MEZA YA MAGAZETI YA LEO JUMATATU

'No human being is illegal': linguists argue against mislabeling of immigrants

‘Illegal immigrant’ phrase called neither ‘accurate nor neutral’ as activists turn up volume on call for candidates and media to stop using phrase

 

US border patrol agents detain undocumented immigrants after they crossed the border from Mexico into the United States in August in McAllen, Texas. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

Lauren Gambino in New York

On a scorching day in May 2010, thousands of Latinos and immigration activists marched through the streets of downtown Phoenix in a mighty protest against SB1070, the so-called “show me your papers” law. Among the sea of protest signs was one with a more universal message: “No human being is illegal.”

In the years since, a linguistic dispute has welled up on the periphery of the highly charged debate over immigration reform – how to refer to the nearly 11 million people living in the US without legal residency?

“We don’t call pedestrians who cross in the middle of the road illegal pedestrians,” said Otto Santa Ana, a linguist and professor in UCLA’s Department of Chicana/o Studies. “A kid who skips school to go to Disneyland is not an illegal student. And yet that’s a sort of parallel.”

Santa Ana is among many linguists who argue that the phrase “illegal immigrants” is neither “accurate nor neutral”. Other law-breakers are not referred to as illegal, making immigrants an outlier in the naming system, he said.

The 2016 politics of ‘illegal immigrant’

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton was recently drawn into the debate during a Facebook Q&A session when José Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and immigration activist, asked her to pledge to stop using the phrase “illegal immigrant”.

Vargas noted in the post that Clinton had used the term at a campaign event in New Hampshire. She conceded that it had been a “poor choice of words” and committed to banishing the term from her lexicon.

“As I’ve said throughout this campaign, the people at the heart of this issue are children, parents, families, DREAMers,” she wrote. “They have names, and hopes and dreams that deserve to be respected.”

Advertisement

Vargas said he was surprised by Clinton’s word choice, especially because she’s made her immigration plan a key pillar of her campaign.

“I am here illegally, without legal status, without authorization. Those are facts,” Vargas, who came to the US from the Philippines as a child, told the Guardian. “I as a person am not illegal because people can’t be illegal. Calling people illegal is not only factually inaccurate, it’s journalistically irresponsible.”

In 2011, Vargas founded Define American, an organization aimed at facilitating conversations around immigration. He recently launched a campaign called #WordsMatter with the goal of getting all the 2016 presidential candidates to commit to dropping the phrase “illegal immigrants”.

On Monday, Clinton’s challenger, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who decried her word choice after the New Hampshire event, joined the campaign.

“I have always called immigrants New Americans because that is what they are,” he said, taking the pledge. “Words matter and remembering that we were all once strangers in a strange land and that the US is made better in every generation by the arrival of New Americans is central to my campaign.”

The Republican party is making a safe space for really racist​​ undertones against undocumented immigrantsProfessor Jose Luis Benavides

Vargas wants candidates to understand that their words matter – even more so in a campaign cycle so far dominated by the bombast of a billionaire businessman who began his campaign by describing Mexican immigrants as “rapists” who are “bringing crime”.

A Donald Trump speech often includes disparaging remarks about “illegal aliens”, a term activists say is offensive and dehumanizing. But it’s not just Trump. Republican contender Jeb Bush, who once referred to illegal immigration as an “act of love”, has come under fire for using the derogatory term “anchor babies” in reference to children who are born in the US to undocumented parents.

“The Republican party is making a safe space for really racist undertones against undocumented immigrants and that is facilitated when the media reproduces this,” said José Luis Benavides, journalism professor at California State University, Northridge.

Advertisement

Benavides said that for many Americans, “illegal immigrant” is synonymous with Mexican, and specifically someone who crossed the US’s southern border unlawfully. But that’s an inaccurate framing of debate.

Since 2008, more immigrants have overstayed their visas than have crossed the border legally. Over the past five years, more immigrants have returned to Mexico from the US than have migrated north. Nearly 11% of the country’s undocumented population, an estimated 1.3 million, are from countries in Asia.

