of hate and forgiveness.

Green Card Soldier

Green Card Soldier PDF Author: Sofya Aptekar
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262373653
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
An in-depth and troubling look at a little-known group of immigrants—non-citizen soldiers who enlist in the US military. While the popular image of the US military is one of citizen soldiers protecting their country, the reality is that nearly 5 percent of all first-time military recruits are noncitizens. Their reasons for enlisting are myriad, but many are motivated by the hope of gaining citizenship in return for their service. In Green Card Soldier, Sofya Aptekar talks to more than seventy noncitizen soldiers from twenty-three countries, including some who were displaced by conflict after the US military entered their homeland. She identifies a disturbing pattern: the US military’s intervention in foreign countries drives migration, which in turn supplies the military with a cheap and desperate labor pool—thereby perpetuating the cycle. As Aptekar discovers, serving in the US military is no guarantee against deportation, and yet the promise of citizenship and the threat of deportation are the carrot and stick used to discipline noncitizen soldiers. Viewed at various times as security threats and members of a model minority, immigrant soldiers sometimes face intense discrimination from their native-born colleagues and superiors. Their stories—stitched through with colonial legacies, white supremacy, exploitation, and patriarchy—show how the tensions between deservingness and suspicion shape their enlistment, service, and identities. Giving voice to this little-heard group of immigrants, Green Card Soldier shines a cold light on the complex workings of US empire, globalized militarism, and citizenship.

Americans All!

Americans All! PDF Author: Nancy Gentile Ford
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603441328
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
During the First World War, nearly half a million immigrant draftees from forty-six different nations served in the U.S. Army. This surge of Old World soldiers challenged the American military's cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions and required military leaders to reconsider their training methods for the foreign-born troops. How did the U.S. War Department integrate this diverse group into a united fighting force? The war department drew on the experiences of progressive social welfare reformers, who worked with immigrants in urban settlement houses, and they listened to industrial efficiency experts, who connected combat performance to morale and personnel management. Perhaps most significantly, the military enlisted the help of ethnic community leaders, who assisted in training, socializing, and Americanizing immigrant troops and who pressured the military to recognize and meet the important cultural and religious needs of the ethnic soldiers. These community leaders negotiated the Americanization process by promoting patriotism and loyalty to the United States while retaining key ethnic cultural traditions. Offering an exciting look at an unexplored area of military history, Americans All! Foreign-born Soldiers in World War I constitutes a work of special interest to scholars in the fields of military history, sociology, and ethnic studies. Ford's research illuminates what it meant for the U.S. military to reexamine early twentieth-century nativism; instead of forcing soldiers into a melting pot, war department policies created an atmosphere that made both American and ethnic pride acceptable. During the war, a German officer commented on the ethnic diversity of the American army and noted, with some amazement, that these "semi-Americans" considered themselves to be "true-born sons of their adopted country." The officer was wrong on one count. The immigrant soldiers were not "semi-Americans"; they were "Americans all!"

Immigrant America

Immigrant America PDF Author: Alejandro Portes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520940482
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
This third edition of the widely acclaimed classic has been thoroughly expanded and updated to reflect current demographic, economic, and political realities. Drawing on recent census data and other primary sources, Portes and Rumbaut have infused the entire text with new information and added a vivid array of new vignettes and illustrations. Recognized for its superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant lives in the United States, this book probes the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers, and explores the psychological consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation. The authors look at patterns of settlement in urban America, discuss the problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, explain how immigrants incorporate themselves into the American economy, and examine the trajectories of their children from adolescence to early adulthood. With a vital new chapter on religion—and fresh analyses of topics ranging from patterns of incarceration to the mobility of the second generation and the unintended consequences of public policies—this updated edition is indispensable for framing and informing issues that promise to be even more hotly and urgently contested as the subject moves to the center of national debate..

Proud American

Proud American PDF Author: Sergio A. Tinoco
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781640455153
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The writing was thought-provoking, and I enjoyed the little instances of humor that were thrown in. The Hungry Monster Book Review During an era of contentious debate about immigration, especially regarding immigrants from Mexico, Tinoco provides a fascinatingly complex perspective as a first-generation American citizen. Kirkus Review This is a touching, heartfelt story of survival and overcoming struggle. Michelle Dwyer, You First Review This book is riveting and engaging from the first page to the last. I enjoyed every moment and honestly was sad when it was over. Kathryn Bennet, Reader's Favorite A well-told tale, Proud American is one of those stories that succinctly captures what it takes to succeed as a migrant in the United States. Arya Fomonyuy, Reader's Favorite