The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America

by Nikesh Shukla

My father had consumed the stories of others and the flattening narrative framed by the media for so long that I sometimes wonder if, when he lowers his gaze as the border control officer turns aggressive, there is a part of my father that has believed what the world has said about him. That it was not made for him. That in choosing to move here, he reached for more than he was originally allotted, and though he has worked to form a beautiful life, though he has lived here longer than he has lived elsewhere, he is still borrowing his place, walking through the world the way a man who knows he is borrowing does: gently, as though what he has built can be taken away. But if he does not draw attention to his difficulties, if he ensures the survival of his children by teaching them to do the same, then he can get by, carry on, continue creating the life he has wanted for himself, for his children.