#undocument

There is no right way

S-2XL

This is the title of the sixth chapter in Lisa (Leigh) Patel’s book Youth Held at the Border: Immigration, Education, and the Politics of Inclusion.  Lisa Patel’s writing describes a differentiating legal border of society rather than a physical one, in which immigrant youth encounter countless new borders long after their physical journey to the United States is over. We don’t often think about these boarders, and she challenges us as readers to reconsider how we view immigration. Through storytelling and ethnographic data from Boston public schools, Patel paints us a picture of the lives of immigrant students, and the social factors they’re profiled with that cause them to feel, metaphorically, “held at the border.”

In this chapter, Lisa Patel describes the accounts of two different students she has worked with: Magdana, the schooler, and Elvis, the talented learner. "Schooling," or “studenting,” as she describes it, is essential for academic achievement, but is not indicative of innate ability or learning skills. When Magdana’s computer teacher, Mr. Knox, gives her class an assignment to create a project based on her journey to the United States, she was fearful of releasing this information because she is undocumented. She also believed that the more emotional the story was, the higher grade it would receive, and therefore fabricated a story to avoid the actual assignment and cater to what her teacher  was looking for.

…Magdana’s journey story illustrates the difference between ‘studenting’ and learning. She learned more about getting around the assignment to get it done than she did about storytelling and technology, undoubtedly the concepts that Mr. Knox had hoped to teach with the project. She had adapted her knowledge and skills to suit what she thought the teacher was looking for. This made her a good student but not necessarily a learner in this particular situation. In fact, being a good student requires learning the style and expectations of the teacher. (pg.52)

For another student, Elvis, it was getting the grade that was most challenging. Patel writes that Elvis was the embodiment of charisma, good intentions, and musical talent, but he was not a “good student.” It was as though every point he earned on a test could only be gained through paint, sweat, and suffering, and even then he struggled greatly. He tried his best to be attentive and learn, but that hard work didn’t transfer over into the grade he needed.

While not a model student, Elvis was a studied and excellent learner, particularly of people and of contexts. He enjoyed DJing and playing music when he could, and you cannot be a successful DJ without knowing your catalog, the scene that you’re in, and moving the rhythm of that scene deliberately with music. These were all things he learned to do, as he tried to do in school, but he could not decipher what his teacher wanted from him as well as he could with the people in his audiences. Little of the toil and effort in education and schooling translates into achievement, even for documented immigrants, which Elvis was. Decontextualized requirements, like ‘on-time’ graduation, also reelection very little of their actual learning and even get in the way of the learning that these students need and can demonstrate.

(CNN)-- Last month's Supreme Court decision in the landmark Arizona immigration case was groundbreaking for what it omitted: the words "illegal immigrants" and "illegal aliens," except when quoting other sources. The court's nonjudgmental language established a humanistic approach to our current restructuring of immigration policy.

When you label someone an "illegal alien" or "illegal immigrant" or just plain "illegal," you are effectively saying the individual, as opposed to the actions the person has taken, is unlawful. The terms imply the very existence of an unauthorized migrant in America is criminal.

In this country, there is still a presumption of innocence that requires a jury to convict someone of a crime. If you don't pay your taxes, are you an illegal? What if you get a speeding ticket? A murder conviction? No. You're still not an illegal. Even alleged terrorists and child molesters aren't labeled illegals.

By becoming judge, jury and executioner, you dehumanize the individual and generate animosity toward them. New York Times editorial writer Lawrence Downes says "illegal" is often "a code wordfor racial and ethnic hatred."