Paddington Bear and the Displaced Child

We ran into each other at Heathrow Airport last year. “Hello, friend,” I said, picking up a Paddington Bear plush toy from the duty-free bin. “Te ves guapo,” I said, brushing lint off his hat. I knew he understood my compliment. He is, after all, an immigrant from Latin America; it’s what brought us together.

Though Paddington has starred in dozens of books, TV shows, and films, his origins were revealed in his very first story, A Bear Called Paddington, published 60 years ago this month. More recently, Paddington’s immigrant status has moved from a thread in the books and in the animated series to a focal point in the 2014 and 2017 movies. His tale feels particularly timely—against the backdrop of undocumented children being detained at the U.S. border and families being separated—offering a powerful, if at times limited, look at the difficulties of leaving one’s homeland and being a stranger in a new place.

It’s been more than two decades since Paddington and I first met. At 8 years old, I was a latch-key kid watching after-school shows in the suburbs of Virginia. Paddington