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 While
the world population increases with 8000 new babies born
every hour, water and food resources decrease
progressively, principally in the poor countries. 1/6th
of the world population suffers from mal nutrition; 16
million of extremely poor cases live in the United
States of America; 18000 kids die every day because of
famine, most of them are from the undeveloped world. In
such conditions, the young generations of southern
countries are urged to immigrate towards the north in
order to uphold their food and income. They take the
risk of confronting a dangerous unknown future including
the possibilities of losing their lives on the death
boats.
With failure to develop, Southern
countries do not only expel their citizens but have also
become a stage for stealing resources, through the
mutual efforts of the internal corruption and the
external domination. Arab countries are the best
example: they have the capacity to include the triple
size of the present population if the enormous oil,
minerals and agricultural resources were divided
properly, in case they are convinced to win the battle
of democracy.
The Northern countries absorbed the
wealth of the Southern countries including the human
resources, when the young labors were needed to build
the architectural and demographic structure. But since
the Northern borders were closed, more and more strict
laws were established against those immigrants, in order
to get rid of them, or rather to choose the needed
specialists, whom these governments did not endure any
expenses for their education. Therefore, obtaining legal
documents of residency became not sufficient for our
young generations to avoid humiliation, destitution and
starvation in a world, which is expected to be a
universal village throughout the age of globalization
and the revolution of communication.
I would like to confirm my
appreciation to our young generation’s dreams about
immigrating to the expanded paradise to establish a
flourishing future, as I once did when I left my burning
country due to 15 years of civil wars. Still, I want to
tell them that the paradise is not as spacious as they
imagine. On the contrary, the countries of the north are
wrapped up with lots of violence and aggressiveness
between humans. It is not true to believe that those who
own high technological capacity should obtain openness,
good manners and critical ideology to others.
During crisis, the fear of the future
creates various reactions worldwide, such as, self-
seclusion, stiff mentality, suspicion and the
establishment of new laws under different testimonies to
guarantee a distant safe space from the others.
I think that all immigrants pass
through psychological, physiological, biological,
social, educational, economical and political changes,
whether they were self-immigrants or deported.
Expatriation is to be absent for the time being and
present in the distant past. However, to be expelled
means a maximum degree of estrangement for those who
were forced to immigrate because of the despotic
regimes.
Only immigrants understand the
problematic experience of expatriation. It is a rich and
nourishing experience for those who obtain support to
benefit from the ample scopes, educational and new
cultural exploration. At the same time, it is a
difficult and complicated experience on the
psychological side, particularly, when the receiving
country does not provide the minimum provisions for the
immigrant to live with dignity. The deported immigrant
for political reasons suffers to adapt a new citizenship
in exile and the regular immigrant for economical reason
refuses misery and poverty.
At the beginning of the expatriation
journey, the immigrant often passes through victorious
feelings for achieving an important step toward his
goal. The dream country becomes true, the imaginary
vision about it turns to be reality and the expected
aspirations are at hand. The celebrity in the new
country hides the sorrows about what was left behind; it
might be a sort of escape into the future to conceal the
worries of the unknown upcoming and the bitter trauma of
elimination from the roots. Also, the festivity can be
an interpretation of mourning after leaving the family
and the childhood stage, and a recall of memories that
had formed an important part of his character and his
self-image.
The feeling of loosing the place does
not necessarily match the real time of distance. Pretty
soon, the promised paradise turns to be a nightmare and
the imagination would return instead to the original
country with its blue sky, warm weather, aromatic plants
and tasty food.
Materialistic objects often embody
psychological scopes, which contain important symbolic
references. Thus, land incorporates with the mother, the
‘ego’ intermingles with ‘us’, the desire for the past
and the yearning for childhood intensifies. These are
self-defensive elements with security significance that
turn down or eliminate the sour pain.
In all cases, immigrants pass through
various stages, where the beginning of the journey
differs from its later steps. Also, the personal
attitudes vary between self-neglect, a refusal for the
surrounding society with a severe self-seclusion and
extreme yearning to the country of origin, and the
contrary attitude, which implies an urged effort to
assimilate with the new atmosphere. The contrary
attitude, tries to adopt the new devices and conductions
and reject the old resources and all what is related to
them completely, to the extent of becoming alienated
from the self. More often the higher percentages of
immigrants are situated between these two edges with a
pragmatic assembling of the old and new cultural aspects
together.
This combination is called
‘intercultural’ assembling. The specialists, who studied
the ‘intercultural’ cases, noticed that complaining of
various real or false physical pains is the most common
symptom of this phenomenon. With the restrictions of the
social circle or language difficulties, the body
expresses what cannot be expressed in words, like the
disordered sleeping and diet habits, or unsettled sexual
and social relations beside depression, which is a main
issue in this context. Usually, these disturbances occur
at the beginning of the adaptation with the new
atmosphere but they might reappear after years,
especially when the immigrant feels that he will never
establish his own place in the welcoming country.
