Essay 1 Migration to the US
Moving to Berkeley was relatively easy for Natalie in a certain sense. Canada and the United States are fairly friendly with one another and moving between the borders does not pose too much of a challenge. She was also issued a visa through the University that made this transition easier, again because of her Canadian citizenship. The school merely filled out the paperwork and Natalie did not even need to complete any interviews. The difficulties lay in getting her partner across the border. With both of them packed up in their car with all of their belongings, Mathew was scrutinized more heavily by the border patrol. Whereas they had merely confirmed Natalie’s paperwork, it took some questioning and assurances before they allowed her partner a three-month visitor’s visa. The max a person can obtain when traveling between the two countries with citizenship is six months but the border patrol also has the authority to not only issue these visas but to also dictate their length. After three months, Mathew’s visa expired and he had to return to Canada for some time before he could try to re-enter the country. This time upon arrival at the border, they noticed the length of his previous visit and only issued him a visa for two months. He was eventually able to find work which allowed him access to a working visa. “As much as it sucked, it’s definitely been an easier process than a lot of other country’s.” Mathew laughs a little but it seems less funny and more bitter as he takes time to reflect on his past issues.
The graduate program is long though and took Natalie nearly six years, finally completing it this year. Unfortunately, during this time her partner’s work came and went along with his visas. He worked several different jobs, losing and gaining a visa with each job. This caused a lot of issues for the pair as it was difficult for them to travel back to Canada to see family as there would be issues re-entering the country each time Mathew was without a visa. Eventually, the two decided that their best option was to get married. While they have been together for quite some time the legal issues involved with being in the country played a large role in their decision. Natalie’s student visa covered a spouse and would allow them to stay in the country as long as she was still in the graduate program. With her partner’s grandmother’s health failing and the lives of other family members progressing on without them, they wanted a way to be able to connect with their family without the fear of being separated.
The unfairness of their situation becomes evident though because of the restrictions around their status. Even though they are married, her spouse is only allowed to work if he acquires his own working visa and therefore needs to find a job in his field that can help him obtain a visa. He cannot find quick and easy work between career jobs, like working at McDonald’s. They also had to get married to have the meager benefits of her partner being allowed to stay in the US as nothing more than a dependent, whereas in Canada the benefits extend when a partner is Common Law. This means that a couple only needs to live together for a year before they are able to receive benefits as if they are married, including a dependent partner being able to work without obtaining their own visa. The United States forces couples to have a piece of paper verifying they are in long-standing relationships to gain benefits when Canada allows couples more liberties without involving life-changing legal documents. Despite their circumstances, the pair has been happily married for the last two years of Natalie’s program and have no regrets about their nuptials even if they were initiated from necessity.
Essay 2 Silencing Migrants
With the insidious pressure from government policymakers to stereotype and silence migrants, there is also a precedent to ignore the issues that give rise to an influx of migrants and refugees. In some countries, this could be motivated by something as seemingly innocuous as residents leaving in search of better education and opportunities. In others, it is due to horrific conditions, death, and war. When migrants are not allowed to speak or people refuse to hear their stories, the issues in their home countries are not rectified. Following the 2008 economic crisis, large amounts of educated Portuguese emigrated from Portugal where “No or very few public policies have been designed to reverse this phenomenon, risking the consequences of brain drain.” (Ganga 43) In this instance, because the Portuguese government is ignoring the reason for mass migration of those seeking substantial employment, they suffer from a phenomenon known as a brain drain, where the country suffers due to the loss of intellectuals to fill certain employment roles, a problem that could be rectified if they put effort into researching what policies and jobs they can put into place to aid their citizens who feel the need to leave for better working opportunities. Aside from problems such as low employment rates causing things such as brain drains, there are also nations that are ravaged by war and destruction that forces their citizens to flee or risk losing everything. “Since 2014 an extremist terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with the goal of building a totalitarian caliphate has deepened the humanitarian crisis in the region. As a result, one-third of the civilian population of Syria (about 8 million) became internally displaced. In total, about half of the pre-war population of Syria has been displaced and more than 5 million refugees have left their homeland.” (Yepremyan 196) Even in these instances where the threat is globally known, countries still push migrants and refugees to an arm’s distance, refusing to acknowledge or understand the hardships they have faced. “While Europeans agree on the basic principles and values, solidarity in action is cardinally different from country to country, transforming the issue into matter of political bargains in refugee quotas.” (Yepremyan 191) Governments need to take responsibility for the lives of migrants and refugees instead of merely pushing them around and seeing them as nothing more than numbers and quotas to fill; their views of migrants as mere figures reflect in the way their people and societies see these people who are left voiceless in the face of disaster. It is the responsibility of the UN and of any nation capable and equipped, to extend a helping hand without capping the help once a predetermined, perhaps misguided quota is filled. It is also the responsibility of capable nations to help prevent and minimize the wars that lead to such staggering numbers of migrants. If we allow migrants’ voices to be heard and recognized, we can stop the terrible cycles that perpetuate forced migration and refugees from happening over and over in different countries.
Silencing migrants by either refusing to give them a voice or by refusing to hear them at all can only be a detriment to society across the globe. It allows the wealth of a culture to dissipate dramatically and leave a country drained or it can allow the horrors and atrocities of war and disaster to continue ravaging the world one country after the next. It is through giving migrants their voices and by opening our ears to their stories that allow us to begin making a change. We can break through stereotypes placed on whole cultures and improve the relations between groups like the Roma and Italians. We can humanize refugees flooding across borders that have endured unspeakable and terrifying things that most people could never begin to fathom. By simply hearing their stories, though, we can gain even the smallest understanding of others and start changing policies and practices to offer the right aid and start making progress towards a better future for migrants and the natives they cohabit with. There should never be a drive to end migration, only to lessen it when people are forced to migrate due to a lack of resources or safety. We should be opening our arms wide to migrants and the knowledge, experiences, and beautiful gifts they have to offer but we should also be helping them at the same time.
Community Action
After researching the issues surrounding migration I think that there is a lot that our communities can do. The most important thing we need to do though is to vote for the right policymakers that will not try to silence immigrants. We need officials who will, instead of building walls, build bridges to allow refugees to our resources as well as allowing different countries to benefit from our education programs. Like with my friend Natalie and her home Canada, there is a good standing relationship that allows an ease of movement through the red tape that is not readily offered to more unfortunate people in other countries throughout the world. Migrants enrich our cultures by bringing their heritage and ideas with them. We need to allow ourselves to be open to that change and embrace it. The American Dream can only be possible if we truly allow others to succeed just as the migrants that first landed on the East coast were able to succeed.
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