What Transborder Students Know about Immigration. (That Zoom Bombers Don’t)

Many immigrants land in the United States in search of the American Dream, but instead they uncover an American Nightmare. While the media tells us that migration to the US is constantly on the rise, this isn’t the full story. This is especially the case for those who are undocumented, although in our current climate even those with visas or legal permanent residency are under attack. As a result, not everyone who migrates to the US makes it their permanent place of residence, and many return to their countries of origin.

In 2015 I set out to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca to learn about the experiences of children who were born or raised in the US to undocumented parents. That year, the rate of migration for Mexicans living in the US returning to Mexico outpaced the rate of Mexicans coming to the US (Gonzalez-Barrera, 2015). I learned about the lives of transborder students as they moved between countries. I interviewed students about how their identities evolved as they crossed physical and metaphorical borders, their languaging practices in multiple languages—including español, Dizaa (Zapotec, an indigenous language) and English—and about their schooling experiences. While some planned to remain in Mexico, others saw their futures back in the US. I also asked about their suggestions for policymakers in both countries. The findings were initially published in a book titled Living, Learning, and Languaging across Borders: Students between the US and Mexico (Kleyn & Porter, 2022).
In June 2022 I was invited to speak about the book at the Immigration Initiative at Harvard, along with some of the study participants—Yauzin, Sharely, Alberta—and Tim Porter, the book’s photographer. The event, like many that took place after the COVID-19 pandemic, was held virtually via Zoom. It was only about 10 minutes into the presentation that all the controls were taken over by what we have come to know as “Zoom bombers.” At least three individuals coordinated an effort to disturb our event. Their goal was not only to disrupt, but also to present their views—which were in direct contrast to our shared experiences and findings. The bombers had an audio playing that said, “They’re hiding in the walls, they’re hiding in the walls” over and over, while they proceeded to draw two people separated by a wall, one with big yellow hair labeled “Trump” and the second wearing a sombrero labeled “Mexican.” The slogan “Build the Wall, Crime will Fall” summarized what appeared to be their key point: that immigrants are criminals and keeping them out of the US will make the country safer.

The Zoom bombing was deeply disturbing to all of us, and most especially to the transborder participants themselves. However, it revealed that we have much to learn from children and adolescents that have lived across borders, 
and we need to ensure their voices are the strongest when it comes to policy decisions nationally and transnationally.

I would like to contrast this experience and the image in figure 1 to a drawing by 9-year-old Axianeyt, a student in my study. At that time, she and her two US-born siblings had been living with their mother, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin in a family home in a rural town on the outskirts of Oaxaca called Ciénega de Zimatlán for the last three years. Alberta, their mother, made the decision to return to Mexico to be with her aging parents, and for the children to meet their grandparents for the first time. The children’s father remained in the US and sent money to support the children. I asked Axianeyt to draw a picture comparing life in the US and Mexico. In addition to drawing her mother teaching her to ride a bike in the US and riding a horse in Mexico—as they lived in a ranch—she also wrote a very powerful statement: “Yo quiero vivir con mi papa y mama por todos lados que vallan, quiero que me allude el govierno” [I want to live with my dad and mom wherever they go, I want the government to help me.]

Figure 1: The image from the Zoom bombers during the book launch. 

Figure 2: Axianeyt’s drawing comparing life in the US (left) and Mexico (right).

As a child who had lived in the US and Mexico and experienced family separation due to policies that restricted the movement of certain people, Axianeyt’s drawing revealed a deep understanding of immigration that was drastically different than that of the Zoom bombers, who characterized immigration as rooted in crime. Axianeyt shows us that immigration is really about families. It’s about experiencing unification with some family members while simultaneously being separated from others. And it’s about families surviving with the goal of thriving.

WE HAVE MUCH TO LEARN FROM CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS THAT HAVE LIVED ACROSS BORDERS, AND WE NEED TO ENSURE THEIR VOICES ARE THE STRONGEST WHEN IT COMES TO POLICY DECISIONS NATIONALLY AND TRANSNATIONALLY

Students like Axianeyt have a lot to teach us about immigrants and immigration. Axianeyt is currently back in the US with her two siblings, Carla and Zayed, and their father, while now being separated from their mother, grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin in Mexico. Here are just some takeaways that educators can learn from students like Axianeyt:

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