Migration In America

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Migration In America

This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeMigration Story Excerpt :

        Irina Semenova was born in what is now known to be Georgia in 1977. Back then it was called the Soviet Union, and all the small countries around Russia were all part of the Soviet Union. My mother grew up living life like most people lived life in the Soviet Union, poor but optimistic. No one had cars in the Soviet Union, no one had stable jobs, and no one questioned why that was so. By the time my mother was 13 years old, her family decided to move to what is now known to be Russia. They decided to move to Russia just around the time the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse. Although my mother’s journey to Russia was difficult, she was not alone. Many of the people living in Georgia were migrating to Russia, and not because of choice. When the Soviet Union began to collapse, living in small countries like Georgia became extremely hard, financially wise and so many people were indirectly forced to migrate. Almost everyone from the smaller countries migrated to Russia, as it was the biggest and richest country part of the former Soviet Union. Moving out of the Soviet Union was, of course, impossible, and a normal citizen like my mother could never do it legally. Russia resembled the capital of the Soviet Union, and there was more money to be made there, so it was the closest thing possible to moving out of the Soviet Union.

        Although moving inside the country was possible, it was not easy. The only form of long-distance transportation inside the Soviet Union was by train, and that required an “inside” passport. My mother traveled for 2 days and 2 nights on the train, which was the longest time she had ever spent traveling. She arrived in Russia on November 2, 1990, and she still remembers the first thing she thought to this day. “It is cold” is what Irina thought, November 2 is usually a very hot day in Georgia, reaching temperatures comparing to California’s. My mother had worn a thin jacket on the way to Russia, expecting the heat, and was greeted by a storm of coldness. This set Irina’s first impressions of Russia and was soon to become the norm.

        My mother said that “she felt excited” when she first heard that she would be traveling by train, as she had never done this sort of traveling ever before. But traveling by train meant that the number of objects they could take with them was close to zero. Leaving all their belongings was hard, but what was harder was leaving their friends and acquaintances. The most valuable thing that they had to leave behind was actually their culture. Since the Soviet Union was just one giant country, you might think that the culture would be very similar throughout like it is in the United States, but the Soviet Union was different. The Soviet Union contained many cultures that were so diverse and very different from one another at times. Although my mother’s family could have tried to sustain their culture while living in Russia, it was nearly impossible. Anyone who has ever migrated to anywhere will tell you that once they migrated to their new home they were “indirectly” forced to assimilate to the culture around them.

Soviet Union Struggles (Created by Stanislav)

Essay II Excerpt :

Although it might not seem so, but individuals getting silenced when sharing their migration stories is an issue that is more prevalent today than it has ever been before. Much of the diverse population that lives in America today, is living where they are now, because of their parents or grandparents. Their parents or grandparents took a big step in deciding the future of their children’s and grandchildren’s life by deciding to migrate. If you look back now, for instance, at The Great Migration, it seems as if everybody was part of it and it became a regular part of many people’s lives. Although many people might have become accustomed to the idea of moving halfway across the country, every individual still experienced a great load of pain and struggling and their story should still be heard, because it is unique to each individual person. Many people do not realize that not too long ago, America was a lot more divided, culture and race-wise, and is only how it is today because many brave individuals decided to migrate to where life would be better for them and their future ancestors. Many of the individuals that took this big step are still alive today, and most likely remember their story with great detail since it may have been one of the most important events in their life. Even though many can share their past, not many do. Whether this is because they are afraid of being silenced, or because no one has ever asked them, it is still a problem when history is forgotten.

I think that like most acts of prejudice, the silencing of others’ migration stories occurs unconsciously because people don’t seem to realize what an impact their attention can make, and why every individual's migration story is important. I do not think the main reason most people ignore or silence others for sharing their migration stories is because they have some sort of prejudice against the individuals sharing their stories, because that would mean the bigger part of the population is racist. I think that most people do not like to think to hard about certain topics, and when an opportunity arises to ignore or “not think” about a complicated topic like migration, they decide to take it. Many people do not seem to realize that many migration stories are part of the way our society is formed today, and if these events never occurred, we might have never been the way we are now. For example, many say that The Great Migration played a great role in creating and shaping the current African American culture that is prevalent now(Corpolongo). Ignoring the stories that make up a big part of a whole culture or race has a negative effect on that culture and causes the perception of that culture to be skewed, which could initiate prejudice in others. Devaluing a whole culture by ignoring is very easy to accomplish, and that is why the problem of ignoring migration stories is so prevalent today.

America and the Border (Created by Stanislav)

Community Call to Action :

After researching for the past three essays, I have become a lot more aware of the issues surrounding migration and individuals who have migrated to a new place. From personal experience and from many friends and family I know that migration is a very serious topic and it is never a “fun” experience. Even after considering the problems that come up while migrating, there are many problems that come up after; some being cultural differences and racial conflict. Many migrants come to America hoping to achieve great success and possible fulfilling The American Dream. In the current political climate, this is not always possible, and many people are ignorant to the struggles many have to go through to migrate. I think to fix these problems we must spread our own or our friends’ migration stories as a positive message. This will allow others to accept migrants just the same as anyone else, and cause migrants’ problems to be greatly reduced.