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There is no doubt that migration can be a wonderful experience. It enriches our knowledge, makes us culturally aware, empathetic towards different communities and consequently grows us into better selves. But while one can build magnificent memories at the opportunity of traveling the world, for the others migration arises as a forced instrument due to dramatic changes in the political and economic system or, as an outcome of conflict and wars.
Whatever the reasons are, as per UNFPA 244 million people live today outside of their country of origin. That would be approximatively seven times more than Canada’s population or, the total population of Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Denmark and UK altogether. Now that you could picture the numbers, it is worth mentioning that UNCHR counted 1 million applications for Syrian refugees in all Europe – 28 member states - by December 2017. So where is the crisis? But if it wasn’t, what was the diversion about? Well, this should make perhaps place for a future topic.
That being said, where is home now? Do you actually create a new home as per the saying home is where the heart is or, you are losing it as a result of distancing yourself from the roots? From my years traveling around Europe as a Sales Exhibitor, I have had the chance of speaking with 40 to 50 people on average a day. From the tens of thousands of individuals to whom I interacted, around 80 percent of them said that they are from the country of immigration, while the rest stated their country of origin. This was mostly because we shared the same native language or we were country neighbors and, partly because they were residing temporarily for work/study, they were caught in transition to another country or, they were tourists.
So, let’s start with the childhood. As a toddler when you become aware of the existence of a world around you, you notice some walls and pieces of furniture you become familiar with. There will also be your parents who, from the moment you will acquire language, will name those walls for you – home. As you grow up, designing your own room (or your corner) with posters and whatever souvenirs you consider important will teach you about ownership. At the same time, you will learn about friendship. Your friends will be your neighbors, your kindergarten and later on school fellows, relatives or the children of your parents’ friends. Thus, there are the memories, the traditions, the values and the sense of community. As the foundation is the most important part in a construction project, it makes sense that most of the people call the place where they grew up the true home.
Then, from whatever reasons, you emigrate, leaving behind a precious piece of yourself. You don’t have your parents, your friends and your community, just other walls you become familiar with, trying to bring your traditions between them. Just that this time, there is no one to call them home for you. That would be the place where you will sleep but not stand, passing from a day to another like a sculpture of Bruno Catalano.
Perhaps you will change places. Yet, as the years will pass by you will notice that you are not more attached to the place you lived in longer, but to the one in which you interacted better with others. A strong economic country will be just a dry place without social interaction, and a safe country will be just a cold one without a warm-designed integration program. After all, we need humans to become such.
Once we have those, we will decorate our new walls with some art that we afford, collect new souvenirs and start exchanging ideas (or not) over a dinner or a cup of coffee. Bringing soul to our emptiness. Creating our own families and therefore, our own homes. So, when you will now have a child, where you will tell him his home is?
For some of us, the story might be different. Perhaps the prior attachments are too deep, the new environment too cruel or from various reasons forced by circumstance. Regardless of where one decides and can create his home, one thing is certain – humans bless the place and never the other way around!
