Over the past few years, questions about who belongs where have dominated the news. Stories about migration. Legal and illegal immigration. Nativism. Colonialism. These issues have triggered deep emotional responses and plenty of punditry, though less attention has focused on the ideas that underlie them. Perhaps it’s time for us to take a deeper look. As a child, I often saw myself as both an insider and an outsider. I suspect that’s how many children feel, although I can trace much of my … [Read more...]

Last week, there was widespread international outrage in response to the Trump Administration’s family separation policy. Though it was reversed, there is still no guarantee children seeking asylum in the US will remain with their parents outside of detention centers. Some children could be detained with their parents and others could be separated from their parents after a certain period of time in family detention. Though the family separation policy sparked indignation across the US, the … [Read more...]

In a White House meeting last week, Donald Trump ranted about immigrants (not for the first time). He said, “These aren’t people, these are animals, and we’re taking them out of the country at a rate that’s never happened before.” Though there has been some debate about exactly whom he was referring to, it wasn’t the first time Trump invoked (nonhuman) animals to demean other human beings. As the child of an immigrant, a cousin of refugees, and a doctor to asylum seekers, I cringe every time … [Read more...]

For the past couple of years, in the United States and across the globe, many of us have witnessed and even experienced firsthand an international rise in nationalism and racial and ethnic discrimination. The exploitation of fear, bigotry, and uncertainty about the future—and of what seemingly divides us—has frequently marred global politics and negatively impacted our individual and collective wellbeing. Like many of you, I have seen these traumatic effects—especially in my patients’ lives … [Read more...]