Set in the 2020s, A Better Life unfolds against the backdrop of an intense political debate over mass migration into the US. Long a divisive political issue, immigration across the southern borders of the US increased rapidly in the early 2020s, largely driven by crises in Venezuela, Haiti, and other South American and Caribbean countries. Coinciding with the administration of Democratic President Joseph R. Biden, this increased migration demand heightened longstanding political conflict between “red” and “blue” states, with border states who initially received and processed new migrants being especially critical of Democratic policy. 

New York City—a Democratic stronghold—became a focal point. Its unique “right to shelter” policy, a legal mandate originating from a 1979 consent decree requiring the city to provide shelter to anyone who requests it, was coupled with the later adoption of “sanctuary city” status, alongside other cities such as Detroit and Chicago. In 2022-2024, the southern governors Greg Abbott (Texas), Doug Doucey (Arizona), and Ron DeSantis (Florida) deliberately bused more than 100,000 migrants from their own states to sanctuary cities—including New York—to challenge progressive immigration policies (Gulasekaram, Pratheepan, et al. “Busing & the Sanctuary City.” SSRN, 4 June 2026). These actions heightened divisions between politically polarized states in the US and increased financial and logistical pressures on sanctuary cities’ infrastructure and communities. Between 2022 and 2023, New York received over 210,000 migrants, exacerbating an existing housing shortage in the city (Ferré-Sadurní, Luis. “What to Know About the Migrant Crisis in New York City.” The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2024).

Amid this climate of tension over immigration and national identity, some members of the US far right began to subscribe to a racist conspiracy theory known as the “Great Replacement.” Coined by the French novelist Reynaud Camus, this white-supremacist conspiracy theory posits the existence of a deliberate plot to replace the “original” populations of Europe and North America through mass migration. Though Shriver herself does not explicitly subscribe to this theory, her characters give voice to the underlying notion that the US belongs rightfully to some populations and not others. When Martine Salgado—a migrant in the process of taking over the upper-middle-class Bonaventura family’s home—says to Nico Bonaventura, “You no fight, you lose. […] Other people take your nice country” (78-79), she implicitly frames immigration as a fight between those who rightfully possess the country and those who are trying to take it by force. This basic premise informs the action of the novel, with the Salgados’ takeover of the Bonaventura home operating as a microcosm of a feared migrant “takeover” of the country. For this reason, a Kirkus review of the book begins, “Shriver, who’s flirted with hard-right ideology, cozies up to the Great Replacement conspiracy theory” (“A Better Life.” Kirkus Reviews, 25 Oct. 2025). 

A Better Life directly channels this real-world tension, with Gloria Bonaventura deciding to participate in the fictional “Big Apple, Big Heart” program after her neighbor challenges her to “put [her] house where [her] mouth is” (2). The narrative’s central conflict reflects real ideological divisions without idealizing particular characters or beliefs, pitting Gloria’s naive, performative generosity against the cynicism and selfishness of her son, Nico. Shriver makes the Bonaventura family’s divisions a microcosm for a national ideological polarization, examining the clash between liberal ideals of social justice and the complex logistical, financial, and cultural realities of their application to flawed, unpredictable human lives and circumstances.