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Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
BP oil installations seen from the air.
Photojournalist Kadir van Lohuizen traveled from the southern tip of South America to the far reaches of Alaska on the North American continent to explore migration in the Americas. What he found both supported and defied stereotypes, which he reported on a website and an app for iPad called Via Panam.
Deadhorse, Alaska, lies on what its residents call “The Slope,” the coastal plain along the Arctic Ocean formally known as the North Slope. For a town with a total population (including part-timers) of only a few thousand, it has a very lively airport. Several large planes fly to and from Fairbanks and other Alaskan cities daily. Formally, Deadhorse is not a municipality, but an industrial zone. Its facilities and security are provided by privately owned businesses, not the government.
Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
Arrival of workers at Deadhorse airport.
Deadhorse lies at the end of the Pan American Highway, in the extreme north of Alaska. The place owes its existence to the oil that has been extracted from the ground around since the 1970s - generally by international companies that lease the land from the indigenous peoples. Almost all of the residents of Deadhorse are migrants from “the Lower 48” (the contiguous United States) or from Latin America.
At more than 586,000 square miles, Alaska is by far the largest state in the United States. It is also the least densely populated. Fairbanks, the second-largest city in the state after Anchorage, lies in the middle of the state. The Dalton Highway runs north from there, ending at Deadhorse and the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, on the Arctic Ocean. The road was built in 1974, to support the construction and maintenance of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. About 250 semitrailers travel the road daily to supply the oil businesses around Prudhoe Bay.
The work sites of the oil companies are mostly leased from the Iñupiat, the indigenous people of Alaska’s Northwest Arctic. The Iñupiat receive a considerable income from the leases, but not everyone is happy with the oil extraction. One Iñupiat-owned company, called NANA, is active in mining, the hotel sector, the oil industry, tourism, catering and security services. The profits go to projects for the 12,500 members of the Inupiat community.
Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
Paulette McNab, 42, is from Indiana. When she was 20 years old she came with her father to Wasilla, Alaska and in 2008 she came to Deadhorse. 'I work as a housekeeper at the Prudhoe Bay hotel, where many workers stay. The people are really nice here and I love my work. I work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Every month I get two weeks off and I go back to Wasilla where my daughter lives.'
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline runs nearly 800 miles, making it one of the longest in the world. It was built between 1974 and 1977, just after the 1973 oil crisis. There was considerable protest against its construction from environmental groups and native peoples, on whose territory the oil extraction takes place. Every day 700,000 barrels of crude oil are pumped through this pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the southern port city of Valdez, just east of Anchorage. Oil is by far the largest source of income for Alaska.
Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
A tanning saloon at the Prudhoe Bay hotel which houses hundreds of migrant workers who work in the oil (related) industry.
Hundreds of migrant workers in the oil sector live at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel. They drive to their jobs daily at oil rigs or businesses connected with the oil industry. Life in Deadhorse consists of working hard, often four weeks on and two weeks off. There is no time for pleasure. Moreover, there is hardly any entertainment, and alcohol is banned.
Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR
Cameron Milroy, 25, was born in Kotzebue on the west coast of Alaska. His mother is native, his father Scottish - Irish. He grew up with his father in Oregon. When Cameron was 20 years he came back to Alaska and got a job with Nanan (a native oil company) in Deadhorse. 'I started as a cleaner, but now I am a 'level 1' truck driver. I enjoy the climate here.'
K. van Lohuizen / NOOR
From Colombians fleeing war to North Americans retirees moving to Nicaragua, a photographer's journey from Chile to Alaska explores both the expected and unexpected patterns of migration in the Americas
Experience the entire journey, from Chile to Alaska, by exploring the slideshow at right, the Via Panam website or by downloading the app for iPad.
More Photoblogs from the Migration in the Americas series:
Mom works in US while family stays in El Salvador
US retirees flock to Nicaragua
On the run from water in Panama
Bolivia hopes for windfall from producing lithium
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Leave a Comment:
OK??!!! This is like 7th grade social studies
True, we should all have learned this in 7th grade social studies but the sad truth is that with all change, something is lost. Our children are no longer taught geography, population migration, history or even how to create or read a timeline. As a teacher in a public high school system in the US I can tell you that our students' parasitic dependence on the internet has created a generation that will "self-direct" only to things that amuse and entertain. They have a sense of history that does not encompass even the length of their own lives.
On a broader topic, however, this series is useful if for nothing else than teaching the great commonalities of human life and aspirations. We have all migrated to where we are from someplace else. Even the tribes resident in the US at the time of European arrival were not 'native' to the Americas. What all migrants are, however, is courageous. Most people, most of the time, will put up with unimaginable distress--at home--rather than uproot themselves and move a few miles, let alone across continents and oceans. The United States is exceptional precisely because we have been the universal recipient, the one nation in the world for the last two centuries which has been likely to receive migrants from other lands, the bravest or the smartest or the most stubborn; those who refused to believe that pain and privation were their due. It was that industry which they embodied and passed on to their children that made this country the envy of the world.
MSNBC caters to lowest common denominator. Educated and well written news would turn away most of ther readerbase.