“The words that the candidates use frame the political conversation,” Benavides. “Using dehumanizing language then makes it easier for people to justify dangerous policies against a particularly group. Words really do matter.”

Growing disapproval

The term “illegal immigrant” wasn’t widely used to describe a population of people until the second world war, when the media began ascribing it to Jews fleeing to Palestine without authorization. In fact, it was Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace prize winner Elie Wiesel who first framed the debate: “You who are so-called illegal aliens must know that no human being is illegal.”

Beyond being inaccurate, the current vocabulary used to describe immigrants is polarizing, with politicians on the right preferring “illegal” and those on the left opting for “undocumented”, Santa Ana said. Instead, he advocates for “unauthorized”, which he says “underscores that they should not be here without highlighting criminality”, or simply describing the person’s immigration.

Several news organizations have dropped the term. The Associated Press struck the phrase from its style guide in 2013, opting instead to describe the circumstances of the immigrants’ arrival in the US. The news agency also concluded that “undocumented” was incorrect because many immigrants have some form of documentation but not the ones required for legal residency.

After the AP’s decision, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post and ABC followed in kind.

The New York Times and CNN have been under pressure by activist groups to remove the term from their style guides. The Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan, has addressed the issue a number of times, writing in a 2013 post: “So many people find it offensive to refer to a person with an adjective like ‘illegal’ that I now favor the use of ‘undocumented’ or ‘unauthorized’ as alternatives.”

For some, any descriptor reads like a euphemism for the uglier slurs used in the past to malign immigrants and Latinos in particular.

“Why not just call them immigrants?” suggested Gustavo Arellano, editor of OC Weekly and author of the ¡Ask a Mexican! column “That is what they are, whether they’re undocumented or not.”

TWO PEOPLE DIED ON THE SPOT AND SIX OTHERS INJURED SERIOSLY IN IRINGA

Two people have died and six others were injured, one severely damaged after the vehicle was they were travelling in which is used to transporting newspapers of Mwananchi and citizen from Dar es Salaam to Iringa and Mbeya involved in road accident near Kitonga mountain area on the highway Dar-es-Salaam-Iringa, police in Iringa repotrs.

The vehicle carrying the Citizen, Mwananchi and Sportsman newspapers happens from Dar es Salaam to Iringa and Mbeya, hit into back of moving lorry after the driver avoided head-on collision with the vehicle coming from the opposite direction near Kitonga Mountains, Kilolo district in Iringa Region on Friday.

Speaking to journalists’ police commander for Iringa Region Ramadhani Mungi said the accident occurred at around 05:00hrs early in the morning when vehicle carrying newspapers entered the back of the lorry being at high speed.

"Today has gone very bad here Iringa, the accident involved a Toyota Hiace vehicle carrying newspapers of Mwananchi Communication Company LTD; the car crash into the back of a truck and trailer,” RPC narrated :

"The driver of the car accident has been overtaking truck and trailer
but unfortunately there was another vehicle coming opposite direction in front of him and when he made a decision to return to his side he knocked into the back of the lorry that he was trying to overtake, "he said.

RPC named the people who died in the accident as Eliud Ogwasa (40) and Godfrey Owino (34), all residents of Dar es Salaam.

Other injuries includes Baraka Shitindi (32) whose condition is serious and Kevin Shitindi (30) residents of Mbozi in Mbeya Region and Herold Shitindi (25), a resident of Morogoro,Zabroin Izote (29), a resident of Mbeya and Joseph Kayani (37), a resident of Mafinga in Iringa.

"Commander Mungi urged drivers to be careful and drive to follow
traffic rules to avoid accidents that may cause death to both the
driver and passengers," RPC said.

Acting Medical Officer in Charge of Regional Referral Hospital Iringa, Alfred Mwakalebela said they have received two dead bodies that have preserved the mortuary hospital.

Dr. Mwakalebela said they also have received four casualties who have suffered various body parts injuries, including a broken leg, while one of them with the worst situation unable to talk.

One of the injuries, Kevin Shitindi who has suffered arm and chest
pains said they were from Dar es Salaam at midnight with 10 men on the same drive and arrived Morogoro at around 02:00 hours two men dropped down.

