Those who advocate for the human rights of migrants spend a great deal of time responding to mischaracterizations of migrants, to shallow depictions, to stereotypes. Migrants are millions of individuals and what they have in common may surprise us all.
Daniel Hernandez calls out this terrific quote from a recent Los Angeles Times story:
“This flag reminds you of what you left behind — your friends, your family and, above all else, your homeland,” Barranco said as a flag leaned next to him on the bench. “I came here to work, not for pleasure. If it was pleasure I was looking for, I would still be in Mexico.”
I don’t know – though perhaps my mom does – what percentage of immigrants suffer from depression but I’m going to guess it’s on par with the subset of the native-born population that has suffered a tremendous loss (e.g., being imprisoned, losing multiple family members overnight, living through an acrimonious divorce, being the victim of a violent crime, etc.)
And so, we have to ask: when informing or entertaining or advertising to immigrants, aren’t “sob stories” going to be more cathartic and thus more engaging?
Politically, there’s a benefit to describing immigrants as ambitious and optimistic. And that appears to be true, from an economic standpoint. But, psychologically, culturally, it might be that immigrants are also, often, quite sad.
The two feelings can coexist. God knows they have for centuries in the African American community.