In the Ted Talk, Why the Good Immigrant is a Bad Narrative by Maeve Higgins, she talks about hearing the different stories from immigrants, what life is like for those who have immigrated, and how those stories have made people into who they are today.
The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel- Fattah, is about 2 main characters, Micheal and Mina. Mina is the new girl in town from Afghanistan and she is going through the troubles of not only being an immigrant wanting to be successful for her family, but also being part of a new school. Michael is a boy whose parents take part in an anti-immigration group and they go to rallies and as part of spreading their ideologies they send Micheal´s father to a tour in Afghanistan.
The connection between the book The Lines We Cross and the TED Talk Why ¨the good immigrant¨ is a bad narrative, is how someone's past can give them motivation to better themselves and to help educate others. In the TED talk from Maeve Higgins she says ¨These days, I think, immigrants have the best stories (2:36-2:39 Higgins).¨ Being an immigrant herself, she can understand what it's like to flee one country to make a better life in another one, she can understand how someone else's struggle can give them motivation, whereas some other people may not see that determination so easily. In the novel The Lines We Cross Mina comes from a past that is dangerous and long after fleeing from her besieged home in Afghanistan ¨The Taliban destroyed most of my life. What wasn't destroyed we left behind, including my father in his grave. (Abdel-Fattah 10) this quote shows that she had it rough back in Afghanistan. Has anyone in your book empathized with an immigrant character because of the story of where they came from?
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