By now, everyone has heard the moving speech made by Khizr Khan at the Democratic National Convention a couple of weeks ago. Not only was it a tribute to his son, a deceased US soldier, but a true testimony of the burdensome life as an immigrant. If you haven't seen it, here it is:
Of the many notable points that he made throughout his time behind the podium, perhaps one of most significant instances was when he took a commendable swing at Donald Trump and addressed the Republican Party's candidate for president directly.
"Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims," Khan said. "He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country..."
"Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future," he continued on. "Let me ask you: Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy."
And this was not the only speech recently that resonated with scores of people. It was also not too long ago, at her high school graduation that Texas valedictorian Larissa Martinez gave an important speech on what it's like to be an undocumented immigrant in the United States. Standing before a packed auditorium, Martinez, who is headed to Yale in the fall, declared: "I am one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows of the United States."
That line in particular made headlines all throughout the country, but that was not all she had to say during the speech. She continued, "After all of these years, I have finally mustered up the courage to stand before you and share a struggle I’ve had to deal with each and every day... Undocumented immigrants are people too.”
Watch her speech in full here.
These are just a couple of the many powerful statements that have been made about what it's like to be an immigrant. Here is a compilation of quotes from those who have spoken out about the issue of immigration:
1. “You say goodbye to your country, your people, your home, your friends, your family. Everything you knew. You cry the entire flight.”
— Arnesa Buljusmic-Kustura
2. “For being a foreigner Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy — a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts.”
— Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
3. “You have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.”
— Warsan Shire, Home
4. “You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”
— Miriam Adeney
5. “When Europeans arrived on this continent, they blew it with the Native Americans. They plowed over them, taking as much as they could of their land and valuables, and respecting almost nothing about the native cultures. They lost the wisdom of the indigenous peoples-wisdom about the land and connectedness to the great web of life…We have another chance with all these refugees. People come here penniless but not cultureless. They bring us gifts. We can synthesize the best of our traditions with the best of theirs. We can teach and learn from each other to produce a better America.”
― Mary Pipher
6. "He says: I am from there, I am from here, but I am neither there nor here. I have two names which meet and part, I have two languages, but I have long forgotten which is the language of my dreams."
— Edward Said, A Contrapuntal Reading
7. “Alexa and the other guests, and perhaps even Georgina, all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness. They would not understand why people like him who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for choice and certainty.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
8. "There must be a reason why I have lived in all these lands, survived all those water crossings, while others fell from bullets or shut their eyes and simply willed their lives to end."
— Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name.
9. “Your life depends on a random stranger who could kill you, will probably disrespect you, and will most likely pay you much less than you deserve. But even those prospects are better than the ones you used to have. This is the life of los jornaleros – the day laborers.”
― Gustavo Arellano, Ask a Mexican
10. “Again, this week as I walked on Broadway, in front of giant photographs of voluptuous supermodels at a Victoria Secrets mega-store, who was rebuilding the sidewalks? With sweaty headbands, ripped-up jeans, and dust on their brown faces? Their muscled hands quivered as they worked the jack-hammers and lugged the concrete chunks into dump trucks. Two men from Guanajuato. Undocumented workers. They both shook my hand vigorously, as if they were relieved I wasn’t an INS officer.
I imagined how much money Victoria Secrets was making off these poor bastards. I wondered why passersby didn’t see what was in front of their faces. We use these workers. We profit from them. In the shadows, they work to the bone, for pennies. And it’s so easy to blame them for everything and nothing simply because they are powerless, and dark-skinned,and speak with funny accents. Illegal is illegal — It is a phrase, shallow and cruel, that should prompt any decent American to burn with anger.”
― Sergio Troncoso, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays
