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Author note
This paper was prepared for CORE1010-section 03
Under the guidance of Professor Matthew Hendershot
reasons and try to think of them wisely with the family in order to judge if
migration is the best solution and therefore should this person migrate or
not. When it comes to refugees, this consideration doesnt take a lot of time
as their lives are in real danger. As it is one of the clearest reasons, I would
like to start with it and then discuss some other push/pull factors.
Safety, Respect of Human Rights and Liberty
The essential reasons of refuge demand are the fear of persecution,
the search for security, peace and liberty. The refugees usually leave their
countries to escape terror caused by wars or dictatorial regimes. There might
be many reasons for a person to stay at his country (essentially the presence
of family and friends, and the love of the home land), factors that all the
interviewed people liked about staying in their country, but in this case, we
are speaking about a forced migration, as the refugee cant stay at the home
country in order to escape from persecution. For example, Ibrahim, a
Sudanese refugee in Egypt (refer to Appendix A for biographies) told me that
There wasnt any solution for me to stay in Sudan because of the bad
situation in Darfur; when you are arrested more than twice a month, you
couldnt stay. In a similar way, Meshaal, a Syrian refugee (refer to Appendix
A for biographies) told me that if he was back in time and he could
reconsider the decision of leaving Syria, he would also leave as he doesnt
have another solution. In these conditions, as Ibrahim also said The refugee
status is a good thing as it protects the human being and his liberty.
therefore the host country isnt necessary a developed country. In this case,
the moving persons conditions could be worse than in the host countries. Of
course, the refugee tends to be in a secured place, and this could be seen as
an advantage of the host country, but this doesnt hide from us the real
conditions the refugee could face. If the country is a third-world country, the
refugee would probably find difficulties in searching for a job or a residence.
This was the case with Ibrahim who told me: I am registered in the UNHCR
at Egypt, but I must search for a job and a residence myself. It is difficult for
me to bring my family here at Egypt as I only earn thousand pounds
monthly, and I couldnt find a residence for them and the salary isnt enough
to take care of my family. In a similar way, Meshaal told me that he thinks
migration is bad as his conditions were better in Syria: he was working as an
instructor, had a farm, a milk shop, a house; he could get whatever he
wanted in Syria. But here in Egypt, there is discrimination between Egyptians
and Syrians at work: he earns less salary. He even sometimes prevents
himself from eat in order to buy diapers for his children. But the interesting
idea he gave me is that perhaps he sees his life worse in Egypt because he
was forced to this migration. By interviewing these refugees, I understood
how there could be a migration that makes a persons living conditions worse
than in the home country. From a different perspective, the migration could
get people to live in more difficult conditions as they are away of the life they
frequented. For example, Ragui told me he finds that the basic differences
between life in Egypt and in UAE is that he must have a total responsibility in
study and in life, as hes a student living there alone. This could be also
another factor that conditions the persons life conditions: whether the
migrant or the refugee is alone or is with his family.
The interviewed people showed me that the life conditions a moving
person could differ due to a number of facts: whether the person is a migrant
or refugee, the destination country, the level of qualification and the
presence or absence of a family. The impact of migration on the life of
moving people is an interesting thing to study, as it could show us many
misunderstandings we might have about migration: it could make people
who think that any migration would be a solution to their issues reconsider
this decision and think that migration isnt necessarily a good thing
Impact of Migration from Social and Cultural views
The migration process, as I mentioned above, affects peoples life
conditions: they could get better or worse. However, the migration process
also affects peoples social and cultural lives. There are many possible
consequences of migration on peoples social interaction, but also on their
way of thinking and point of views.
An Enrichment of Culture and Education
To begin with, migration enriches both host and home countries
cultures. It allows these cultures to merge if there are social interactions
between the migrants or the refugees and the local citizens. The moving
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person could discover a new culture he didnt know, learn a new language,
and learn more about the host country, its people, their habits, foods and so
on. For example, Lobna told me that she faced a huge problem when she
went to the US: she didnt speak English. For a while, this could seem
catastrophic as she didnt know how to communicate with local people at
school, in the markets, at the neighborhood and so on. But this became a
good challenge for her: she learnt a new language and socialized with the
Americans, made new friends. During her 42 years she spent in the US, shed
learned many experiences about the American culture. She told me that if
she could reconsider migration after all these years, she would migrate again
as she now knows lots of things about eastern and western cultures. She
visited 70% of the worlds countries after her migration to the US. It seems
that the migration helped her to discover a wide variety of cultures as the
American society is constituted from different ethnic groups. In a similar way,
she told me that Americans discovered about the Arab-Islamic culture with
their interaction with her. It seems therefore that migration has for effect to
give the moving person more knowledge about other countries cultures and
also enriches the host countrys culture, makes its population discover new
ideas, taste new food, discover other peoples way of thinking. But
sometimes, as I mentioned before, migration could be for educational
reasons. In this case, the migration provides the moving person a wide
variety of knowledge that might not be accessible if the migrant stayed at
his home country. For example, Ragui, although hes still at his first months
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in the UAE, might, on the long term, know about a field that he wouldnt
probably learn about if he stayed at Egypt. From another perspective, Lobna
told me her mother could continue her education and receive her Ph.D.
