Immigrants. Identity. Illegal. Invasion.

Look at this map. Isn't it cool?  It's so simple on the surface: just a map of the Lakota Nation (see this post from the unapologetic Mexican).  But the more I look at it in the context of the current climate/controversies involving immigration in this country I think it raises all sorts of good and necessary complications around ideas of nations and borders and the interactions between humans across those imaginary lines. 

When you look at this map and I say "immigrants" who/what comes to mind?

What if I say "border security" --what does that make you think of looking at this map?

"Law and Order"?  "Illegal"?

"Invasion"?

These are words the anti-migrant crowd (e.g. Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan etc.) use in abundance when the subject is the US Mexico border and the desperately poor people who cross it looking for a better life.

History gives so much perspective on contemporary issues.  I'll give a little anecdote: I'm home visiting my folks for the holidays and my mom, as usual, says something to the effect of "I don't mind immigrants; I just wish they would learn English!" and it sounds reasonable but she says it with such anger that I know there's something else going on there under the surface.  It's not just about language --not really.  Because my little 70 year old white mother never has to worry about someone not speaking English to her.  She doesn't know many non-English speaking people.  My group of bilingual, multicultural friends is way more diverse than hers and I can't think of any friends of mine who don't speak English (even those in South America)!  So there's got to be something else going on there.

Over dinner I mention that my friend Paul recently came to visit.  Paul's parents are from Belguim and he was born in Argentina and raised in Fort Lauderdale.  He speaks English and French.  My mom was curious as to why he doesn't speak English and Spanish if he was born in Argentina.  I explained: His parents --like a lot of Europeans-- went to South America during and after the second World War.  And like a lot of immigrant groups when they got there they hung out with other Belgians and didn't learn much Spanish.  Sound familiar? I asked her. 

It's hard to learn another language --a fact never less understood than by those who have never tried to do so (my mother would fall into that category).   And it's freakin' hard to try to live and work in a country where you don't speak the language.  I know from personal experience that it's utterly exhausting.  It took every ounce of energy I had when I first got to Colombia to even to do the simplest of tasks (take the bus; buy groceries; have a vague idea of what's going on around in my immediate surroundings).  Life depends on language and when you're in a foreign world; you can't learn the new language fast enough.  But it takes time.  Especially if you're an adult.  And especially if you are not in the foreign land out of choice but by economic necessity the temptation to retreat into the familiar sounds and cadences of your mother tongue can be irresistible.   Heaven forbid, we get tired!

This is all the same thing.  No matter where we are now, no matter where we go in the future: we've been there before.  One day we are the migrants and the next someone else is.  Today we have plenty, tomorrow it's us asking for help/another chance/a better chance.  No matter how hard we try the world just refuses to congeal itself into a frozen unchanging mass.  Immigrants come and immigrants go and the flow of people and languages and cultures continues, messing up those little imaginary lines and convenient boxes.

Thank goodness for that.

Comments

[IrrationalPoint]

The Lakota Nation is interesting.

Excellent commentary on immigration.

--IP

[nezua]

i like the insights here.