Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December, 2013

The Decade Migrant

"So ferry, cross the Mersey, 'Cause this land's the place I love, And here I'll stay." Gerry and the Pacemakers Today, I've been living abroad for exactly 10 years. It's a time as good as any to share my first-hand experiences on immigration. Immigrants are individuals like me, sustaining themselves in a foreign country. But, I am not an immigrant . I am an emigrant . On a good day, I'll agree to be called a migrant , so let's use that term going forward as it's neutral. The distinction between the terms is important, as it contains the crux of uprooting yourself and replanting your existence in foreign soil. An immigrant is identified with her new country, while an emigrant is identified with her old country. I am not an immigrant because I belong to my old country. Despite having chosen my new country out of free will, I am not integrated, and I don't strive to be. I fail the primary directive of any successful government immigra