degree because they were at the US. She wouldnt have done such an action
if they were at Egypt. Ibrahim explained that one of the benefits of his refuge
in Egypt is education. In Darfur, education is very expensive and one of the
major things he likes about Egypt is the presence of educational facilities: he
could now play the guitar for example. But a strange thing is that Meshaal
told me that education is one thing he doesnt like about Egypt, that it is very
bad in this country. Combining these refugees answers, I understood why
they had different opinions about the same education: it is the moving
persons origin and destination countries that determine his benefit from the
knowledge in a country. However, throughout the interviews, I discovered
that migration helps people to educate, to learn more about the worlds
different cultures. Thats why migration could seem a good decision to
people who are curious and want to know more and more about the worlds
variety of cultures.
Reverse Brain-Drain and Benefit from Migrants
But, we should ask ourselves how we could benefit from these people
knowledge and experience. In fact, many of these migrants and refugees
might be highly skilled and educated people. This brain-drain could badly
affect the home countrys economy as its highly professional people migrate
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and leave the country. Thats why we should try to reverse this brain-drain by
making contracts with such migrants in order to guarantee they help the
country with their knowledge by creating developing projects, high-education
level institutes in their home country. These migrants should also benefit
their countries by spreading its culture abroad and by helping to raise their
countries exports by facilitating commercial transactions with hosts local
people (Raviv 2014)
Assimilation and Multiculturalism
However, as I mentioned before, the cultural benefits of migration only
occur when there are real interactions between the moving person and the
local people. Although the human is social being by its nature, these
interactions arent always present. In fact, the moving person could choose
to interact with people with intention to totally become one of them
(assimilation), or to interact with them but while conserving the national and
cultural identity (multiculturalism) There is of course, the other option of
isolation in which the moving person lives in an ethnic community (ghetto)
and refuses any interaction with the host society. The assimilation model
provides the moving person total inclusion into the host society. The person
loses the national identity and becomes totally a member of the host
countrys community: there is an imitation in clothes, food and even the way
of thinking. In the multiculturalism model, the moving person tends to
conserve the national identity, its thoughts and beliefs but interacts with the
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host society and knows about their culture, thoughts and beliefs. When it
comes to Lobna, I think she had a great experience in the US meeting new
friends and socializing with the Americans. Her long term migration to the
US made her closer to the US culture. Using her words, The more you get
involved in a culture, you become the culture. Her everyday life became like
a normal American. She taught me that long term migrants are more
intended to be part of the culture of the host country than short-term ones.
However, she didnt completely assimilate: she conserved her Egyptian and
Islamic identity. When it comes to the refugees, they seemed more attached
to their culture and refused assimilation. Ibrahim told me that hes proud of
his Sudanese identity and that if his child was in Egypt, he would refuse to let
him assimilate and make him conserve his identity. Meshaal told me that
hes teaching his children the Syrian accent, that he wants them to conserve
the Syrian identity. It seems that the refugees are more attached to their
identity because they didnt want to leave their country in the first place but
were forced to. Their homesickness is bigger than the migrants. Meshaal
told me that If I could, I would go back home from tomorrow even walking
on feet. This reminds me of what Raghda said in the Amreeka movie (Debis
2009). However, Meshaal told me that Egyptians are very kind, they like him
to speak and tell stories, and there is a real love for the stranger. In a similar
perspective, Ibrahim told me that people treated him in a good way because
he was a refugee. In a practical way, it seems that we should respect all the
cultures, try to understand them and treat people on the same level. An
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interesting fact is that this idea was the special remark for me given by both
Lobna and Ibrahim. Although they might have different conditions (a migrant
female and a refugee male), they have different nationalities
(Egyptian/American and Sudanese), but they agreed on this idea that is the
basic human right we should all consider in our treatment to each other.
