Spanish Slang For Immigration (Explained!)

In Mexican slang, immigration and customs enforcement is colloquially referred to as la migra. This literally translates simply to “immigration”, but is not meant in the broader context of the word here. It specifically refers to the U.S. border officials and enforcement offers, such as ICE.

To many speakers of Spanish, immigration enforcement can be a significant aspect of their lives.

If only in the sense that they are aware of it, it becomes a part of the slang lingo in certain parts of the world.

While most Spanish has no real slang for immigration, Mexicans and Mexican Americans do.

Let’s find out more.

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What is immigration in Spanish slang?

The only definitive slang used in Spanish dialects for immigration is la migre, and this is a Mexican term which refers specifically to immigration officials of the United States.

Literally, as I mentioned, this just translates to immigration, and there’s not really any further meaning implied in the word itself.

However, in the context of Mexicans, whether they themselves are immigrants to the U.S., are still living in Mexico, or are the children of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S., it does take on an added meaning.

U.S. immigration officials are, among Mexican folks, known for being a bit overreaching.

Navigating that aspect of life as a Mexican in the U.S. can be tough, and so it leads to shared language with which to talk about the experience.

“Immigration” of course is a broad concept. It literally just means people coming into a country.

Naturally, there’s a lot of this between Mexico and the U.S., and so there’s been a lot of strife around it historically.

Strife like this very often spawns its own language and slang terms, as this is one way for a marginalized group to feel more together and in better contact with each other—to the exclusion of outsiders.

My point here is simply that, though this isn’t a different word than any Spanish speaker would use when talking about immigration itself, it has adopted a very specific contextual meaning in Mexican Spanish.

Thus, it has become slang in its own right.

So, la migra translates to “the immigration”, in the sense of grouping the entire government body into a single noun.

Immigration, as a whole, including every level and part of the process, is la migra.

You might also just say migra, which you could use to refer to an individual immigration enforcement official. “Migra is coming,” for example.

So, where does this term come from?

Why do Mexicans say la migra?

As far as telling when precisely this slang term came to be used, that’s very hard to say.

It certainly doesn’t seem that recent, but given that it’s a colloquial term in part defined by being spoken rather than written, it’s hard to say with any accuracy when it took on this slang meaning.

But we certainly can trace the etymological origin of the word itself.

It is shared by many of the Romance languages in some slightly altered form, such as French, Portuguese and Italian.

As you might expect, then, the original root word is a Latin one, which is the foundation of most of the Romance languages.

The Latin root is migro, which meant to migrate, depart to another place.

Interestingly, it had more the sense of leaving rather than coming in, initially.

Today, to describe someone entering a country, we would use immigration—but for leaving, we would say emigration.

In any case, Latin spawned the root of what would eventually become the Mexican slang for immigration officials.

There’s one other aspect of immigration which does have its own slang vocabulary, though—green cards.

What do Mexicans call green cards?

Mexicans use Spanish slang, mica, to refer to their green cards.

This can also more broadly be used in the context of immigration papers, such as ID cards, border crossing cards, and anything else you might need to immigrate.

This one is more broadly used in Spanish, but again, it is generally just a standard term in Spain.

In Mexico, and indeed large parts of the Americas, mica specifically means a green card for crossing into and living in the United States.

They’ve taken the accepted use term and further specified its meaning to turn it into slang.

This is not uncommon in slang, though we tend to expect slang terms to be entirely new inventions or new words.

Where does mica come from, then?

Why do Mexicans say mica?

Again, it’s really very difficult to say with much certainty.

Green cards did not come into existence until 1940, so it was likely some time shortly after then.

The word mica, though, is naturally much older.

It originally comes from Latin, though it had quite a different meaning there. It meant a crumb or a morsel.

The sense might have been that a green card is only a crumb or morsel of documentation or that only crumbs or morsels of them are being handed out to those who need them.

In truth, we may never know for sure.

So, unsurprisingly, it is mostly the plight of Mexicans in the United States and indeed across the Mexican border which has given rise to Spanish slang for immigration as a concept.

Few other dialects of Spanish really have any slang for immigration itself, or indeed for immigrants or any other aspect of immigration.

It’s mostly a Mexican thing.

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