Other injuries Lisote and Kayani said Hiace was running faster but
they fast asleep when heard the big bang and later saw the drivers
died on the spot.

SKYLIGHT BAND KUWASHA MOTO WA NGUVU NDANI YA ESCAPE ONE USIKOSE LEO

Waimbaji wa Bendi ya Skylight pamoja na mashabiki wa bendi hiyo wakiendelea kuzirudi katika kiota cha Escape One Jijini Dar es Salaam na leo sio siku ya kukosa maana utakosa vitu vizuri kutoka katika bendi hiyo




Rapa Mkongwe wa muziki wa dansi wa Skylight Band, Joniko Flower akitoa burudani kwa mashabiki wa Skylight Band Jumapili iliyopita ndani ya kioa cha Escape One Mikocheni ambapo leo pia burudani iko pale pale na ndio kwanza week end imeanza kwa fans wa Skylight Band.




Kasongo Junior na Natasha wakiwapa raha mashabiki wa Skylight Band (hawapo pichani) ndani ya kiota cha Escape One jumapili iliyopita, bila kukosa ya leo itakuwa pale pale.




Sasa ukafika muda wa waimbaji wa bendi ya Skylight kuonesha maujuzi yao uku JOniko akiendelea kuchana mistari.






Sam Mapenzi ni muimbaji mashuhuri na huwa anajua kukonga nyoyo za watu hususani katika ule muziki wa Afrika magharibi weee utampenda hata kwa mkopo, hapo akiwa anaimba kwa kushirikiana na wenzake ndani ya bendi ya Skylight.




Mwimbaji wa Band ya Skylight, Bijal Valentine akishusha mistari ya kufa mtu mbele ya mashabiki wao waliofika kwenye kiota Cha Escape One huku akisindikizwa na waimbaji wenzake ambao ni Leah, Suzy na Sony Masamba.




Sam Mapenzi(kushoto) akiimba pamoja na Natasha (kulia) moja ya nyimbo zinazobamba hapa nchini huku Meneja wa bendi hiyo akifurahia kwa kupiga makofi baada ya Natasha kurudi tena katika bendi hiyo.



Sony Masamba akichana mistari na mashabiki wa Skylight Band wakiendelea kuzirudi huku Sam Mapenzi na Kasongo Junior wakimsikindiza kwa miondoko ya aina yake. Hakika hii sio ya kukosa leo Jumapili njoo wewe na umpedaye upateraha ya nguvu kutoka katika bendu hiyo.





Waimbaji wa bendi ya Skylight wakiendelea kutoa burudani ndani ya kiota cha Escape One Mikocheni.










Mashabiki wakiendelea kujimwaga na burudani ya Skylight Band kiota cha Escape One.




Rapa Mkongwe wa muziki wa dansi wa Skylight Band, Joniko Flower akiwasebenesha sehemu ya mashabiki wao Jumapili iliyopita kwenye Skylight Sunday Bonanza‬ kiota cha Escape One Mikocheni jijini Dar es Salaam




Sasa ikafika muda wa kuzungusha mduara hakika ukikosa leo utakuwa umekosa vitu vizuri.






Kifaa kipya cha Bandi ya Skylight, Leah (katikati) akitoa burudani ya nguvu mbele ya mashabiki wao huku akisindikizwa na waimbaji wenzake Sony Masamba (kushoto) pamoja na Suzy.




Sony Masamba akichana mistari kwa mashabiki wa Skylight Band (hawapo pichani) huku Leah pamoja na Suzy wakimsindikiza kwa kuzirudi mbele ya mashabiki wao (hawapo pichani).



Hakika Skylight band inawagusa sana mashabiki wao maana...... sasa na wewe njoo leo ujionee mwenyewe mambo yanavyokuwa.






Mashabiki wakitweta jasho na sebene la Skylight Band.





Waimbaji wa bendi ya Skylight wakicheza kwa kuwaonesha style ya nyimbo yao ili waendane nao wanapokuwa wanacheza nyimbo za bendi hiyo.