Lobna said that one should not make cultural differences as to divide but we
must consider that we are all humans with the same feelings, problems; we
lose humanity by separating nations into categories and Ibrahim said I
want Egyptians to let intolerance and racial discrimination based on color or
ethnic reasons. I want equality among humans
From another perspective, it seems that the controversy between
assimilation and multiculturalism involves the generation condition. In fact, it
seems that the first generation (the generation who first migrated to the
country) is more likely to be attached to its identity than the next
generations: generations 1.5 (young adults migrating to the country) and 2
(people born in the country). For example, Chriss father (generation 2)
identified himself more as a Canadian than an Egyptian, and used English
language better than Arabic, while his grandfather (generation 1) used
Arabic more than English and identified himself as an Egyptian. Chris
(generation 3) himself is an exception: although he tends to identify himself
as an Egyptian, people normally identify him as a Canadian because of his
language (he usually speaks better English than Arabic), his foreign name
Christopher and his thoughts that are different from Egyptians. Lobna taught
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and how they think this could change their conditions. Lobna already have
the US citizenship. She told that this didnt affect her in a social way but in a
logistic way: her entrance and exit of the country became easier; she could
now travel easier around the world. Ibrahim told me he didnt want to get it;
he only wants to get a developed countrys citizenship. He thinks, however,
that the citizenship (in Egypt at least), wont affect his status and offer him
better conditions as he would be easily recognizable due to his color and
ethnic origins. It seemed for the interviewed people that the citizenship is a
secondary issue that doesnt matter although some academic studies
mentioned that a dual citizenship could benefit the moving person as it gives
the feeling of being part of the society and gives the person basic equality
rights among other citizens.(Faist & Gerdes 2008)
Conclusions and Future Study
In order to understand well the migration process, we should, at first,
try to discern the reasons of migration and refuge demand. The push/pull
factors that insight people to migrate (or not) are interesting to study as they
represent the roots of the migration process. At second, we should identify
the impact of the moving process on migrants and refugees life conditions.
Analyzing the interviewed people responses, I discovered that migration isnt
always a good thing. As this is against what people usually think, it is
important for migrants and refugees to study well other peoples conditions
at exile in order to take the decision wisely. At third, we should understand
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what impacts has the migration process on the moving peoples cultural and
social lives. Analyzing these impacts, we could easily understand how
interaction between home and host countries culture could affect the
moving person, and what responses do they have on this interaction. The
interviewed Ive done helped me to understand in a realistic manner why do
people leave their countries, and what impacts has this moving on their life
socially and culturally. In a humanistic perspective, these interviews should
be done by whoever wants to migrate in order for him to understand the
human stories about migration and refuge demand, in order for him to
imagine exile and take the decision whether to move or not
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References
Barkin, Paul. Piovesan, Christina. (Producers) & Dabis, Cherien (Director).
(2009) Amreeka
[Motion picture]. United States: National Geographic Entertainment.
Faist, Thomas. & Gerdes, Jrgen. (2008) Dual citizenship in an age of mobility
Retrieved from: www.migration policy.org
Migrate. (2014) In Merriam-Webster.com.
Retrieved Nov 1, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker
Raviv, Shaun. (2014, Feb 11) Why 'Brain Drain' Can Actually Benefit African
Countries
The Atlantic. Retrieved from:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/why-braindrain-can-actuallybenefit-african-countries/283750/
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Appendix A
This appendix contains the biographies of the interviewed people and the
photos I took with them.
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Turkey where his first child Osama was born. They spent
a year there but as they didnt have a passport, they had
to move to an Arabic country that could accept them
without a visa. Under the governance of the ex-president
Mohamed Morsi, Egypt accepted Syrians without visa so
he went to Cairo where he had his second child, Ibrahim.
Hes been a year and four months in Egypt and works in a milk-products
shop in Haddayek El Maadi. He has some real difficult conditions as his wife
is now pregnant and his salary isnt sufficient to the family needs.
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1. To begin with, please present yourself in a few words. (Who are you?
Where do you live? Whats your job? Are you married? And brief story
of your life)
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2. What was the first country you have traveled to, and what was the first
one you wanted to go to?
3. What was your first idea about migration as a concept (or in case of
refugee, about refuge)? Did you want it or just need it (reasons of
migration)? Were there any possible reasons for you to stay in your
home country? (push/pull factors)
4. And now, after what you spent abroad, what do you think about
migration? Are there any misunderstandings you discovered in your
idea about migration?
5. Why did you choose to go this country specifically?
6. What was your idea about the destination country before going there
(did you ever go there just for travel?)Did you really know about its
culture and people? If not what was your first impression when you
went there? Did this idea improve (became better or worse) and why?
7. When you went there and spent just a few days, did you want to go
home, or like the country and want to stay? And now, do you want to
stay or go home?
8. When you got in contact with local people, did you think they accepted
you? Did you want to be totally part of them (assimilation), or apart of
them (isolated), or part of them but with your own culture and beliefs
(multiculturalism)?
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9. What basic differences you found in your everyday life between your
home country and your host country? What about people?
10.
11.
List three things you liked to do when you were in your home
country but now that you cant do in your new country. And three
things you couldnt do in your home country but now you could do in
your host country.
12.
Did you ever face discrimination in any field of life based on your
this step in your life? Would you change the destination country?
15.
host country within two weeks. How did these feelings improve?
16.
already taken it, what differences you think happened when you took
it?
17.
What do you like most in the host country? And in your home
country?
18.
What connections could you find between your host and home
country?
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