Editorial Cartoons & Immigration 

We are in JCOM 2010 this semester at Utah State University. This website was created to analyze editorial cartoons on the topic of immigration.  With immigration, we have found that the issue is most abundant when it comes to Europe; Mexico (specifically, the U.S./Mexican border); the United States in regards to its immigration policy; and, as of late, the Syrian refugee crisis. As such, we decided to divide our cartoons into these four categories. 

 

Editorial cartoonists use several different persuasive techniques in order to effectively convey their ideas to the audience. In order to better analyze these cartoons, we will be referring to some of the techniques which the artists we reviewed have used: 

 

Exaggeration: Exaggerating a specific figure's or group of people's physical characteristics. 

Irony: Showing something the way it is vs. the way it should be (or is expected to be). 

Symbolism: Using a simple concept as a symbol to represent a larger idea. 

Labeling: Labeling people or objects to convey a certain concept. 

Analogy: Comparing one thing to something else. 

 

 

We learned more about Immigration as we researched each one of our topics individually.  Immigration is not as black and white as we originally perceived it to be or a simple yes or no.  There are many underlying components involved with each one of our topics, some focusing on the positive and some on the negative outcomes.  

 

The most prominent and talked about region within the topic of immigration is Mexico as it pertains to the United States/Mexico Border and how illegal immigration affects the lives of Americans. This is more a nation topic we chose to discuss, where Europe and Syria discuss immigration on an international level. Though the preconception going into research would be that most cartoons would be Pro or Con, more perspectives were found and are discussed within that page. 

 

Europe and immigration: the EU, (Europe Commission) has gotten a HUGE 

amount of refugees coming their way. With the crisis in Syria, the migrants have been flocking towards 

Europe. With high hopes of being able to seek asylum. Europe is known for their new inventions and 

their progress towards the future. These migrants are looking for safety away from their origin country. 

They want to come somewhere, where the country, accepts them and lets them in. Europe has seen 

more migration now than ever before. The issue with that is that Europe does not have enough room. 

They are struggling. The Europe Commission only allows a certain amount of asylum-seekers per year, 

and the process is difficult. They have to prove to the country that the country they lived in before is 

not safe. That their lives are in imminent danger. We have been able to learn so much from analyzing 

these editorial cartoons!

 

In regards to the US and  immigration in political cartoons, many of the cartoonists bring out this idea of fear among immigrants towards US citizens and also fear that US citizens have towards the immigrants.  Ever since its founding and even before, the United States has been a nation known for its diversity in race, culture, and place of origin. Founded by immigrants, it is a place for all. Because of its promises for a better future, however, an unestimated amount of people have come from all over the world and continue to come. Because of growing economic and social concerns in the United States, the topic of immigration has become controversial. The tones of these cartoons are straightforward and blunt with the ideas of Americans getting out there and making a difference rather than complaining about the issue, and immigrants needing to find a better life for their families, but maybe going about it in the wrong way.  These cartoons all show a bit of impatience on all sides.  These cartoons enlightened us to see the many different sides of the issue and many different places immigration is taking place.

 

In 2011, war broke out in Syria, forcing millions to leave their countries and flock to others for safety. The problem this war and conflict has caused is an issue of figuring out where to put all of these displaced civilians and how to be able to be able to offer so many humanitarian aid. 

 

Immigration has many complex, underlying components that come from many different regions of the world. Some of those are discussed within this website.