Expressions like ‘The American dream’, ‘culture shock‘, ‘identity crisis’ are often brought up and used liberally during informed discussions on immigrants. But what does it mean to be an immigrant? What is it that captures the essence of the immigrant experience?
It’s complex how every immigrant has their own story and yet their experiences and struggles are not unique. From the moment they set foot into the alien territory, they are faced with the seemingly impossible task of deciphering a strange tongue and navigating their way through life in an unknown place without being able to communicate with ease, a privilege that natives of the land enjoy without ever realizing it. From being discriminated against in the workplace to feeling socially alienated, immigrants fight through their challenges with incredible resilience.
‘Minari’ with its intimate storytelling, beautifully portrays this resilience through the metaphor of the seemingly humble herb. Jacob, the patriarch of the family, decides to break free from his job as a chicken sexer, a job that he feels miserable in, and the Korean-American family relocates to rural Arkansas with hopes of starting a farm. He speaks for many immigrants who are forced to take up menial jobs. When Jacob cries, “They need to see me succeed at something for once.” he speaks for every immigrant patriarch of the family who is burdened with the weight of the American dream. Immigrant workers arrive with ambitions of carving a better life for themselves but time and again find themselves stuck on the same rung of the socio-economic ladder.
In fact, the labor-intensive industry critically depends on immigrant workers in the United States. Undocumented workers in the US mostly take up physically demanding jobs that Americans do not want. They perform backbreaking and repetitive tasks at low wages, often in unsafe conditions without any labor protections thereby experiencing work alienation. Faced with the constant threat of deportation and detention by their employers, undocumented workers are compelled to refrain from even asserting their rights. They are excluded even in national conversations on immigrant issues.
Coupled with other ordeals is the new loss immigrants experience- loss of identity and belongingness. One so fundamental to our being, the truth of which cannot be found in theories or news reports but only in humanizing immigrants. The sense of belonging which is so deeply rooted in our identities is suddenly snatched from them, leaving them to undertake the daunting task of reconstructing their identities, a large part of their new identity being nostalgia for their homeland. In one scene in the movie, the mere sight of Korean spices brought by her mother from Korea evokes a stream of nostalgic emotions in Monica. Immigrants try to carve a piece of their homes wherever they go. Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Koreatown, and Little India have emerged in metropolises where immigrants strongly hold onto their cultures and roots. A stroll in these Little Indias and you’ll be surprised to find Patel Paan, Dosa Corner, the same vibrant colors, intense aromas, and Bollywood music that one can find in India.
While they try to build their homes in a foreign land, racism becomes an unbidden guest at the table of the immigrant experience. The movie does not really address the systemic racism faced by Asian Americans and limits it to one scene where a white boy asks David, their son with childish innocence, why his face is so flat. David as a second-generation immigrant has his share of conflicts with his identity. “Grandma smells like Korea”, this line captures the core of David’s conflicting relationship with his identity. From gaining acceptance in American society as an American to embracing his Korean roots, David will be constantly finding himself at crossroads. When children like David are struggling to navigate the labyrinths of a crisis of identity, the surging hate crimes against Asians in the United States, Canada, and Europe -from people questioning their loyalty to shooting attacks on Asians- have traumatizing effects on immigrant communities. With the rise of right-wing populism in the United States and Europe, the dehumanization of immigrants is only set to intensify. However, the mental scars these encounters leave behind can never be explained by numbers.
Immigrants don’t fit into the social fabric of their host countries. Their cultures, traditions, food habits, languages, and appearances clash with the natives. But all immigrants resound with the statement ‘I want to belong’. As the Yi family goes through their ordeal, Minari, a common Korean vegetable that can grow seemingly anywhere, comes to their rescue by becoming their only way to make a living. Through the resilience of Minari and the organic filmmaking of Lee Isaac Ching, the movie shows what cannot be seen with an authenticity that leaves you yearning to dig deeper into the meaning of every scene, character, dialogue, and the coherence of it all.