Leaving home is hard, even when you know you can come back and you have a pretty good idea of what is coming next. It is almost impossible not to feel anxious about the future. Not to be afraid. Now imagine, how difficult it must be to leave home without knowing what will happen at all. Doubting of being able to get where you're going. Afraid of failing and with no certainty that you’re going to be fine. No safety nets for the next act. Personally, I don’t think anyone would leave home abruptly and without a clear future unless they have to. It’s hard to think that a whim is reason enough for somebody to leave behind a whole world. Certainly, it is not reason enough to put yourself in the position of being dismissively called an immigrant. So, why would an immigrant do it?

Well, war is the main reason immigrants decide to navigate uncharted waters. Nobody likes to hear about beheaded bodies in front of public schools, bullets in the jungle or daily armed robbery. To say some of the dreadful things people there are trained to ignore in order to survive. Let’s take a look at Syria shall we? No? too painful? Okay. Immigrants come looking for something they don’t have back home: peace. The second reason is bad economy and lack of resources, produced by war of course. By all means, an immigrant is more comfortable here. Quality of life is so much better than the one he has known a lifetime. If being poor here means not having a phone, being poor there means living on the streets. Wait, that doesn’t sound like a big deal, does it? It is a big deal when you understand that war rules those streets, especially at night. Like venturing into the lion’s den with a piece of fresh meat in your hands, war doesn’t forgive or discriminate.

Lack of opportunities despite hard work and the absence of prospects is the third one. It does not matter how hard the immigrant works in his own country, it looks like things aren’t changing anytime soon. It has to do with more complicated issues than immigration itself; we'll let it go, for now. The fourth reason is the heaviest one to explain: sacrifice. An immigrant leaves home mainly because they want to give a different kind of life to a loved one. A different path with more opportunities, something they didn’t have. Whether the love one is a daughter, sister, mother or wife, it makes no difference, that love must be big enough to endure a hard journey. To endure a sacrifice that no many are willing to make.

There should be a lot more I’m missing, but the most representative reasons are those four. When an immigrant comes to this country, they are ready to make the impossible. Imagine, they makes their bags, swallow their fears, casts a blessing and prays to half the sky for their well being. In that moment, they let an open door for misery or blessing, depending on their daily luck. They are an immigrant now, a face full stories that reminds us we are all humans. We all have a past to tell and trails to walk. We all made our shares of sacrifices, and the most important, we all want something better in this life or the next one, and at this point it does not matter anymore. Then, you realize living in exile sounds so much better than living with death in paradise.