Keep the Borders Open

Outline

1) Discourse community (writer, affiliation, publication, readers)

In his article ‘Keep the Borders Open’ the author, Jacob G. Hornberger, targets a diverse discourse community, which appeared on www.worldandi.com. He focuses on more than one group of readers. There are not only on educating immigrants, but also tries to inform the audience opposing his opinion. Being the founder and president of ‘The Future of Freedom Foundation’, Hornberger tries to reach out to a very broad community which includes immigrants of the US and American citizen by giving speeches and debating about free-market principles all over the world. Growing up in a culture mix himself, Hornberger has established a connection with immigrants of the US. Born and raised on the Mexican border in Texas he understands the values and morals, goals, issues and sacrifices an immigrant has to go through. His work is intended for readers of Washington Post, Charlotte Observer, La Prensa San Diego, El Nuevo Miami Herald and many others, in the US and in Latin America.

2) The genre and the purpose of the text

The genre of this project is the article. The purpose is to convince his audience of the necessity of changing the immigration policy of USA due to advantages of open borders .

3) Brief summary

‘Keep the Borders Open’ is an article that appeared on worldandi.com (January 2002) in which the author, Jacob G. Hornberger, explains the issues of immigrants and discusses the advantages of opening the borders of the United States. Hornberger compares the current issue of immigrants by referring to the first amendments of this nation, namely freedom. When this nation was built it was still ‘the land of the free’ and people from all over the world were taking advantage of it. More recent events show that the philosophy of ‘freedom’ has dramatically shifted to a negative perspective. America shuts its doors when it comes to war refugees or people “suffering political tyranny or...