Category Archives: Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners

When the Law is Dehumanizing

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners, Urban Adolescents

“I knew that I wanted to be somebody, but I didn’t know what I wanted to be. Because I didn’t have the legal right, I feel, to be somebody” (Goodman, 2018, pg. 59).

Why do government systems deport people? Why is the process of becoming a US citizen so difficult and belabored? Why is asylum seeker status so difficult to receive? How could a law ever justify tearing people away from their families and children? What purpose does that serve beyond psychological torment? Would we ever separate asylum seeking families who were white? How did we get to a place where teachers and principals need to be well versed in immigration legalese? The only answer I can think of to these questions is white supremacy

The title of this chapter, The Legal Right to be Somebody, a direct quote from undocumented student, Licia, so simply addresses an archaic and dehumanizing concept still embedded in our legal and governing system: humans as property. Or perhaps more specifically, any person not white or male having less value, and therefore can be treated as object or commodity, having little to no say in decision making regarding their own being. This ideal is foundational to our governing body, a state created from a place of supremacy based upon skin color, which still infiltrates our entire legal and judicial system, bleeding over into infrastructure and social services. It is this system, this foundation, that leaves a young human full of potential to feel like they exist in the U.S. as some sort of invisible but conscious body, frozen in time afraid to exist beyond basic survival. When we create narratives that turn humans into ‘aliens’ or ‘illegals’ we erase humanity, and uphold supremacist values, saying just because we were born here, we deserve more, are more and will be more. As educators we can introduce new narratives, treat our students with compassion, get to know our community and ask our students to do the same — but the law is the law. And it is my opinion, the law should not have the right or the reach to decide who is human, and who is less than human.

You Don’t Know What They’re Going Through

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners

“Mexican and Central American women are among those who risk crossing the border illegally to take on this work and are expected to form close physical and emotional bonds of affection with their more privileged employers’ children or elders in their care, while relations with their own children let behind grow weaker…These complex family circumstances put immigrant children in the difficult position of experiencing two breaks in emotional attachments: first when their parents leave them for America, and second, when they leave their caregiver and extended family, to whom they have grown close, to be reunited with their parents.” (Goodman, 2018, p. 63).

This chapter was filled with an abundance of eye-opening recounts and communications, but this quote really struck me emotionally. It really put into perspective what these students are going through: first, they experience their parents leaving them (in this case, their mothers), often times when they are little, to make money by taking care of other children their same age. In this time, the children form close bonds with their other family members or caregivers, growing up to know them and not their own parents, and forming close parent-child-like bonds with them. And then, all at once, this relation is ripped from them as they leave to reunite with their biological parents, even though little or no relationship may exist between them. Continue reading You Don’t Know What They’re Going Through →

Our complexities

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners, Urban Adolescents

“First generation students are at even greater risk for dropping out if they lack adult, school, and community support and some of their parents face additional challenges such as unfamiliarity with the school system, making it difficult for them to advocate for their children and teach their children to advocate for themselves” (Perreira et al., 2006, as cited in Wexler, J., & Pyle, N 2012).

Focusing a little bit on the ‘immigrant communities in our country’ mentioned in Goodman (2018, p.56), there are many things to consider especially as an educator when working in such a unique environment in which “26% of children and youth in the United States are children of immigrants or are themselves immigrants” (Goodman, 2018, p.56) over 5 million of which Continue reading Our complexities →

The Perpetual Foreigner

Newcomers & Perpetual Foreigners

I liked that this article focused on racism very specific to an ethnic group — South Asian Americans — and not a collective whole of racism towards all minority groups. First of all, I think when people hear the term Asian, they think Chinese, Japanese, and maybe Thai, but South Asians are not that. They are from India, Nepal, Pakistan, etc., and they are commonly perceived as terrorists by very ignorant people in this nation. They look like the extremists that conducted 9/11 and so this nation continues to perceive them as dangerous. As I read the article, I actually learned that South Asian Americans have essentially always been recipients of racist tendencies in this country, even before 9/11 happened. I, ignorantly, thought this was only a new concept since then… I should have known better. Continue reading The Perpetual Foreigner →