OutSources: Media Portrayals of Immigrants and Strategies for Resilience

During this election cycle, immigration has become a central issue of discussion and conflict. While immigration is talked about as an “issue,” it is really about people–a matter of real-life, personal concern that directly affects millions of people in the United States and elsewhere, including immigrants, family members of immigrants, and allies of  immigrant communities.

OutSources contributor Glenda Russell talks with three CU students, Jessica Martinez, Alfonso Galindo, and Adriana Portillo, members of the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program, a learning community geared especially to students who are the first members of their families to attend college.

The students have spent several months studying media coverage of immigration and analyzing their findings to understand both the nature of the coverage and its potential impacts on real people. They discuss what they learned in this process, and examine the relationship between these findings and impacts on LGBT communities that have been targeted in similar ways. In addition, the students also explore how immigrants can protect themselves and their children from some of the negative consequences of this coverage, calling upon research that has identified these tools of resilience among LGBT individuals and communities.