The Painful Scars Immigrants Carry
The Painful Scars Immigrants Carry
For my final project, I decided to visualize what it’s like for immigrants who carry these dreadful scars while moving to a new country. Every immigrant has a story to tell, and each of these stories all share something similar, which is the difficulties and sacrifices made in order to follow their dreams. Some of these stories are more graphic, resulting in some people developing long lasting scars. While other stories and experiences may not be as graphic, these immigrants still carry emotional scars, which can be homesickness or other issues they faced as they made the transition to move to another country. In my drawing, I want to show how those scars will always have a lasting impact on someone and will always be a memory of their transition to a different country.
As someone who has family members and friends who immigrated to the United States from different countries, I know the different kinds of scars and burdens that they once carried or will carry for a long time. Some of the people I know have physical injuries which comes from their experience of crossing the border. Others have the emotional burden of missing their country of origin or missing family and friends that they haven’t seen in years. In many cases, some immigrants can have both kinds of problems, which shows how much they have sacrificed both physically and mentally in order to achieve their dream of having a better life.
Finally, the last detail I want to talk about from my drawing are the red, glowing eyes on the wall. From the stories I’ve read or heard from my family, friends, classmates, and others, most of them share the feeling of being unwelcomed to America and feel like society is watching their every move. Today, our country has several different opinions on immigrants, some people being completely unwelcoming and chanting that they should “go back to their country.” These kind of comments, as well as other issues such as racism and discrimination, take a huge toll on immigrants and adds to their emotional scars. In the future, I hope that we can take the steps in order to live in a world where people are kinder and more welcoming towards immigrants, since most of them have worked hard and try their best to achieve their dream of having a better life.
