Why the courageous stories of immigration need to be told
A Nation of Immigrants
The whole world is on the move. In January 2016, United Nations’ statistics revealed that there are 244 million migrants living abroad worldwide. The technological revolution of the last twenty years has broadened the capacity to access information (trustworthy and so-called fake), drastically impacting immigrants and migration patterns. Although, the United States of America is known as the land of opportunity; the meaning of opportunity takes different dimensions when you think about the types of opportunities offered and, inevitably, for whom these opportunities will be accessible. People from around the world risk everything to live in this country—to make their American Dreams come true. But behind the American Dream, there is the reality that moves the immigrant: wars, ethnic, ideological and religious prosecution, famines, excessive population growth, economic failures, political and social breakdowns, and environmental ills. The history of this country was built by immigrants. Thinking that in 1882, barely 100 years after the founding of the nation, immigration became federally controlled, which tells us something.
From the Pilgrims searching for religious freedom to 1880s immigrants seeking economic opportunities, the country has been a destination of hope and dreams. The country is full of immigration stories to tell; you may have your own.
Telling Immigrant Stories
However, stories about immigration are not all about courage, sacrifice, resiliency, and hope. American immigration stories also have another side—the sad side. Immigration is often an event that traumatizes. It tears families apart; it sometimes forces an immigrant to lose his or her past to search for his or her future. Loss of something, of someone, is a fact that immigrants must face and the force that will redefine their very sense of self and their lives.
To escape from poverty, to escape from prosecution of any sort, or to escape from war becomes then not only a matter of finding better opportunities, for a new life, but a matter of life and death. Current events all over the world and the impossible task of offering sustainable safety over and over tell a story that this article touches not even in the surface. Almost always, migrants have to tear themselves away from their wives, their children, their religion, their culture, and their mother language. (Who we are is organized by language!) The sacrifices are unthinkable. Depending on values and belief systems, political and economic tides, and mass media manipulation, the public will see what these filters let them see.
The time to tell real immigration stories—the real immigration stories—is today. The current social and political climate brought us to the inevitable: immigration as the economic and social issue. This is not about resources or lack thereof, which any society must plan and think about. It is about the social issue that divides. To educate society about immigration, immigrants must find their voice and tell their stories. For society to empathize with migrants, informing them about immigration stories is necessary.
When resources fluctuate, when social systems walk on edges, history clearly points to the “outsider” as the one to blame. In a time where immigration is viewed as bad or evil for the country’s economy and even safety, it is paramount that society learns the stories of immigrants, the reasons, and that immigration provides clear benefits for the country; after all, we are all immigrant of the world. Immigrants provide a determined and affordable workforce to rural communities. Who is picking your most favorite fruit, enduring days in the field you would not dare to consider for only one hour? John Muir (naturalist and writer), Albert Einstein (scientist), Elizabeth Stern (pathologist), and Rita Levi-Montalcini (neurobiologist) are but a few of the immigrants who, side by side with farm pickers, made America Great.
Every person has the right to have an opportunity to fulfill his or her dream. For immigrants, this right becomes a basic human right. The cuentos (in an overly digested, developmental, sensitive way) try to convey that there is the pursuing of the amazing American Dream and that there was a journey behind it—a journey moved by loss, love, courage, and the belief that there is goodness in the people of the world.
If you want to share your immigration stories, you are very welcome to write them in the comment section below. Also, if you want to share something with me or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through my Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads accounts. Also, check out my book, Mommy, Tell Me, Why Did You Come Here?
References
Nazario, Sonia. 2013. “The Heartache of an Immigrant Family.” New York Times, October 14. Accessed November 3, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/opinion/the-heartache-of-an-immigrant-family.html.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 2012. “History Times: A Nation of Immigrants.” American History: An Introduction, April 11. Accessed November 03, 2017. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/immigration-and-migration/essays/history-times-nation-immigrants.
Younge, Gary. “As migrants we leave home in search of a future, but we lose the past.” Guardian, March 24, 2015. Accessed November 03, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/24/migrants-leave-home-future-past-borders.