The phenomenon impact would be more
clarified within the family, the vessel that would
receive the different expression and, which might
increase the tension instead of absorbing and
understanding the case. Family is a cell composed of
different individuals, where each one dwells his own
crises without necessarily being able to endure extra
more. As this cell might be the safest shelter, it could
split or explode creating an imbalance within its
content, mainly between the wife and husband, who are
joined by special relations.
Children witness the problems and
anguish of their family’s experience even later on and
without being present. The suffering is transferred
unconsciously to the following generation yet throughout
the unspoken terms and hidden secrets.
The child might be an additional
reason for compiling more difficulties that the parents
are supposed to face. With age progression, the children
and their parents might develop a distant relationship,
besides, a refusal and rebellion during adolescence
period, especially when the parents don’t recognize
their image reflected in their kids. The parents are
affected by the concepts of their own background,
mentality and values, which might not fit in the new
atmosphere. Therefore, they feel that they lost their
bets about their children, who were supposed to
supplement their suffering.
The absence of the bigger family,
uncles, aunts, grandparents and other relatives, will
not permit the individuals in the small cell, mainly the
kids, to lean on such surrounding, which
substitute the lost
care and affections. In addition, this condition does
not allow them to have a secured identity with extended
roots. Children need to breathe outside the small cell,
especially during the family crises, and not to become
prisoners of the dispute; otherwise, hard problems might
emerge later on without knowing the relative real
reasons.
While expatriation implies doubts and
questions about parenthood, brotherhood and the
problematic belonging, it also submits arguments about
betrayal, abandonment and deceiving.
The immigrant might be surprised at
his image among his relatives. If he returns once to
visit them, he will discover how much foreign he became,
and sometimes, not acceptable. A number of feelings urge
the relatives to set up comparisons, which he might not
tolerate. In spite of all the welcoming festivities,
they feel that he left them behind. On the other hand,
the relatives don’t know how to deal with him after he
changed because they do not understand the modifications
of the ‘intercultural’ process. They can not comprehend
that the new surrounding affected him greatly. As a
result, their need for a higher value or a worshiped
statue might lead them to destroy his image soon. They
might also refuse his return, as if he became a
stranger, as if he is demanded to clarify his real
belonging, here or there, because he cannot belong to
both atmospheres.
Hostility might show more clearly
among his old friends, especially if they are deprived
of rights that he enjoys in a country which respects his
civil rights more than his mother land.
The immigrant faces questions that he
used to ignore or not answer before visiting the country
of origin. The violent moment of returning, with all its
implied affection, might shake the personal basis. As if
there has been a need for a dream and ideality, but the
discovery of the reality destroys the dream’s hallow and
the ideal’ sacrosanct.
The immigrant may discover that he
did not abandon his people, but they renounced him and
refused to justify his feelings of guilt toward them
during his absence. They spoil what he had left behind
and he had hopes to find it, so he feels that they have
buried him personally. So, they are not a part of him
anymore but a threatening side, which does not reflect
his image in the mirror.
Still, the idea of the final return
to the country of origin has a positive significance to
the immigrant, mainly by the late stages of his age when
the negative health signs emerge. Old age in the country
of expatriation is complicated due to the essential
needs of the immigrant, such as the necessary demands
for living, physiological needs, health needs, social
needs (friendship and family), self-establishment needs
and independence.
In the age of fluctuation between the
past, the present and the awaited future that may not
belong to either, the question is: what is the
percentage of immigrants who would accomplish the idea
of returning back home before death unexpectedly
happens? Even though the returning issue continues to
flow during the whole time of expatriation, maybe until
the last month before death, a very little percentage of
immigrants do return. In the case of a pragmatic
question about the percentage of wining and losing, the
outcome is almost zero.
When the opposite immigration is not
available to the Arab countries, which are still
expelling more than attracting their citizens, do I need
to name this country as Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria,
Tunisia, Libya, Algeria or Morocco? Or, I can stop from
recalling more unmentioned countries.
Unfortunately, without a revision to
specify the economical and social choices, without the
enhancement of the people’s capacities, without
resolving the crises as a result of the dominating
powers by tanks and the American dollar, without
liberation from the western control, without application
of democracy, freedom and respect of human rights,
without the real assistance of the Arab citizens to
build and develop the human civilization, more long
centuries would pass before the expelling environment
turns into a appealing one.
www.aljazeera.net : zaman alghurba
Translated by Majd Shara
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