“The anti-immigrant climate they are living in causes unauthorized students and those in mixed-status families to live in constant fear of losing their parents and other family members in raids and random stops. Some undocumented parents in New Mexico and other border states keep their children home from school for fear of being arrested when they drop them off at school, or being stopped at border patrol checkpoints on the roads along the way there” (Goodman, 57)

This passage stood out to me because it shows the dangerous consequences of the hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the top of our government, particularly the president. When a leader makes hateful, bigoted comments, it shows the people that it is acceptable to act this way. We see this hateful rhetoric put into action in the form of hate crimes and violent, often deadly, acts of domestic terrorism. The people who spread this hateful rhetoric are not at all aware or familiar with the immigration process, even though the United States is a country of immigrants. Xenophobic misconceptions cause people to believe or pretend to believe lies, which end up putting innocent people in danger.

“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.

“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 →

“She asked us to work harder to build positive relationships with immigrant students in our classes, and to take time to listen to their stories and learn about what they have experienced. If we can bring a bilingual approach that taps into students’ home language and culture, we as teachers, school leaders, counselors, and school social work staff can more effectively partner with our students’ families to bridge the gap between school and family and community.”

– Goodman, It’s Not About Grit, chapter 3 p.79

I feel so happy to be teaching ENL in a time where translanguaging is embraced. Specifically at the middle school level that I’m working with in Spanish Harlem, these students have a lot of knowledge in their home/first language and even more extensive knowledge in the fields and subjects that interest them the most. For the “All About Me” activities we worked on as a class, I allowed them to “code switch” a bit and include some of their answers their first languages. Since the goal of that specific activity was to get them to focus on personal and possessive pronouns, answering “my favorite sport is arco y flecha” did not interfere with the language objective or learning target of the class.

Giving the students the space to talk about where they’re from, where I can find it on a map, their favorite food from home, or the many other parts of them that they can now bring into the classroom makes them more excited and motivated to be in their in the first place and is what this chapter touches upon. Connecting with our students and empowering them are products of the type of communication we have with them. If we welcome their knowledge, their differences, their backgrounds and work with them (not against them), we can build a better classroom environment for them. I know I still have a lot to learn about being an ENL teacher but learning alongside my students and simultaneously learning from them makes the experience uniquely enriching for all of us.

As an emotional response to this chapter and it’s stories, I created a playlist on Spotify. This is just a small compilation of tracks that I felt inclined to include but even the diversity in artists and array of years in which the songs were released says a lot about the importance of this topic. The songs talk about human rights regarding immigrants, stories of people emigrating, how immigration affects those left behind, the resilience of immigrants, the politics behind views on immigration, cultural preservation post-immigration, and more.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e7B7KA30ouPBt4vXli0HsVFc5e7W9eE2grQoQ8lH_5c/edit?usp=sharing

This is a link to a sort of “annotated song list” explaining the topic of each song and a translated quote since not all of the songs are in English.