This is a super compelling collection of essays, all engaging with the immigrant experience and what that has meant and looked like for each of the writers. Stand outs for include the contributions by Alexander Chee and Fatima Farheen Mirza. Great companion read to books like Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria Luiselli, Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester, and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

Very moving, very relatable. Very important underlying message for all, especially in the modern world.

The Good Immigrant is a collection of twenty-six essays by first and second-generation immigrants about what it is like living and producing their art in a country torn apart by racism and xenophobia. It is a collection of essays by people whose lives are directly affected by Donald Trump’s racism, white nationalism, and hate-inspired policies.

What does it feel like to tour the U.S. in a band when you’re all Muslim? What does it feel like to always be the “other”? That are only the surface questions that come up while reading The Good Immigrant. But this collection is not so obvious as that. There are stories such as “Sidra” by Rahawa Haile of the heartbreaking family fractures that can happen. Families fall apart and fathers disappear in immigrant and non-immigrant families, but the questions of why can be very different. I loved Teju Cole’s essay, “The Blackness of the Panther” which takes a contrarian view of the famed film. Chimene Suleyman’s “On Being Kim Kardashian” was thought-provoking, a consideration of the ambiguity of some immigrant identities. Yann Mounir Demange’s “The Long Answer” considers a different kind of ambiguity.

Some essays are very direct, like a memoir. Others are more oblique, written from an angle that demands we think more deeply in order to understand. Some are written simply and others are more complex, but while the approach varies, the theme of being a step outside the main remains constant.

In 2016, a similar collection of the same name was released as an effort to amplify diverse voices. But then Brexit happened, and the idea of “The Good Immigrant” became an urgent counter-argument to the xenophobic narratives of bad immigrants and white nationalism and isolationism. The toxic strains that led to the U.K.’s disastrous Brexit vote are spreading worldwide and helped elect Donald Trump. It is a gift to us, that Nikesh Shukla recruited Chimene Suleyman, a contributor to the 2016 book who now lives in the U.S. to join him in producing this 2019 collection of immigrants to the U.S.

I received a copy of The Good Immigrant from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Good Immigrant at Little, Brown and Company
Nikesh Shukla author site
Chimene Suleyman author site

Stellar essay collection that is an eye-opener for people who have not experienced life as an immigrant to the US.

THE GOOD IMMIGRANT, edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman, is another collection of stories and essays wherein "26 Writers Reflect on America." The writing is as equally powerful as its striking cover. This is a text which will make readers think. In particular "How to Write Iranian-American, or The Last Essay" by Porochista Khakpour conjures images and emotions: "It did not take me long to discover that we were all absolutely and mercilessly united by our ambitions to stay afloat on our parents’ dreams – the American Dream. We were, after all, the good immigrants."

This collection offers a wide choice of writing styles and experiences related to immigration and since this title was featured recently on NPR, teachers have proactively been asking about it. Our Global Voices students will find this collection especially compelling; they already read Teju Cole (Open City) who is one of the better known contributors here. THE GOOD IMMIGRANT follows a 2016 UK edition; this American version received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Link in live post:
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/27/698066947/in-the-good-immigrant-new-americans-grapple-with-their-polarized-country

Some of these stories absolutely broke me but in good ways. They were harsh and magical and lovely and raw. This is one I will buy a physical copy to own, to give as gifts and may do an Instagram give away because I know so many others would love it.

In the time of Donald Trump’s xenophobia and immigration-related policies, 26 Immigrant writers, artists and scholars come together in one amazing collection of essays to give us a snapshot in time of what life is like for someone who is not white and from the America. Well-known contributors that I was excited to read more on are Khakpour, Alexander Chee, Daniel José Elder, Teju Cole, and Nicole Dennis-Benn. All these stories being told are all worth learning from. I high recommend this collection. Read it and get an understanding, I promise you won't regret it. Opinions are my own. Thank you Little Brown & NetGalley for this arc.