Despite concerted efforts by advocates and progressive journalists to replace dehumanizing terms for immigrants with neutral terms like “undocumented (person/worker/etc),” recent data from Google Trends indicates a resurgence of dehumanizing terms to describe children and adults traveling from one country to another in search of a better life. This includes the use of dehumanizing language among self-identified liberals like Joe Biden and Trevor Noah.
Lindsay Schubiner, director of programs at Western States Center, an advocacy group that recently published guidelines for journalists on responsible immigration coverage, explains that such language “flattens” people into a caricatured category, mainstreaming language that originates in the hate speech of the far right.
To be clear, language that designates some people as “legal” and some as “illegal” falls into a right-wing trap, implying that some humans deserve human treatment and some do not. In the ongoing struggle to achieve freedom of movement for everyone, we must ensure that our language reflects our commitment to decriminalizing immigration.