In all reality, the word IMMIGRANT and all rhetoric around it is mostly articulated by those claiming to understand the condition. In some respect, some of these narrators understand the condition deeply and some simply have no idea whatsoever.
IMMIGRANTS DIFFER! All of them with different cultures, stories and reasons for their stay but all of them sharing some sort of spirit and soul.
At first, to every Immigrant eye, America is GREAT. It is the PROMISED LAND and is still man’s trial to emulate the CONCEPT of HEAVEN. From TV, NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES seem to be cities where INTERRACIAL harmony was long settled! It is a country that has rightly preached moral righteousness that by 1969 sent its men to the MOON. On the TV screen on the other side of the world, it almost seems like petty problems of POVERTY and DISCRIMINATION were eliminated LONG AGO in AMERICA.
With every society having its diseases. For many times, AMERICA’s least documented virus of RACE and Antagonism towards differences was kept afloat!
Long Story short, being an IMMIGRANT in the 21st century American Society, is a CONDITION that can turn out to be an impairment or debilitation for one's livelihood
And all this might generate a PUZZLING IMMIGRANT Experience.
- I DON’T want to go back, I WANT to go back, I CAN’T go back!
In all reality, the majority of immigrants at first dream of recreating their lives to a better standard . This idea of the American Dream, that with enough work-effort, one could be and do anything. If you're leaving a war-torn country where 72% of the youth is unemployed, the AMERICAN DREAM=HEAVEN. But then with time, one discovers what AMERICA is and then one’s mindset switches to: THEY DON’T WANT US HERE, just like back home during the war. Now is it better to die home poor, sick but by little of those who want you around?
2. There is EVERYTHING I NEED here/There is NOT EVERYONE I NEED here.
For most immigrants, there comes that decisive time to decide whether one will pursue with their new life and bury every remembrance of the old one: the childhood doings, the languages, the manners, the little things? In some situation, the Assimilation Pressure forces one to push away everything from the old life. In this New Life, children watch their parents take baby steps with culture, manners, and language. In this New Life: One needs to learn to love and adopt a whole different culture that might never accept him.
3. Am I even still BURUNDIAN, SYRIAN, MEXICAN, PAKISTANI, myself?
At times, after an elongated stay in one area, one starts to adopt new habits, manners and in a short time, a whole new different version of oneself gets created. As one adopts the new habits, new languages so does he/she lose the old culture, habits, languages and so on. One gets to a point where they get strapped into an existential crisis: "Wait am I supposed to be doing this, acting like this and thinking like this? What Am I doing?" However, this can be interpreted in both positive and negative way, depending on one’s state of mind.
4. Back Home, back to AFRICA, Back to A, B, C, D, You name it!
Whether, you’re from Mars, the Moon or the Antiquity, there ain’t no place like home and home people. The melancholy of home, homesickness, is a song that’s been sung for centuries. The need to go back home in the immigrant’s mind isn’t just a wish to be at ease at home. It is a wish to bring something back home. To do something better and bring opportunities for the next generations. To showcase, the wisdom learned from ages of travel. To develop/solve the little and big wrongs that chased you from your home. But the COMPLEX question turns out to be: When and How to go home?
