"We Came to America": Exploring Contemporary Representations of Immigration Experience in Children's Picture Books

• In Event: Critical Content Analyses: Explorations of Marginalized Populations and Languages in Literature for Children and Youth

Abstract

Purpose of Study:

To provide opportunities for new understanding through analysis of immigration-themed picturebooks authored by Non-European immigrants of color with their diverse representations of persons immigrating to the U.S. and their experiences. Through critical reading of such picturebooks young persons can begin to question and problematize immigration narratives given the power of picturebooks authored by Non-European immigrants to, as Yi (2012) asserts, “[widen] the scope of what is accepted as mainstream culture, and [progress] the status of minority people above current social, political, and historical limits” (p. 131). Within this space of critical analysis, emerges the question of: How can readers, through close reading of picturebooks written by Non-European immigrants, illuminate authentic immigration experiences represented in children’s stories?

Theoretical Framework:

Utilizing Sung, Fahrenbruck & López-Robertson (2017), representations of immigrants and immigration experience in picturebooks are read through a postcolonial lens. In opposition of rhetoric about immigrants as “one hegemonic group for the purpose of Othering even though they comprise many diverse groups of people” (Sung, et al., 2017, p. 45), the tenet of resisting and denying the postcolonial mindset by the characters in the stories to frame postcolonialism is employed for analysis.

Postcolonialism affords analysis of the power of Non-European immigrant authors to recenter their immigration narrative resistant of “the predominant narrative pattern of problem [stories] featuring the identity formation of Indigenous characters” (Bradford, 2007). First-person picturebook narratives authored by Non-European immigrant authors provide room for readers to learn and experience from the point of view of that cultural group – how they think, value, and feel.

Methodology and Data Source:

Through critical content analysis of immigration picturebooks, authentic representations from those who have lived them are explored. The collection consists of immigration-themed picturebook texts authored by Non-European immigrants of color. A postcolonial lens is utilized for the analysis and close reading of picturebook texts (Martinez & Harmon, 2012) to illuminate the explored assumptions of Immigration Pathways, Borders to Navigate and Persons Driven by Hope which emerge from their diverse immigration narratives.

Results and Conclusions:

Disruption of deficit understanding around immigrant persons of color and their immigration experience(s) held by young persons in America is actualized. Chosen picturebooks and their narratives demonstrate heterogeneity of Non-European immigration stories and positive depiction of young immigrants of color as: children speakers against injustice (Danticat, 2015); dreamers, hopeful of new opportunities in America (Morales, 2018); unimpeded by borders (Argueta, 2016); adaptable and resilient (Buitrago, 2015); non-native born Americans (Díaz, 2018); hopeful of new friendships in America (Kim, 2014); refugees who adapt in America (Phi, 2017); acculturated to American ways (Gunning, 2004); and proud persons and teachers of American friends (Williams & Mohammed, 2009).

Scholarly Significance:

Picturebooks with diverse representations of Non-European immigrants and immigration experiences serve as “a means for opening dialogue with students in school settings” (Rodriguez & Braden, 2018) around new and positive immigrant/immigration understandings. Through the critical reading of Non-European immigrant authored texts, teachers provide room for young persons’ problematization and critical analysis of immigration narratives and rhetoric alongside recentered Non-European immigrants of color and their stories.

Author

• Christina King, University of Missouri - Columbia