Drop the I-Word: Otherization

The first time I learned about immigration was freshman year. As an RC student, I was placed in an Intensive Spanish class. An hour a day, I went to my discussion section. The purpose of the class was to help students learn to have scholarly discussions about topics in Spanish, to improve our speaking and reading skills.

Although I found the discussion section helpful in teaching me Spanish, what I found most exciting about it was its topic: immigration. I can remember the exact moment when I began to care about immigration. It was in the middle of class one day; we were learning about Mexican immigrants coming to the United States. A boy in my class called the immigrants “ilegales,” which means “illegals.” My professor stopped the class.

She spoke slowly and deliberately in Spanish, so that even the students who most struggled with Spanish could understand. “We need to be careful about what words we choose to use,” she said, looking at each of us. “There is a big difference between using the word ‘illegal’ and the word ‘undocumented’ when describing immigrants. There is a whole debate surrounding it. In this classroom, we will only use the word “undocumented” when we talk about immigrants. Calling someone “illegal” takes away their human dignity. No human being is illegal. If you have any more questions, you may come to my office hours.”

Her speech gave me chills. I had never heard of this controversy before, and had not expected my professor to get so serious about it. I went to her office hours later that week to learn more. I sat with her and listened as she explained to me that calling someone “illegal” or “alien” sets him or her apart from the norm of society.

            “We are all human,” my professor told me. “No matter our immigration status. Just because someone doesn’t have the right papers, doesn’t mean that they’re any less human than the rest of us.”

            What she had taught me, essentially, was that calling someone an “illegal alien” was making them into the other in society. Now, after taking American Culture 311, I finally have the vocabulary to express what this “otherization” is.

The “Other” is marked by absences – they lack something. Those absences make this person different, apart from the norm.

By calling someone “illegal,” we are establishing a normative and standard identity. All other identities are compared to this norm. In our case, the norm is being a US citizen. In lecture, we also discussed how the common norm in the US is being a white, heterosexual, English-speaking, upper-middle class, Christian, able-bodied male citizen.

Some immigrants, and often Latin American immigrants, don’t fit this normative identity. They often have darker skin, speak Spanish, and may be lower on the socio-economic spectrum. Added to these identities is the fact that some immigrants don’t have the right papers, and are undocumented. In many ways, these immigrants are far from the norm. They are the other.

In class, we learned that the other is:

•       Establishing a normative/standard identity through which other identities are measured or compared. In our case, the normative and standard identity is having papers, visas or passports.

•       Refers to that which is understood as the symbolic opposite/binary opposite to the normative category. The opposite of the norm of having papers is not having paper, or being undocumented.

In all cases of being the “other” in society, there is always terminology to accompany and point out the differences – to “otherize” the group of people. I’m sure readers of this post will easily be able to think of derogatory terms that accompany each “other” identity – terms for being racially different than the white norm, terms for being religiously different from the Christian norm, terms for being sexually oriented differently than the heterosexual norm.

For being the “other” in terms of immigration, the derogatory terminology to “otherize” the group are words like “illegal” and “alien.” These terms point out that undocumented immigrants are different from “what is right” in US society.

 After I left my professor’s office, I was inspired to do my part to stop the use of this derogatory language. I’ve learned all about different campaigns across the country to stop using the I-word. Colorlines.com has been campaigning for media outlets to stop referring to immigrants as “illegals” since September 2010. In a letter to the New York Times, they wrote,

Calling someone an "illegal immigrant" is 1) legally inaccurate and misleading 2) politically loaded and popularized by anti-immigrant strategists and 3) experienced as racially biased and dehumanizing by the people it is used to describe. The current debate presents an opportunity for journalists to be responsible to their readers by dropping this coded language. (For more information on this campaign, click here).

Other campaigns are even closer to home. Social Work Allies for Immigrant’s Rights (SWAIR), a group from the University of Michigan, held a campaign this fall labeled “Drop the I-Word Week.” They wrote,

Our goal is simple. SWAIR believes that language matters. Let’s take a stand to eradicate the dehumanizing slur "illegals" from everyday use and public discourse so that we may have a respectful debate on immigration.

The University of Michigan’s student group, Migrant and Immigrant Rights Advocacy, held a similar campaign last year. Both groups sold t-shirts for students to wear:

 The more I learn about discrimination, the more it is clear to me that using words like “illegal alien” are wrong. Colorlines.com advocates replacing “illegal” with words like “unauthorized,” “aspiring citizen,” and “entered without inspection.” These terms are good, and I agree with the organization that they are much better than discriminatory words like “illegal.” But I also think using the word “undocumented” to replace illegal is easy and simple enough. It’s not hard to see how words like “illegal” make someone become an “other” in society. By using different words to describe immigrants, we can change how society sees immigration. Changing language can change the world.

Click here to sign the pledge to stop using the i-word.