I am an immigrant. I migrated to the U.S. from the Philippines. Although it wasn't always the case, today I am learning to peel the shame I used to feel about being an immigrant. Some cringe at the word "immigrant"; some take and use it as an insult. Many believe that it's an F-word; a word that's a curse, a taboo, something dirty, a word people aren't suppose to use, it's thrown around like a weapon of hate.

The history of the word, from my understanding, is that it was used to place an identifier on a group that was seen as an 'other.' It has been posed to me that perhaps the word "immigrant" should not be used in the first place. But I disagree; eradicating the word isn't a protest of disregard of the power of the ruling class. but rather it's an admittance of their power.

Instead of using "immigrant" as an F-word, I'm suggesting that people remember that language is ours; We determine its meaning and its development, not the other way around. I am an immigrant; I migrated from one place to another. There is nothing wrong with that.

(My particular interest is in the undocumented immigrant experience, particularly undocumented immigrant youth. This blog seeks to journey into learning about the lives of immigrants, documented and undocumented alike, and the politics surrounding the subject.)

"google that!"

Immigrant Rights are Human Rights; If a group of people can be oppressed, who decides who's next?

Inform yourself and others, go to google.com and youtube.com and check out things like:

I.C.E. Detention Center / Hutto Dention Center / DREAM Act


Thursday, February 5, 2009

...Now is the time to act. The status quo has shifted, and people are

by Jane Guskin and David Wilson, NACLA Report on the Americas
January-February 2009

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the situation for immigrants
in the United States has turned increasingly insecure. Every week
hundreds of immigrants are arrested in raids on their homes and
workplaces. Hundreds more are arrested on the street by local police
for the crime of "living while Latino" and often handed over to the
immigration agency for deportation. People are detained, deported,
faced with impossible choices, and then blamed for it all. Children
are separated from their parents or jailed in special "family"
detention centers. Workers are exploited and abused on the job,
stripped of their rights to organize, then punished with federal
prison sentences for complying with their employers' demands for fake
IDs. Young people who don't remember the country where they were born
are denied any options to legalize their status and are stuck without
a future—as high school graduates unable to attend college, or as
college graduates forced into low-wage, off-the-books labor.[...]

Read the full article:
http://nacla.org/node/5399
at

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