Welcome Back to Abuja Once Again by Carol J. Yee

Author:Carol J. Yee
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: [978-1-63676-108-4]
Publisher: New Degree Press
Published: 2020-11-28T22:26:10+00:00

Migrant Assumptions

Assumptions are also made about people who move to another country, which may be inaccurate. People leave their countries for a number of reasons. Some move to attend school and never return home. Others leave for economic reasons—their home country does not offer opportunities for them to earn a living and provide for their families. Oftentimes, someone from their family or village left and established a toehold in a country, and eventually, many of their relatives follow. That’s how so many Cantonese ended up in the San Francisco area, and how Poles ended up in the Chicago area. Other people flee their home countries due to famine, war, or day-to-day violence, as can be seen when the news reports on Syrian refugees, boats full of migrants being stopped from reaching the European shores in the Mediterranean, or migrants trying to cross our southern border.

Some people are trafficked or tricked. This is probably how my paternal grandmother came to the US. In many countries, desperate people may sell their children or put their children in somebody else’s care, thinking their children are being taken somewhere for a job, when in fact they are being trafficked. People often pay others to expedite their entry into a country, such as the “coyotes” who smuggle people across the Mexican-US border.77 Sometimes they are abandoned along the way or are not freed after they cross the border. Instead, they are blackmailed to pay more money after they arrive. Many people die trying to reach a land of opportunity.

Some people who immigrate can no longer practice their profession in their new country due to licensing requirements. For example, Chinese medical doctors or engineers who emigrate to the US often cannot practice here; instead, you find them serving as maids or cooks in Chinese restaurants. Can you imagine how this must affect their self-image? Yet they still move, looking for better opportunities for themselves and the next generation.

Temporary migrants are often the most hardworking. In December 2008, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that 164 million were migrant workers.78 Think of it this way—they come to a country to fill jobs that the local population does not want to do in order to support their families back home. Not only are they far from home, but they may only be able to return to see their families once a year, if they are lucky. For example, Mexicans come to California to harvest the fruits and vegetables that we eat—Americans have no desire to do this job, nor can we stand the backbreaking eight-hour shifts they endure in the hot sun. On my grandparents’ ranch in California, the same migrant farm workers would return to help us harvest fruit every year. What about Filipina women who travel to places like Hong Kong to take care of other people’s houses and children? They often are invisible, but as previously mentioned, they congregate in parks on Sundays, the one day they have off. Many Filipino men travel to the United Arab Emirates to work as construction workers.

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