Colombian Immigrant Identity and U.S. Media Representation in Boston, Massachusetts

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 22. Racialization and reactive ethnicity

Abstract

This paper examines how Colombian immigrants in Boston make sense of dominant U.S. media portrayals that reduce Colombia to narco-violence, criminality, and sexualized stereotypes. It asks how these portrayals shape everyday interactions, self-understandings, and feelings of belonging. Instead of treating stereotypes as distant images on a screen, I consider how they enter ordinary conversations, workplace exchanges, and first impressions, shaping how Colombians anticipate being read and how they respond in turn.

The study is based on in-depth interviews with Colombian immigrants in Boston who migrated as adults and lived through the height of Pablo Escobar’s influence. Participants describe being met with jokes about cocaine, references to Escobar, or narrow assumptions about what Colombia represents. Some respond with humor, others with indifference or quiet correction. These responses are not simple acceptance or rejection. They reflect the ongoing work of managing stigma while trying to hold onto a stable sense of self. Many also speak about feeling pulled between Colombia and the United States, describing a kind of “twoness” that shapes how they are seen in each place and how they see themselves.

By centering the voices of Colombian immigrants in Boston, this paper contributes to scholarship on immigrant identity and racialization. It shows that narco-centered narratives are negotiated in uneven and sometimes contradictory ways. Humor, moral disagreement, pride, and emotional distancing all emerge as strategies for living with representations that do not fully capture who they are. Identity, in this context, is not fixed. It is something worked through in conversation, memory, and everyday life.

Author

• Isabella Rebecca Epshtein, University of Massachusetts-Boston