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The Migrant’s Tale
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The Migrant’s Tale

Sarah Menkedick
Aeon, 2016
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8

Recommendation

In an age of mass migration marked by profound demographic shifts, it is easy to lose sight of individual migrants’ stories and to perceive them as victims of circumstance beyond their control. Such a misguided, if well-intentioned, “victimhood narrative” can inadvertently rob migrants of their ability to define their own stories and to articulate their own hopes and dreams. Writer, editor and Fulbright fellow Sarah Menkedick uses the power of the pen to hand back one Mexican immigrant the control over his own intimate tale. getAbstract recommends this powerful reminder of shared humanity to anyone interested in challenging their assumptions about the immigrant experience.

Summary

Coming-of-age stories appear to be universal: Young people set out to transcend the labels that define them, in search of self-actualization: trying to prove their mettle and stake their place in the world. Yet Western societies only allow certain kinds of people to narrate the stories of their formative years. For example, white, middle-class university graduates may define their travel narratives around the goals of adventure and personal development, but economic migrants receive a different treatment. The economic, social and political context in which migrants...

About the Author

Sarah Menkedick is the founding editor of Vela and a Fulbright fellow in Oaxaca, Mexico. Homing Instincts, her first book, is forthcoming from Pantheon and Vintage.

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