A migrant's psyche

It has been a long while since I could put my thoughts down. It has been a busy two months with my work starting, with adaptation to new work environment, with knowing new colleagues, with finding my ways around ...

Over the past weeks or so, we have also more opportunity to interact with other migrants, old and new. It is quite interesting to note a few things.

When I first went back from here to my home country more than 15 years ago, people from my home country used to ask me if this is a racist country. I used to tell them that interesting enough often it was the new migrants who had difficulty accepting even newer migrants. Those who have been here a long time seem to accept others better. I wasn't quite sure if I were right; I am still not sure.

But after 15 years, and after spending some time with some of the migrants here, there are 3 things that I found interesting.

Firstly, I met a guy in a meeting whose family has moved over, but who is still flying back to his home country regularly and for prolonged period of time to attend to his business there. Interesting to hear from a migrant like him that this country should not accept anymore migrants. He kept saying that there are too many migrants here and migrants are crowding out many of the places here - from housing and accommodation to school places, public transportation and traffic jams. It sounded as though those who have made it here first want to stop more people coming so that we don't have to share whatever good things here with others. I did not think it was polite to confront him the first time we meet - but if the country should not accept new migrants, than why should he and his family be accepted? Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee had a fantastic reply when the American female reporter asked him about the relationship between the aborigines and the white; he replied simply, yet profoundly, "Two fleas (the aborigines and the whites) arguing who owns the dog (the country)." Do we own this place simply because we are here first? Have we truly the right to exclude others from coming? As Christians do we not believe that God owns the place and we are but stewards here, and the main responsibility is to share our blessings with others, especially the less fortunate?

Secondly, it was interesting to hear what was the response to the Sri Lankan boat people. Most if not all believe that they should not be granted asylum. Somehow, we believe that most of them were trying to smuggle themselves into the country, and abuse the welfare system once here. And somehow we believe that instead of them we are more deserving to come here, either because of the amount of money we bring in or because of our skills. Is that so? Do we truly believe we have earned the right to be here? Whatever that we have, skills, money or anything else, are these not blessings from God? How are we different from them? We have not earned the right to be here, or anywhere else, for that matter. We are here by the grace and blessings of God, grace and blessings that are given us so that we can share with others.

Thirdly, we have a friend who recently went home for a few months, and when he came back he shared publicly that he was very glad we weren't back home. And we keep giving thanks that we don't have to suffer the racist policy and the discrimination back home. We thank God for the peace, the prosperity, and the good life. In fact, we keep reminding ourselves and our children of all these good things and we keep reminding each other. It is good to remind ourselves, and it is good to thank God. There is nothing wrong in giving thanks, but there is everything wrong if that is where we stop. It is even worst if to others we seem like gloating over their predicament, though that may be the furthest from our intention. The sentence "Thank God my children don't have to suffer from racist policy!" sounds good to those here; but how does it sound to the people back home? How does that sound to those who want to go but can't? How do you explain to your children when they read of this and ask you, as a parent, "Why don't we go?"

At the end of the day; I wonder if all these are the fruits of a deeper problem, a problem that we don't have an answer to, but choose to ignore it and bury it deep in the sand of our unconscious mind. I wonder at the end of the day, whether we can truly, honestly face up to this question, "Did we run away from the problems back home and let the less fortunate others face the music?" A related question is "Why did we leave?"

Why did we leave?!

First month

Yeap! I survived the first month of work. And praise God it hasn't been as bad as I thought. In fact, praise God, it has been quite okay.

I was nervous for awhile when I first started. After a month or so, I believe I am getting the hang of things.

There isn't much difference in the medical side of things. After all, human beings are remarkably alike in many more ways that we thought.

It's just the ways things are done - tests are easier to come by, finances less of a concern; and on the other hand, patients are more demanding and litigation more of a problem.

All these affect the way medicine is practiced here. For the better? Perhaps not always. Overall, efficiency suffers because doctors have to be more defensive.

Going to work is also not as bad. Driving across town to work is something that we are used to do in Malaysia. Traffic is better here as well. So there is not as bad as it seems.

The other thing is weather; weather here changes at the drop of a hat. It could be cold and damp one day, and hot and sunny the next. Overall, though, it is warming up, and we are beginning to have 30 degrees days even early in November. It is forecast that we will have one of the hottest years in decades, with peak temperature up to high 40s mid summer this year.