The smiling lady in the Ancestry ad proudly proclaims, “my ancestors were resilient.” “Resilience” as defined by Meririam-Webster: “tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Resilience is not a term I’d use to describe the immigrants I’ve interpretted and translated for. “Desperate” would be more applicable — and in that desperation they have demonstrated courage, fortitude, determination, endurance, tenacity and grit. Their plights have required no less than enormous sacrifice.
I admire these people for passing a test harder than any test I’ve ever been given. I have a sense of what they’ve been through but how can I even begin to imagine their lived experience? Their stories are heartbreaking and reaffirming at the same time. These are people who have made the very difficult decision to leave their homeland, under duress, to face untold obstacles and overwhelming uncertainty in order to reach a foreign land, with a foreign language and foreign customs, all in the hope of starting their lives over again in a safe haven.
Immigrants crossing our southern border cross with scars from their journeys. It is not unusual for these scars to be physical but the mental and emotional scarring is more commonplace, more long-lasting and more damaging. Still, against all odds, they persevere. Make no mistake, perseverance is not resilience for there is no “easy bouncing back.”
In fact, once immigrants reach the border and apply for asylum, they face new challenges, some of which are insurmountable given the stringent requirements of asylum. Everything is at stake for them, once again.