The Immigrant Journey

Immigrant Journey

Recently I was privileged enough to listen in on an interesting conversation regarding immigration.
Admittedly this conversation was conducted between people who are primarily pro-immigration, although
the issue is so complex almost everyone has their own personal reservations. Most of the discussion
consisted of the same talking points that are often raised in such discussions, namely considering how not
to condone law breaking while still including people who are throwing themselves on our mercy. It is a
difficult issue that transcends ideology and is the perfect example of a debate so dominated by grey areas
that it is nearly impossible to find any black and white facets. One thing in this discussion jumped out at
me. It was the idea that people don’t decide to just up and leave home, travel to an unknown land, break
laws and engage in menial labor because they feel like it. There has to be a compelling reason for a
person to transplant themselves when there is so much hardship and risk ahead. This sounds obvious
because it is and it isn’t meant to be presented as a new idea here. The point is that every single
immigrant in our entire history, which likely includes some of your ancestors, has an interesting story for why
they ended up here in the land of opportunity. A person doesn’t need to seek opportunity if all the
opportunities they want are available where they already are. Think about that for a second. Every single
immigrant has some sort of intense story about why they are here. Some of them may be very similar to
each other, stories of poverty, a search for adventure, escaping intolerance. All the stories we have already
heard. Yet for each individual person that does not make their story easier or less meaningful. It is easy to
lose sight of how much immigrants have to give up and leave behind to come here. There is always a
reason. It is not a whim. It is with purpose that people arrive on our shores or cross our borders.
Think for a second about your own life. Think of your own adventures, your own fears, your own
problems and hardships. You have probably never truly been starving. If you have ever had to fear for your
life it was probably not on the scale of daily terror. You probably grew up with a chance, even if it wasn’t
much of one, to live the life that you dreamed about. That drama with your best friend or your lost job or that
bad grade are difficult things to deal with but look how lucky you are. Now I’m not saying this to make you
feel bad or even to put things in perspective. I’m not trying to say that the plight of immigrants, their trials
and tribulations, mean more than yours. Those day to day problems of yours are meaningless to the
greater world but to you they mean a lot. There’s no reason they shouldn’t. There should be no guilt about
how much your problems mean to you. Even if they aren’t the world’s biggest problems and even if they
aren’t life and death, they mean a lot to those involved. There is nothing wrong with that. So think of the
immigrants and how their problems mean just as much to them as your problems mean to you. Even if it is
the same story over and over again it is not the same because each person is different and each person
feels their own problems with an intensity that only they can feel. People do things for a reason. When they
take risks, like immigrating to a new country where they are immediately relegated to the lower class and
face constant fear of being sent away, they do it for a reason. It is important to see the reasons behind
each person, the intensity behind each story. It is too easy to forget how much each person means and the
story that led them to where they are. Seeing things this way may not change how people feel about
immigration but at least the discussion will be honest when we are clear about exactly what we are dealing
with. What we are dealing with are people, people who are desperate enough to leave home for the
unknown.