Maeve Higgins: Why Is The ‘Good Immigrant’ Narrative Dangerous?

VPM | By Manoush Zomorodi, Janet W. Lee and Maria Paz Gutierrez

Published April 30, 2021 at 12:17 PM EDT

Updated July 7, 2023

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Migration

Irish comedian Maeve Higgins moved to the U.S. with a visa for artists with “extraordinary abilities.” But the myth of the “good immigrant,” she says, perpetuates harm and discrimination.

About Maeve Higgins

Maeve Higgins is an Irish comedian and the host of Maeve in America: Immigration podcast, featuring conversations with immigrants across the United States. She is currently based in New York City.

Higgins also wrote an autobiographic novel, Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else, and a book of essays titled We Have A Good Time, Don’t We?. Her opinion pieces have also been featured on The New York Times and The Irish Times.

She studied photography at St. Aloysius College, Carrigtwohill in Ireland.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Janet W. Lee and edited by Maria Paz Gutierrez. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at [email protected].

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Manoush Zomorodi

Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.

Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.

Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.

She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."

Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.

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