Immigrant Women’s Lives

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An immigrant experience involves many different emotions, thoughts and experiences. One is trying to assimilate into a new culture. Immigrants can feel anxiety-ridden to fit in and make peace with their cultural differences while at the same time preserving their own identity. They may try to be like one of their new country’s inhabitants or follow strictly traditional cultural practices to control the process. A discussion of the immigrant experience is vital to understanding inter-cultural issues. The word immigrant is derived from “inmigrare”, meaning “to transfer.” The Medieval term was the “emigrant,” but the French coined the modern English term in 1670. Generally, an emigrant is an individual who escapes a country or region to flee political oppression or economic hardship. The advent of European colonization can be dated; most developing countries have recognized this type of movement as a national trend. In the seventeenth century, Europe had a formidable naval power. It was the world’s leading economic and military force; it had the largest empire in history, and its kings ruled over hundreds of millions of people in some 150 countries. The Netherlands, France, Sweden and England emerged as centres of power and growth. By 1650, modern versions of feudalism had taken root. The causes for this intense domination were very different from those that led to European conquest earlier in history. In 1492-4, Columbus’ voyages carried out through greed for gold led Europe to exploration on a grand scale. This paper will focus on the perspectives of individuals from developing countries (Diaspora) to developed countries (Immigration).

Danticat’s text, “Create Dangerously”, has the primary purpose of guiding readers, primarily young people from Haiti, on how to inspire hope and keep their creativity alive in the face of adversity (Danticat, 2011). Her audience for this piece includes the former teenage students she met in class. Danticat’s primary focus is on the creative process for the Haitian youth she encounters and all individuals faced with trauma. Her main claim is that hope and creativity help people survive anything and guide them to a better life. Danticat’s text “Create Dangerously” defines itself as written by Toni Morrison with an audience of primarily teenage students who were formerly students of Toni Morrison. The text describes the experiences of an artist as an immigrant who has been in the United States for over two decades. Danticat explains how and why the artist works the way she does despite hardships ranging from financial issues to persecutions and racism. Um… I never said, “Create Dangerously”. I just said, “Create”. You could create from a place of love or a place of anger, a place of fear, or a place of joy. I certainly didn’t say “dangerously”. This is part of what happens when you talk about things too much when people–the wrong people–listen to your words too carefully. It’s not dangerous to create any more than it is challenging to live.

Alvarez’s text, “A Genetics of Justice”, is vital to anyone interested in justice and the way it is distributed. In the text, Alvarez focuses on correcting injustices that have been committed against victims of wrongful convictions to more fairly distribute justice. The audience of this text would be anyone interested in eliminating inequities wherever they are found, including victims of wrongful convictions, academics, members of law enforcement, attorneys, politicians and judges. Alvarez explores the issue of how to make distribution more equal between people who have had crimes committed against them. She explains that we need a “genetics of justice” to measure how much injustice someone has been wrongfully convicted for by comparing their DNA with a crime scene’s evidence (Alvarez, 1998). She describes her life as an immigrant in New York City when the city was plagued with many injustices against minorities and concluded that “the best way to overcome injustice is to identify it and seek justice.” Alvarez reexamines the issue of wrongful convictions and the trials before she was convicted. She looks at how she was wrongfully convicted for her alleged role in a robbery in Queens. Alvarez believes that there needs to be an overhaul of our judicial system because too much evidence has been ignored or destroyed by those in charge of law enforcement, and she has many ideas on how to make justice more fair.

The two articles, Danticat’s “Create Dangerously” and Alvarez’s “A Genetics of Justice”, demonstrates various rhetorical elements. Create Dangerously shows ethos and pathos, while A Genetics of Justice displays logos. Pathos, or appeal to emotion, is evident in Create Dangerously, which has a narrative voice that is filled with urgency and determination to empower the Haitian people. This can be seen through extensive use of imagery such as “time is running out for the people,” “dying,” and “the body politic.” The discourse also implies an author who cares about Haiti’s future.

Ethos or one’s credibility with their audience is illustrated in both pieces due to their respective authors’ roots in Haiti. Danticat’s narrative voice grounds the readers in Haiti’s past and current conditions, which allows the reader to understand their potential future. This ethos is demonstrated by their concrete and personal examples, such as her mother, who witnessed land being taken from her family or a young girl who lost her childhood because of a lack of safe water. Lannon Alvarez’s author persona is also rooted in Haiti through his upbringing. He was taught not to judge others by skin colour, that everyone has the right to life, and that each person has sovereignty over their own body, which can be seen throughout many of his pieces.

Apart from the two articles, Danticat’s “Create Dangerously” and Alvarez’s “A Genetics of Justice”, other literary texts by Alvarez and Danticat that serve as evidence to support their literary analysis are their novels “Ayiti” by Danticat, and “The Republic of Love” by Alvarez.

Alvarez’s “The Republic of Love” is a love story set in the context of corruption in the Dominican Republic. Alvarez’s novel explores the relationship between love and corruption. By doing so, Alvarez questions the meaning of justice in a corrupt society such as her own in the Dominican Republic. At this time during this era, society had an idealized notion of romantic love and marriage as an adventure in which husband and wife challenge each other to become better people. However, the author deals with this romanticized idea of love and marriage when she exposes that in a corrupt society, romance can be an adventure in which a spouse will exploit their partner’s weaknesses to satisfy his ends. This novel also shows that corruption affects all aspects of life, including marriage. The corruption between the characters is so great that it affects their ability to love each other and live happily ever after as they originally thought they would. Alvarez’s novel “The Republic of Love” exposes how love in a corrupt society can be used to exploit another’s weaknesses to get what one wants.

The main gaps that are still present in Alvarez and Danticat’s literature about discussing the intersections in immigrant women’s lives. The main gaps are the lack of a thorough understanding of the situation, causes and contexts for mental illness and possible solutions to address these challenges. There is also a need to move beyond generalizations about immigrant women’s experiences with mental illness. In some parts of the world, traditional approaches can still be valuable in supporting those who struggle with depression or other mental health conditions. Still, this option may not be available for immigrant groups who have moved from rural villages. Yet, the National Center for Mental Health reports that depression is one of the most common disorders in the United States and affects at least 20 million Americans. The reasons for depression are as diverse as the causes of immigration (Meadows et al., 2018). There is a need for what Fernandez calls “more nuanced understandings” about both immigrant women and mental illness. Although there is no one correct way to understand things like mental illness, this doesn’t mean that women’s experiences should be discounted as irrelevant.

I believe that immigrant women’s lives present a three-way intersection, one between the realms of private, public, and gender. Immigrant women cannot just be seen as women in relation to their private lives or public policies on immigration because they have a unique perspective that cannot be denied. The problems that immigrant women face are not purely domestic occurrences because they are also the subjects of international and national laws that exclude them from participation in society. More articles should explore these intersections in greater detail to better understand how they work together to create an environment where immigrant women’s existence is constantly being challenged and questioned (Davidson, 2022). I hope this provides a new perspective on how these three realms influence each other and what it means for an immigrant woman’s voice to be silenced in all of them.

Reference

Alvarez, J. (1998). A Genetics of Justice.”. Something to Declare: Essays. New York: Plume, 103-11.

Danticat, E. (2011). Create dangerously: The immigrant artist at work. Vintage.

Davidson, L. (2022). Alienation, Loneliness and the Immigrant Experience. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6(3), 1330-1336.

Meadows, L. M., Thurston, W. E., & Melton, C. (2001). Immigrant women’s health. Social science & medicine, 52(9), 1451-1458.