Yet here you are.
Somehow it's hard not to think this is about big bad oil. Consider the source.
Deadhorse, soon to be the City that Obama destroyed! One of the Northern most cities on the Continent that Progressives Economic and Social Engineering reduced to a parallel with the African Continent!
Stop obsessing about politics and turning everything into a political issue.
Or else it speaks to the short-sightedness of conservatives/corporations who will destroy wildlife for short-term benefit and abandon it when the profit drops by a penny?
What wildlife is destroyed? The Porcupine caribu herd has thrived on the slope since the pipeline has been there. If you have never been or worked there, You should just shut up. I've worked there several times and enviromental concerns are number 2on the list with safety of the workforce being number 1.
tedcrawford------Your tin foil hat is wearing out run down to Wal-mart and buy another truck load.
What are you talking about dude?
this is just another article to may you look at illegals as normal and ok. Immigration and migration and illegal immigration are all different the same at an apple,cabbage and hamburger are different. this is migration so what is the news?
Where does this article talk about illegal immigration? You are on the wrong blog or newslink to spout your diatribe.
Well, that's the thing Artie. MSNBC never calls them "illegal aliens". Very few, if any of their articles state it as such. So everyone is left wondering if they are talking about illegals or just workers with visa's.
An American working in Alaska is not illegal. They are a migrant, and even an immigrant. They have migrated from Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada or Wyoming. They have come from any of the 50 states. They are legal, and that is the key difference.
desertgranny Since when is it illegal to go from alabama to alaska to work or from alaska to california, It is 50 states that make up USA. and you are free to move from one state to the other.
The news desert granny is roots; ones roots, ones acculturation, one’s ability to find a footing in a locality which brings to life a town, a village, a city.
It is the matrix that has made mankind a successful specie, through "cooperation" what migration does will cause us to end up as Bedouins or itinerants who wonder from place to place, sacking and pillaging the environs and those who are already established there and then moving on.
This is the Pandora’s Box that is being unleashed; this is the idiocy that we are descending into as nation. The destruction of our roots
The headline says it is the end of North America. Are we sinking into the sea? Or do they mean it is the end as we know it? One think people need to check are the facts - the so-called influx of undocumented workers is actually an outflux of same. There aren't the jobs here there used to be and more are leaving than are coming. Besides, the ones who are here are not taking jobs from 'good, honest (albeit lazy)' north Americans, they are taking the jobs that 'good, honest (albeit lazy)' north Americans don't want. Look what's happened in Alabama when all the crop pickers moved out.
Are you really this bad at reading comprehension? The "End of North America" refers to this being the "End" of the North American continent.
digitalnoise: the headline is sensationalist and meant to mislead. Yes, after reading the article it becomes clear what the author means, but where exactly is the "end" of North America, anyway? Except for the land connection to South America, this continent is surrounded by water with thousands of miles of coastline. Picking Deakhouse, AK as "the End" is arbitrary at best.
The article title is misleading but the writeup is okay and interesting enough. Not much newsworthy but still an okay read. You understand the title as you read the article....so a little catchy I guess.
Well 'rainlady2' aren't YOU special? Is anyone in your family doing those jobs that 'lazy north Americas' wont do? If not, then who are YOU to call them 'lazy', when YOU and yours is no different. How many of your family is working for below minimum wage, with no benefits, under the table and you expect the rest of us to? Geez, STFU idiot.
For the record, my grandfather and his brother DID pick the harvest during the depression. They sent their paychecks home to help support their family. Their wages made getting through the depression easier for my Grandparents and the rest of their younger brothers and sisters. Oh and my grandfathers side of the family are all red hair, blue eyed IRISH. No illegal necessary (and they never will be).
Caesar Chavez was anti-illegal. He knew these thieves would ruin everything they touch, destroy the hard earned wages he fought for, and our way of life.
Alaska is beautiful. However, one of my bucket-list vacations is to go into the North Pole (I believe it's via Canada) in one of those huge trucks and feed the polar bears...
Except for the cold that is unbearable, I wish I could live there. Crime, traffic, gangs, people going crazy and killing their kids and other people's kids, and other killings of innocents, not to mention the monster Muslims that kill anybody, even their own....One must be at peace there......
Ummm, Crystal, it's not the utopia you think it is.
Probably too cold to committ many crimes or else the offenders may just disappear into the wildnerness. Maybe families are closer as you need bodywarmth too last some of the winters which brings other activities LOL. There are crazies or zealots everywhere unfortunately, just probably fewer there...
suicide rate and accidental death is probably very high.
Move to any small town that you choose. The result will be the same.
IMHO - you are correct. High suicide rates. People get caught in storms and natives drinking alcohol blaming their woes on the white man.
I worked in Anchorage Alaska back in 1981 with the pipeline in place. I find it interesting that contrary to the environmentalist characters the elk moose and carabu love the pipe line because it offers them warmth as the oil has to be heated before it can be pumped. The animals are breeding like crazy as it offers places were the animals gather.
