#newmigrant

[grafikriszta]

#newmigrant #introducingthesystem #waitingwaitingwaiting

[gwanth1002]

TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION & NEW IMMIGRANT

Pictured: Alexia Cervello San Vicente (2017; permission to use granted)

My best friend Alexia is pictured here, pointing her finger to her home country of Mexico. She is a legally documented immigrant from Mexico to the United States. Firstly, Alexia is very much a Mexican-American, perfectly “assimilated” - if you will - to American culture and speaks English with no flare at all to the way she speaks and has adapted to American norms. However, her status as a Mexican immigrant to this country is interesting due to the nature of the status of transnational migrants in our country. Miller defines transnational migration as “regular movement of a person between two or more cultures, resulting in a new cultural identity” (Miller 2017, 325). Alexia is very much a transnational migrant as she has moved between her home country of Mexico and the United States multiple times due to her fathers job, and expects her family to move again soon. Although she will not again be moving with them, she obviously has already transcended between the American and Mexican cultures, formulating her identity as a mixing of the two cultures. Furthermore, Alexia first immigrated to the United States in 2010 with her family - thus, also qualifying her for what Miller defines to be “new immigrant” status - that is, “an international migrant who has moved since the 1960s” (Miller 2017, 333). Thus, one of my best friends is a very contemporary migrant, whose status in this country may or may not be currently being debated as we speak in our nation’s Capitol.