Lisa Ko’s novel The Leavers, is a domestic fiction coming of age story that follows the life of a young boy name Deming Guo. His mother Polly is an undocumented Chinese immigrant. The story starts out with Deming when he was with his mother. He lived in China with family while his mother was in the United States working to have him come live with her. They lived in New York and she was not very happy with her work. She found work in Florida and decided that they must move there. He did not want to move, and the next day his mother went to work and never returned. He is told that she it away visiting friends but felt that something wasn’t right.
In New York alone there is over 160,000 undocumented Asian immigrants, as stated from the Center for Migration Studies. This represents about 1 out of 7 Asian immigrants in the state which is about 14%, and about 1 out of 5 undocumented immigrants in the state which is about 21%. These are big numbers when considering how many people live in the state of New York. In the United States there is an estimated 11.5 million undocumented immigrants living here, and out of that 11.5 million, 1.3 million are from Asia. Considering that there is about 18 million Asian Americans in the country, 1.3 million of them being undocumented is a huge scale of representation. While they make up big numbers in our systems of being undocumented, they are often left out of the debate on immigration. The research on these communities is very sparse. The answers to many of the basic questions like, are they just overstaying tourist or work visas or is there other reasons behind it, are left unanswered.
Deming is a young boy who was abandoned by his mother. He was left with so many questions unanswered. This inevitably changed his identity. He was left to worry for himself. Undocumented Asian Americans make up a pretty hefty percentage of the Asian American population as a whole. They are also left to fend for themselves. It is very easy for them to get exploited in fear of getting deported. They are stuck living in fear, with few options of finding work or places to live.
Not just a Latino issue: Undocumented Asians in America. Asia Society. (n.d.). Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://asiasociety.org/northern-california/not-just-latino-issue-undocumented-asians-america.
Data on undocumented Asian Americans. AAPI Data. (2020, January 30). Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://aapidata.com/undocumented/.
Williams, V. (2021, October 26). ‘you feel invisible’: How America’s fastest-growing immigrant group is being left out of the DACA conversation. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/09/08/an-asian-daca-recipient-reminds-us-that-not-all-immigrant-families-are-from-south-of-the-u-s-border/.
Hello!
I think this is a great presentation! It is very insightful information to discuss when it comes to how many people are a part of this population of Asian Americans. It really shows it is more common than we may think. It emphasizes that Deming’s story isn’t the only one similar to hundreds of thousands of other Asian American’s story. Very insightful information!
I really enjoyed your context presentation and the background that it provided on the undocumented asian population in the US. I think when most people think of undocumented immigrants, they are not specifically thinking about the asian population so when reading this novel it seems that this is super rare. Your context presentation provided evidence that, that is in fact not true and makes the book make a lot more sense. I am excited to finish reading it now!
Hi! I really enjoyed your post. Those demographics upset me. I constantly feel bad for immigrants because I am aware of how difficult it is to gain citizenship in the United States. I am sure people experience stories like Deming’s all the time. His entire persona changed and he turned into a different man than he originally was upon moving to the U.S.
Your context presentation provided great background information for this week’s reading. It was interesting to learn how in America, the amount of undocumented Asian Americans make up a big percentage of the Asian American population as a whole.
This is a good presentation as I now have plenty of background information on the topic to understand. The stories we continue to talk about are situations I could not imagine having to be in as a young kid. Especially this one where his mom leaves him at home and doesn’t return. I agree this topic of immigration and research on the topic is one that is not represented very well. With bringing it to the table I think it will allow for topic to grab more attention and become more important.
Hello and wow am I surprised at the supporting statistics you provided. These statistics are shocking and I think they provide a good back story before this weeks readings. The fear living behind the undocumented immigrants is instilled at a young age and makes them even more confused about their identity.
Hi! I thought that this was a really informative post. I was not aware of the statistics that you shared about Asian immigrants. I also think you posed an insightful topic that is illegal immigrants can easily be exploited, since they have no power in the foreign country that they are in. Thank you for bringing that up!
Hi, I enjoyed reading your presentation. It is crazy to think how many immigrants are undocumented within the United States, especially in one area like New York. It is also sad to see how they do not have anyone helping them gain rights, and can’t advocate for themselves. You did a good job relating this to the reading for the week!
This was a very good and informative presentation. I did not know there was that many undocumented immigrants in the US, and I am very interested to see those statistics. I never thought about this situation from the perspective of the immigrant, and I can’t even imagine how many young people have to fend for themselves in this instance. Great job.
Great presentation on the real-life implications and situations in which this book takes effect. I didn’t realize there were that many undocumented Asian Americans living in America. It is really interesting to go into NYC and into Chinatown and just observe how different of a community it is there with all of the immigrants that have come throughout the years
Hey! I loved this post. It really goes to show the effects the harsh immigration laws in the US have on children such as Deming. It makes me wonder whether he was abandoned or she was deported? Deportation without serious cause is a huge problem in America it seems.
Hello, this is a great presentation! I learned a lot from reading your presentation and it opened my mind. I did not realize that there were this many undocumented immigrants living within the U.S. This relates to the reading this week! I really enjoyed reading this!
Hi! I think your presentation is well thought out and provides a great understanding and analysis. The way you provided specifics within numbers and data, allows the reader to connect to the story to what is happening in the real world which therefore provides necessary explanations to what is actually happening. It is necessary information to gather the reality provided.
Thank you for taking time to research Lisa Ko’s novel The Leavers! I have personally heard many stories of my cousins who are living in constant fear even though they are documented. I have met many of their friends who are not and there are many levels to it that many of us who are documented do not think of. My cousin who lives in New York City recently told us about a time she was harassed for being asian. Many generalize the term minority to few groups of people but the asian community needs to be heard and fought for as well.
Hi, this is a great presentation! I think your article can help me understand this novel better. And I found that your article contains a lot of data, which can help me understand the contents of the article more intuitively. However, all your articles are a brief account of the content of the novel, and I think you can include more of your own ideas next time. Good job.
Hello!! I think your presentation was very nice! you gave really good insight into what the young boy thought. I think many of us don’t know the struggles of what this young boy or his mother had to go through.
Hi! Very interesting presentation! It is crazy to learn how many of the Asian Americans live in just New York undocumented and how big of a percentage they make up out of all the undocumented immigrants in America.
Thank you for a very interesting context presentation! I had no idea how large the percentage was of undocumented Asian Americans until I read this.
Thank you for a great presentation! I had thought that New York had a fairly large percentage of Asian Americans that lived there, but had no idea just how big and how large of a percentage are undocumented. Thanks again for the new information!
Hello there! I loved reading your presentation. Society often overlooks how many Asian Americans, or immigrants in general, are undocumented; all they know is that undocumented immigrants exist in the United States. Seeing the actual number of undocumented Asian Americans is shocking, but it also helps provide additional context and background before going into this week’s reading. Wonderful job!