Partnerships

Why do people leave their families, cultures, languages, and countries behind? 

The piece POST CAPITALIST DREAMS is my takeaway from eight months immersed in the topic of immigration through conversations, interviews, and collecting testimonies from the general public. The buzzword "immigration" is used to simplify a global scenario of instability, inequality, and abysmally widening wealth gap.

The phrase invites us to think freely and dream about better ways to organize and exist collectively. 

In most cases, immigration is not a choice, but a necessity. "Seeking opportunity" is usually tied to fleeing a country ravaged by poverty, violence, and corruption, a country destabilized and drained by colonial and imperial practices. Immigrants contribute to a developed country's social structure - often as the base of a social pyramid.

Education at the center of it all!

A topic that came up repeatedly was education. Many immigrants come to the USA seeking learning opportunities, often without a plan to pursue citizenship. Many testimonies speak of social responsibility and giving back to their newfound home, especially once the pursuit of citizenship is involved.

The North American educational system is far from perfect, yet it attracts people from across the globe seeking to be the best versions of themselves through learning. 

Resilience that often goes unnoticed.

Another common topic is a sense of resilience from having no immediate safety net, family, or friends to help overcome the hard moments. Every immigrant has gone through a process of reinventing their sense of self, family, and home. 

Joy is Revolutionary!

If we listen and look closely migration stories are majoritively based on courage, self-improvement, seeking knowledge, and opportunities, preserving different cultures and traditions, finding family, and love, and creating richer, more diverse, colorful, musical, and beautiful communities.

Although hardship is often associated with these experiences, no person should be defined only by their sacrifice, suffering, and traumas.  

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