Sorry you NBC News UN Americans...... No More Illegal Immigration or Self Serving Sympathy for the "Poor" Migrants BS Stories...BUILD THE WALL NOW!
Or better yet just tell each and every one of these Countries from Canada to Argentina....We will charge your Government for the Incarceration of EVERY SINGLE One of your Citizens we catch illegally in America taken directly out of YOUR Bank Accounts!
And if that doesn't work we'll start adding New States to The United States Of America one Country at a time!
PS Nothing against Legal Immigration but Enough is Enough!
Just One More Reason To Refuse To Re-Elect ANY Incumbents be they Democrat or Republican because ALL OF THEM have Betrayed US!
Especially Not That Back Door Barry Who Refuses To Enforce OUR LAWS Against ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!!
So, your ancestors were Native American? Didn't think so...
Actually some them where but that's besides the point Intentionally Clueless.....That was then.... This is NOW!
So BUILD THE WALL and let US throw Bailout Barry and the Rest of these Wall Streets Owned & Corrupted Incumbents Over It Come November!
Illegal IMMIGRANTS Go Home Now...... Or Go To Prison as the Criminals You Are!
When Americans can buy a Cabin in BC or a Beach Home in Cancun then you are welcome to come back....But Not Until Then!
MUW,
If you had read the article, you would have seen that most of the "immigrants" were workers from the "lower 48", not from foreign shores. It does mention a limited number of Latin Americans, but given the travel required and the documentation required to work in such a restricted area as a "company town"; I suspect that these folks are more legal to work there than you would be just to visit.
Bill if you had bothered to Think About What they where Really saying you'd have realized it was just another Sympathy Grab by the Mainstain Media for Illegal Immigrants........Oh we're all just the same when we are actually NOT! Only America allows this kind of "Illegality" try moving to Mexico or Canada or ANYWHERE and watch what happens....To Jail you go if you are LUCKY!
This story is nothing but more Disinformation & Nonsense and nothing more than Propaganda but so next time try and think about the "why" before you say "Oh look a poor little Puppy"....for just maybe it is RABID Not POOR!
What? Are you a bot that posts the same diatribe on every story that contains the text "migration"? Will I find you on an article about bird migration talking about Mexican birds taking the jobs of hard working American woodpeckers????
to MUW . surely i can buy a condo in Cancun, why not. Or a house in BC. What is your point. Mika on asiasi.
I don't know what kind of bilge MUW is pushing but he's right about not being able to buy a condo in Cancun. A foreigner can lease property in Mexico but not buy it outright. In Canada you can buy whatever you can pay for.
MUW all you've really done is say that there need to be restrictions imposed on realtors. I'm sure they would disagree as would anyone who believes in free enterprise.
Despite a lagging economy, the Obama administration has managed to surpass the Bush administration efforts to control the U.S. border. Here are the startling statistics:
Last year saw the highest number of people ever deported: 387,790, up from 116,782 in 2001 and 349,041 in 2008. Thus far this year, some 185,887 people have been deported, a record pace that, if maintained, will nearly double the number of deportations in 2010 to 604,133. The Administration has also doubled the number of agents assigned to the Border Enforcement Security Task Force and tripled intelligence analysts along the Southwest border.
(--TIME magazine, May 10, "Why GOP Senators Won't Play on Immigration Reform")
And give millions of wetback children resources that legitamate Americans can't get. DREAM!
As Teoteo, the first poster alluded to, this was for all intents and purposes, a 7th. grade social studies lesson. My question: Your point is? It was an interesting, informative, and a quick read, so be it. I don't think it was written with any other purpose or intent other than to be informative and factual without biased overtones and simply stated for our reading enjoyment, nothing more. Then all the NBC.Com hate-mongers and malcontents come onto the scene and spew their venomous, racist, bigoted political diatribes on line allegedly for discussion, totally off the subject matter at hand. WTF! Take it for what it is and let it be. It's my guess that the majority of Americans had no clue as to the existence of this migration colony. Why the animosity?
I only looked at the article because I thought it was some alarmist's idea of the end of North American civilization via global warming.
What it turned out to be was a very bad parody of a National Geographic photo essay.
I thought the headline was a bit sensationalized but otherwise an interesting Sunday Magazine piece.
What? The end of North America sounds informative...You ignorant douche. Your a racist hatemonger.
Nice pictures.
Reading these posts - the anonymity of the Internet sure does bring out the worst in people.
I just noticed that the picture of the guy dressed in the hoodie looks very much like the Jesus that deranged art restorer created in Italy.
You go where you have to go to make ends meet.
Far too many people do not realize that The "Americas" encompass a great deal.
Central and South America are the Americas.
Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, etc.
When you have a "president" who is a failure, you migrate.
Or you vote him out.
Yes,I think the population did drop slightly during the Bush years.
Yes Americas not Americans. We are the only nation on this hemisphere who calls ourself Americans. As it should be.
Do the have a Disco there? That would probably help.
Democrats are to stupid to se who is bad for this country
the end of North America? yeah no sensationalism there. (sarc). MSNBC seems like it is trying to create importanat news. Not just reporting the facts like what should be done.