Who are Dalits? & What is Untouchability?

1. What are the differences between immigration and emigration? What are the everyday life experiences of those who migrate?

2. Think about your ethnic heritage. What stories have you heard about when your ancestors immigrated to the U.S? How are they different or the same than the stories of other migrants?

3. Who are the Dalits? Why have they been discriminated against? What kinds of social movements have begun to redress their political and social grievances?

Immigration is moving into a new country; emigration is permantly leaving one's own country. Migration is generally used to decribe movement from place to place. Migration affects a person entire life. They leave their home, they people and community they know, often their culture, in order to start a new life in a new place. They may face the challenges of finding a new job, building new relationships, learning a new language, and adjusting to a new culture.
My Grandpa used to tell stories about how his family immigrated from Germany/Poland while he was a child. The war had caused a lot of problems for his family as the border kept changing and their home was sometimes in Germany and sometimes in Poland. His family fled their home to come to Canada. My Grandpa and his family only spoke German and had a difficult time adjusting to life in Canada. My Grandpa was able to learn a bit of English. Because he was the only one in his family who knew English, he had to work and provide for his family. He worked long hours and went to night school. Eventually he was able to become a contractor. The difficulty that his family had with a different language is also a problem that faces many new immigrants today. Many people are still fleeing war in their own countries like my Grandpa was.
Dalit means the oppressed. They often face discrimination that keeps them from their rights and freedoms. In India, they represent about 17% of the population. For a long time up until recently, they were considered untouchable, which meant that they could not associate with other "clean" people. They have been discriminated against because of this idea of untouchable which they became defined as because of their undesirable or dirty occupations. The abolishment of "untouchability" helped dalits, but they continue to be oppressed and to be streamlined into undesirable occupations.