There has been a huge spike in migrant children seeking jobs in the Unites States. Most of them being persuaded by their families seeking money to survive. Most of these parents willingly send their children to the border, knowing that they would not have made it across themselves. This article focused on one case specifically. A 15-year-old girl from Guatemala, who came to the United States by herself. She ended up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, living with her sponsor who was her aunt. She works at Hearthside, which tends to the packaging of big corporations such as Frito-Lay, and Nature Valley Granola.
The central message of this article is that there has been a spike in child labor due to immigrant children seeking better lives for themselves and their families back home. Many of the big corporations they work for overlook the policies set in place that specifically restrict workers under the age of 18. The article follows with many statements from the corporations themselves being asked to speak on these issues. It also focuses on several children’s stories individually. The Journalists point of view stays neutral as it emphasizes this issue. As it is a sad issue, the writer does a great job at not including any personal opinions or persuading any bias to the audience.
The quantitative data used in this article is mainly percentages of underage workers at certain corporations, and children crossing the border, seeking work. This data is very good and supports the issue discussed in the article. Quantitative data is given even when it is unnecessary, but only to support a topic of discussion.
In this article, the quantitative data present includes ages, length of worked shifts by children, and youth migrants crossing the border, seeking sponsors. All the evidence included in this article is in support of the topic being discussed. There’s not too much, or not too little. There is a good amount in effort to help the reader understand the urgency and neglect of this rising issue. I wouldn’t suggest adding any more quantitative data in this article.
As this class focuses on immigration into the United States, I feel much of its data and discussed topics can be related to our discussions in class. Its very nice to read an article on present issues because much of what we do in class are discussing, and analyzing past immigration, not present.
Source
Dreier, Hannah, and Kirsten Luce. “Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.” The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2023. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html.