“Soft Aliens” is the second chapter in the series of artistic research carried out by Guadalupe Aldrete and Andrea Vezga. In this performance, Vezga and Aldrete question themselves and the audience: given that today’s society is shaped by migration and intercultural exchange, why is it still a disadvantage to be a migrant?
Alienation is a common consequence of reducing people to their nationality and legal status of residence.
There are invisible ways in which migrants can be valued or denigrated. In particular, language reflects these prejudices. For example, the social categorisation of people into: 1. “expat” (expatriates), 2. immigrants, 3. refugees or 4. illegal aliens. The lower the classification, the greater the dehumanisation of the person in his or her new place of residence. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the term “illegal alien” describes a person who lives or works in another country even though he or she has no legal right to do so.