Migrants: An engine for creativity, industry and change

My Great Grandfather was an undocumented immigrant, like everyone else who entered the US at that time. Most Europeans in this country are only here because they had a relative who entered the US through open borders – men and women who ere looking for a better life. There were massive hurdles for them to overcome, but by and large the undocumented, mainly European immigrants that flooded this country from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries forged a landscape of opportunity. People who are migrating out of poverty or hardship in their home countries tend to make industrious citizens.

Then came the Chinese Exclusion Act and a battery of racialized  immigration policies which followed (never mind the raw deal that Native Americans and Black slaves got in those years of open borders). For more on this see the excellent resource Welcoming the Stranger.

Today immigration to just about any country is a different story. Those immigrating due to hardship find high walls and unwelcoming communities. These men and women who hold within themselves the potential for creating healthy societal change are often locked out. All of us miss out on the amazing energy that tired, poor, huddled masses bring to a nation.

I met some migrants in Mexico City at a migrant shelter called Tochan. Each one had a heart-rending story of hardship. Each was committed to making a better life for themselves and their families. Each of them had skills and drive and the fire of hope burning in their bellies. And each faced the harsh reality that the country they wanted to contribute to had no interest in receiving them.

Emiliano was one of those migrants. He is a teenager, and while Emiliano has a passion and drive coursing through him, there is also gentility about him and a quickly fading innocence regarding the future.

For those who are not first generation immigrants, I hope you will gain a window on the life of your immigrant relatives as you hear Emiliano’s story.

(Podcast to air March 30)