Marked As Outsiders

In the past few presidential elections, the topic of immigration has played a significant role in a plethora of important political discussions and debates about policy reformations. A percentage of Americans lobby for the US to completely close its borders to immigrants, whereas others are convinced it is in the best interest of America to continue to allow immigrants into the country, and even go as far to say America should increase the amount of immigrants sanctioned into the country. In the article “How Immigrants Are Marked as Outsiders,” the author, Michael Jones-Correa, a professor of government at Cornell University and co-author of the book Latino Lives in America: Making it Home, defines exactly what an immigrant is and explains the three critical steps of transitioning from “outsider” to “insider.” In a corresponding fashion, the author of “No Longer an Outsider, but Still Distinct,” Lois Mendoza, who is the chairman of the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota and author of the book, A Journey Around Our America: A Memoir on Cycling,
However, Mendoza better appeals to ethos through using phrases such as “We now know that one can truly live bilingually, biculturally and transnationally,” (Mendoza, New York Times) as he uses distinctive vocabulary and language, appropriate for the discourse community he belongs to, while still maintaining enough simplicity for an unassociated layman to easily understand the main idea of the article. Though Jones-Correa also uses appropriate vocabulary, phrases such as “At the very least, we know that as long as people remain outsiders, they will never feel, or truly be, insiders,” (Jones-Correa, New York Times) are difficult to interpret, leaving the reader more confused, than persuaded to believe his