For most immigrants, the process of immigration is so much more than just a legal process. It does not end with a visa or even with gaining citizenship, it is a life-changing series of events that affects not only those who physically left their homeland and made the journey to a new country, but also generations to come.
This process starts with leaving home and traveling someplace new, and though this part seems simple enough, it is often where immigrants run into their first of many obstacles. They must go through the legal process, the process of social and cultural assimilation, and at the end, every immigrant hopes that they will find a sense of belonging and a better life in this new country. Here we recommend five books on immigration that embody each step of this long and grueling process, with stories of immigrants from around the world traveling to the United States.
The Journey: Solito by Javier Zamora
Solito is a memoir by Javier Zamora about his migration from El Salvador to the United States. Zamora recalls his solo journey as a 9-year-old boy traveling through El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually across the U.S. border to where his mother and father were waiting for him. At such a young age, Zamora did not anticipate the many trials and tribulations it would take for him to be reunited with his family. He did not anticipate the strangers that accompanied him, led by a coyote hired to keep them safe, to become a sort of family of their own as they stood by and protected him.
Solito is a story about an immigrant’s physical journey to America. It is a powerful and intense story where readers can grasp the full scope of what it costs to cross the U.S. border and the prices people are willing to pay just to start fresh in America.
The Dehumanization: The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú
All too often, the narrative surrounding immigrants in the U.S. is dehumanizing, making their many sacrifices and hardships that much harder. Francisco Cantú saw this firsthand during his time spent as a part of the Border Patrol, finding and taking in immigrants found both dead and alive. This eventually caused him to leave the patrol, no longer wanting to be complicit in such a dehumanizing process.
In his book, The Line Becomes a River, Cantú gives a fascinating account of his time on Border Patrol, where he sees the implications of immigration on both sides of the border. As a grandson of a Mexican immigrant, these harsh realities hit a little bit closer to home. The duality of Cantú’s perspective brings an element of complexity to this story of one of the darkest parts of the immigration process.
The Systems: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue tells the story of a Cameroonian immigrant named Jende Jonga as he works harder than most at his job as a chauffeur to provide a life in America for his wife and young son. When Jende’s employer’s company collapses, Jende fights to prevent his family’s American Dream from collapsing with it.
This book not only outlines the strain of working your way up from what feels like rock bottom, but also the temporary stability in the life of any immigrant. It deals with many of the difficulties of the modern immigration process, including applying for different visas, asylum, and work permits. It tells the beautiful and fierce story that so many Americans throughout history can relate to, the constant fear of deportation and the desire above all else to stay in America, no matter the cost.
Adapting: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
As with most of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels, Americanah focuses on themes of immigration coupled with race, culture, and identity. It follows Ifemelu as she leaves Nigeria to move to the U.S. and becomes immersed in the confusing question of what it means to be Black in America. It also touches on the experiences of Obinze, Ifemelu’s teenage love interest, who had the dream of moving to America, but instead finds himself as an illegal immigrant in London until he is repatriated. When, after many years, Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, she comes to learn how much living in America has changed her.
This book deals with many of the social processes of modern immigration, including culture shock and assimilation. Adichie uses the Nigerian term “Americanah,” which is used to describe someone who is Nigerian but acts or speaks like an American after living in the U.S. It describes how an immigrant is changed forever from the inevitable assimilation when moving to a new country. How, even upon returning to their homeland, they will never be quite the same.
Belonging: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
In the end, it is a sense of belonging or community in a new country that seems to make the process of immigration all worth it. But the difficulties of achieving this for immigrants are not often talked about. Does belonging mean full assimilation, or staying true to your own beliefs in a strange new culture? In On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong tackles many of the deep-rooted social struggles of immigration with a fierce and eye-opening honesty.
The book follows Little Dog as he looks back on his childhood as a Vietnamese immigrant who came to the United States when he was young with his mother and grandmother. Having lived most of his life in the U.S., he becomes his family’s lifeline at a young age. He is the first in his family to learn to read and write, and the only one who can speak English. The story highlights how the process of immigration may never really be over. All his life, Little Dog grapples with his identity as an immigrant. Knowing the language, he must balance between finding a community of his own in America and risking being pulled away from his mother, whose inability to communicate forms walls of isolation around her.
These books, each in their own way, tell the stories of so many immigrants who are too often forgotten. Each immigrant’s story is unique and comes with its own dreams and sacrifices. Now more than ever, it is important not only to give these immigrants a voice to share their stories like these authors were able to do with these books, but also for us as readers to read these stories and learn from them. We hope these stories help you to do just that.
Want to read more real-life immigrant stories? Click here.
Find more books that will open your mind to new perspectives on our Stimulating Novels That Challenge the Status Quo bookshelf on Bookshop.org.
