Thread: A New Hampshire Student Reflects On Immigration

A New Hampshire Student Reflects On Immigration


http://www.miracoalition.org/en/pres...on-immigration

After Eva Castillo, New Hampshire Immigrant Project Organizer, gave a presentation on immigration to a group of students, she received the letter from Julie Becher reprinted with permission below.

The Power Behind a Name

Nothing is more telling about how you view a certain group of people than the name you use to refer to them. Names are our way as humans to shown our recognition of differences or similarities among ourselves, a way for us to put a label on what it is that makes us different from each other or what that certain trait is that unites us. The dark aspect of a name, a label, is that it fosters a strong view of us vs. them, a force that often times plays an enormous role in creating conflict between different groups in society.

Illegal Aliens.

The term that is now used by the American media and general public to label hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. And what is the crime they have committed? Robbery? Murder? No, the trait that makes these people similar is that they have immigrated to America, looking for better lives, freedom from oppression, or safety from the violence of their old countries, and yet because of the current restrictive policies on legalization, these people have been forced to immigrate without legal documentation.

To the majority of the people in the United States, these immigrants have become our scapegoats, whether it be for healthcare costs or housing, job availability or nationwide economic recession. The bitterness that many Americans hold for undocumented immigrants stems from this feeling of blame. The media does little to discourage the blaming of the people it refers to as “illegal aliens” with reports of supposed system abuse and increased crime rates.

But take a second to truly think about how we are implying we see undocumented immigrants when we so thoughtlessly call them “illegal aliens.” No human being, no matter where they were born, what they look like, or what language they speak, ever deserves to be called an alien. By calling immigrants aliens, we are blatantly stating that in the eyes of the general American public, the us-them mentality is alive and thriving.

The label alien also comes with the connotation of an invader, determined to come against the natives’ wishes and harm the existing society. What some of us seem to overlook is that immigrants didn’t come here hoping to steal our jobs, they didn’t come here to “live off of the system.” No immigrant came to the United States legally or illegally hoping to harm the country. The reason many decided to come in the first place was to be able to partake in the opportunities available in the US, to experience the freedom to say what they wish and not be arrested, to raise their families in a safe environment and be able to have a better life. If the reason they decided to immigrate was because they saw the United States as a sanctuary for hope and protection, why would they ever want to harm it?

And then there’s that second adjective, that second term that many in the US use to label undocumented immigrants: illegal. Did any of us ever stop to think how offensive that name may be to the people we are labeling? Eva Castillo, a strong advocate for immigrant rights and protection stated in a recent presentation, “a person is never illegal; he or she may commit illegal actions, but you shouldn’t use the word [illegal] to call them.” With this name that we are using to describe hundreds of thousands of people, we Americans are demonstrating our lack of acceptance in a land of supposed tolerance, our discrimination rather than equality, our tendency to judge before we even try to learn the truth. For a country that’s so caught up in imposing our “correct moral standards” on the rest of the world, one of these days, we are going to have to take a look inside. And sadly, when we do, we may not like what we see.

By: Julie Becher