“Running to Stand Still”: Humanizing migrants and issues at the southern border

By:  Kaitlin O’Meara, Asst. Copy Editor

On Saturday, April 5, Canisius University and the WNY Peace Center co-hosted a community forum centered around migration and asylum at the southern border. The event consisted of the Buffalo premier of the documentary “Running to Stand Still: Migrants Search for Hope in the Promised Land,” followed by a panel discussion including community organizers, a professor and the documentary’s executive producer. 

The main goal of this event was to provide a more humanizing view of migrants, show what really leads people to immigrate to the United States, and what the process of doing so is actually like. Heidi Ostertag, the executive producer, discussed the importance of storytelling as a method of making an argument, which was a big inspiration for the execution of the documentary. Composed of “profiles and vignettes, simple stories, and [a] non-polemical approach,” as outlined on a flyer handed out to attendees. The documentary aimed to show the “human impact of the U.S.-Mexico immigration crisis.” Much of today’s rhetoric around immigration takes a dehumanizing approach to the issue, but everyone at the panel wanted to emphasize the humanity of the people who are forced to migrate in search of a better life and hope for their families. 

Dr. Shyam Sriram, assistant professor of political science and director of the political science program, was the Canisius professor on the panel and discussed with me the importance of humanizing immigration, specifically with putting a human face to the concept of a ‘migrant.’ “When people talk about immigration, or migrants, or asylum, they don’t talk about people,” he said, “They talk about people as if they’re data points.” So often, dehumanization occurs because people are unable to put a face to the concept of immigration, so it is the goal of many immigration and refugee advocates to mitigate this impact while also working towards the implementation of new policies that treat migrants and those seeking asylum more humanely. 

Dr. Sriram’s class on refugee resettlement (PSC 338) has a major service-learning component. Usually, it involves having students collect all the necessary donations for a house for a refugee family, but this had to change this semester because the Trump administration suspended the refugee resettlement program. Refugee resettlement goes beyond “picking up people from the airport and teaching them English. It’s helping them with housing, getting them [everything] in the background,” Sriram said. Students learn more about the real life impact of refugee policy on refugees, which often leads to this class having a significant impact on the students who take it. 

Though I have not (yet!) taken PSC 338, I did take Dr. Richard Reitsma’s SPA 324 class and can confidently say that it has been the most impactful class I have taken at Canisius. The class is centered around immigration and involves service-learning through volunteering with the local non-profit Justice for Migrant Families, where students speak with migrants detained at ICE’s detention center in Batavia. It is one thing to learn about the immigration system through class discussions or viewing films/documentaries about it, and a completely different thing to see firsthand how it impacts real people. In discussing the impact of classes like SPA 324 or PSC 338, Dr. Reitsma said these courses “help to humanize the issue [and] craft a nuanced understanding of the issue following the Jesuit pedagogy of discernment, reflection, and action. By incorporating embedded intentional service-learning which humanizes the experience of the other, we also learn how to take action, and thus continue the cycle of Jesuit pedagogy.” There is so much more that goes into the process and system of immigration than what is reported on the news, so taking classes like these allows students a better understanding of its nuances and an ability to apply this knowledge to the real world. 

For those of you who may not be familiar with the U.S. immigration system and its impacts on immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, I encourage you to be aware of the changes being made to the current system and how it impacts real people. One of the panelists discussed how they felt that they were “preaching to the choir” at the event. People there generally didn’t need to be convinced of the humanity and personhood of migrants and refugees  – but that what is now important is reaching the “non-choir.” Asserting the simple fact that those migrating to the United States in search of a better life are human is so vital, since it often is not considered by those who view immigration as something detrimental. By writing this article, I hope to reach some of you who may not be in the “choir” when it comes to issues surrounding immigration and show the importance of caring about what is going on. It does not take much to be at least a little bit aware of what is going on at the border and how these changes are impacting real people.