Migration is an inevitable reality for people. They abandon their birthplaces and familiar settings for a myriad of reasons, including persecution, poverty, and natural calamity. Injustice and heinous actions inflicted by people on each other have existed ever since their creation. They have always executed and exiled one another. Wars have existed throughout people’s history, be they civil wars or external aggressions. They are an indestructible reality of human beings, of course.
Because of insecurity, people leave their homes and seek refuge in safe places. This is to say, they migrate from their lands to unknown ones in search of safety. Why do they do so? The reason is, they do not feel secure in their homes. That migration can either be short or permanent. When conditions settle down, some people go back to their countries, while others never do so. And that is the permanent migration and the focus of this writing.
Safety is the most essential aspect of one’s life. No security, no life. Everything else comes after security. Good health and sleep come after security, education comes after security, and progress and prosperity come after security. Everything boils down to safety and security. When humans are deprived of security, they leave, they migrate. Where do they go? To anywhere that affords them protection, whether east or west.
When they come to a new land in which they are safe, they begin to process other essential parts of life. They secure homes to live in, they go to work, and they send their offspring to schools. Routines resume, and the wheel of normalcy keeps moving. Of course, people have to strive wherever they are. This first-generation migrant struggles and keeps abreast of life’s requirements in the new land. Irrespective of encountered challenges, they persist and persevere to overcome obstacles and enormous challenges.
Although in better shape in terms of security and substance, they can never overcome nostalgia and longing for home. Yes, home is where the heart is, but where is home for them? Here or there? Hard to tell. This first-generation migrant or immigrant is the most traumatized generation. Unlike their children, they will never integrate, both socially and emotionally.
Migration kills off people’s culture and customs. By leaving their lands, people leave behind their heritage languages and way of life. They have to acclimatize to new places with new people and cultures. The migrants have now become an integral part of the new land, their new home. So, they ought to adhere to new rules and regulations. If they do not, they cannot keep their spots in society.
During their lifetime, the migrants resist to hold on to their culture and pass it on to their children. Nonetheless, when they are gone, their children may not hold on to the same culture that much. Eventually, the migrant’s culture degenerates over time until nothing of it is left, perhaps. Then, what follows might become once upon a time….. God forbid. Is migration good or bad? Well, that is another discussion.