An Appreciation of Illegals

I believe that the idea in American politics about illegal / undocumented immigrants is wrong on both sides of the aisle, and it took putting myself into that situation to see how it really is.

If you've ever watched or read any mainstream news from America in the last decade, you might notice the disparity between terms used to describe those who travel to far lands in search of better opportunities. From the right, the word used is always "illegal" immigrant, which immediately portrays a sense of shadiness and criminality. This is an inaccurate view, as the majority of immigrants are not interested in doing illegal actions which would put them directly into the gaze of the authorities which will send them back. However, from the left, the word is "undocumented" immigrant, which also portrays the wrong image, as it conjures a person who simply slipped under the radar, or the governing bodies that be just forgot to mark them on the file. Both words are inaccurate.

So what would be an accurate term? I decided to illegally work and live in a foreign country in order to answer that question.

In 2013, I finished high school, and was preparing to attend university. Now, I'm not from the best off family, but nor were we destitute either. We were in that odd and strange zone of finances in which one is too poor to pay for university themselves, but also a bit too well-off to qualify for government assistance. But this isn't a story about me and my money woes, even if it set the stage for said story. By my second year of uni, I couldn't continue studying without taking loans - not the best plan for someone interested in linguistics. So instead, I decided to take what I still had, buy a ticket I could afford somewhere, and just go.

The place I eventually settled on was China. Now many people asked me (both Americans back home and Chinese there), "Why did you come to China?". The answer was simple. The exchange of USD to RMB was good, the living costs were low, and the country was big enough to hopefully blend in and lay low from the authorities. I got a travelers / tourist visa which doesn't allow one to work in any capacity within China, nor does it allow for one get a residence permit since the idea is to visit and then go home. I had no intention of doing that.

I first lived in Fujian, a province in southern China along the coast. I went to a small town (small at the time at least) called JinJiang, and made friends with an old man who owned an area for growing green tea. He allowed me to work for him for a harvest season by picking and sorting tea leaves. This is not something that the typical American does, and everyone else working the fields refused to believe me when I told them I was a U.S. citizen, and they instead chose to believe I must be from Xinjiang and be a Uyghur as I had light skin and spoke bad Chinese.

On top of this, I would also teach English lessons to children as a side income. Now this is of importance as the government of China doesn't check who is working on a farm, it is of such low priority for them that they couldn't care. But those who work in any capacity as an educator in China must have relevant documents, degrees, and certifications so as to be properly vetted. Wouldn't want any nasty Western ideas being taught to helpless young children now would we?

Being a lazy American, after that first harvest I decided I would just teach English as my primary work. I moved to Jiangsu province, to the city with the highest GDP per capita of China, Kunshan - Suzhou. Now, I should mention that upon moving to Kunshan, I found a lot more expats than a rural town would have, and came to realize that almost 90% of expats I met there were just like me. No documents, no certifications, nothing relevant to teaching English other than the fact that they spoke it natively.

I proceeded to stay in Kunshan for 5 years. I learned Chinese, I got a Chinese significant other, and engrossed myself as much as possible with Chinese culture and society so as to be accepted by my new-found neighbors. However, as time went on, and I interacted with more and more Chinese people, I found that no matter how long I lived there, who I married, or how many sayings I knew in Chinese, I would never be truly accepted as Chinese.

Now let's return to the original topic, the American perception of immigrants and foreigners. We have the exact same view of foreigners, in that they are never American. Instead, they are listed as Hispanic - American, African - American, Asian - American, etc. Now race does factor into that considerably, seeing as how a white European could come to America and be seen as just American if they didn't open their mouths to reveal their accents, but race is only a part of the equation. The other pieces of said equation are; inclusion into the in-group, distrust of outsiders and their motives, and cultural differences between groups.

The right-wing of American politics plays on the distrust of outsiders to keep up the fervor for walls, quotas, and deportation. The left-wing plays on the inclusion into the in-group to adhere to the current trend of boxing and sorting people into identity groups.

Living in China taught me that those who go to another country often try to initiate themselves into their newfound homes. Those who don't are picked off and sent home as undesirables, which I can't argue is a bad policy, their home their rules. However this need to integrate or get the boot creates intense pressure on individuals, and can easily destroy their own identity. I often think back on every interaction with Chinese police or authorities and the anxiety I felt. One wrong answer or clever question could be my last. One misunderstanding or accident could result in my being labelled as a dissident or destructive force to my host society. So despite any good intentions, an axe always hung over me, a feeling of tension every night I went to sleep knowing that police could bust down my door and drag me off to detention and eventual deportation. Nobody should have to live that way when they have done their best to consider their hosts sentimentalities and culture.

So instead of painting immigrants in America as "illegals" and saying they are drug dealers, murderers, and rapists, we should try to understand that they didn't come for destruction, but to build. However we should also not be so naïve as to simply say they are "undocumented", and represent nothing but an accident or product of circumstance in their homes which caused them to somehow show up on our doorsteps. The only way forward on the issue, is to judge each individual immigrant by their actions and attitudes.

Those who are a danger to America should rightfully be deported and prevented to re-enter. Those who abide by all rules and laws besides residence documentation should be given the chance to become citizens should they choose.

My time in China taught me that we are all people, making choices which can be good or bad, and looking to the future for the best life.