In a recent opinion piece published by the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, New York City politician Zohran Kwame Mamdani makes the case that immigrants are not a burden on the societies that receive them, but a powerful and positive force for change.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has built a national profile through his advocacy for working-class New Yorkers, frames immigration as a story of contribution rather than conflict. His column pushes back against narratives that portray newcomers as a drain on resources or a threat to national identity, instead highlighting the ways immigrant communities have historically strengthened the countries and cities where they settle.
The piece appears at a moment when immigration remains a deeply contested political issue on both sides of the US-Mexico border, with debates over border policy, deportation, and labor rights shaping public discourse in both countries. Mamdani’s intervention, published in a major Mexican outlet, suggests an attempt to speak directly to readers in Mexico about the value immigrants bring to their adopted homes.
While the column does not delve into specific policy proposals in the excerpt available, its central message is clear: immigration, in Mamdani’s view, has been and continues to be a transformative and constructive force in society.
To read Zohran Mamdani’s full column in Spanish, visit La Jornada’s website.
Source: Inmigrantes: fuerza que transforma para bien Zohran Kwame Mamdani* (jornada.com.mx).
Image: nromagna, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).