On Immigration

“How does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone” -Bob Dylan

“It's no fun being an illegal alien, I tell ya, it's no fun being an illegal alien, no no no no no” -Phil Collins

Many people have strong opinions about borders, immigration laws, being an expatriate, etc. Some of those opinions are insightful and brilliant and others, not so much (is that the best you could do, Genesis?). For us, living overseas has been an adventure and a challenge. We have 2 months left in our 25 month expat experience and we are each going to share some thoughts about being “foreigners.”

Hannah

Hannah has had some ups and downs while living overseas. With Hannah it is all about the people – she loved making new friends in Nicaragua and Peru but really misses all of her peeps in the United States. Regardless, she really stretched herself and managed to find her way without too much difficulty. Click here to see her video and the positive spin she puts on the expat experience.

Emma

Emma seemed to really enjoy living overseas and has clearly put some thought into the matter: click on this link to see her video. While she also had her fair share of challenges, she found her way too and seems to have benefited from the experience.

In both cases, the girls adjusted very quickly to Nicaragua and Peru. I suppose that things like cultural identify, patriotism, borders, immigrations laws, working papers, and other artificial barriers between people have not yet tainted their world view. The parents are a different story.....

Aileen

I can´t believe we only have 2 months left!  I think that on some subconscious level, I am getting ready to head home. I still really appreciate the warm and friendly people, the awesome weather, the beautiful views, and the very affordable cost of living (gymnastics for U$2/hour and private guitar lessons for U$7/hour). And of course it has been a great opportunity for the kids to learn Spanish and for all of us to experience different countries and cultures. But I have to admit that about 23 months after originally leaving San Francisco for Nicaragua, I´m really looking forward to living in America. Some of the things about being an expatriate that were initially amusing for their novelty are now starting to get on my nerves. Like, if you´re going to serve dinner at 11 pm, why tell us to come at 5?  And would it kill the teachers to give us more than one day´s notice that we need to send in obscure arts and crafts materials, like 30 centimeters of silk ribbon and styrofoam balls that are 2 centimeters in diameter?  

There are some less tangible aspects to the expat experience. One of the biggest benefits about living in another country is the opportunity to see things through a different lens. This has been a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the world and each other. On the other hand the hardest thing about being away from home is not being a “regular person.” It can be a little bit tiresome- the feeling that everything I do and say is put in the context of my being a foreigner. "She thinks that way because she´s from the U.S."  "She dresses like that because she´s a tourist." "She washes the dishes like that because that´s how they do it where she´s from." I´m sure once we´re back in the USA I will laugh at myself for whining about these very minor annoyances. However, like anything else being an expat has its pros and cons. Ni modo.

Jeff

When we moved to Nicaragua, the transition was quite easy for me. I had lived there before, knew the culture and had friends in the country. The Nicaraguan government is pretty laid back about enforcing immigration laws which also made life easy for us. Peru has been a very different story. The culture was new to me, the social-economic climate is hard to understand, and Peruvians are very formal so making friends is more challenging. All of this led to some culture shock that manifested itself in the usual ways – like deciding that a broken traffic light was a metaphor for everything that was wrong with Latin America.

Despite some challenges, I have lived in other countries before and knew how to work through the various phases of culture shock. However, the one thing I was not prepared for was dealing with the fear of deportation. Unlike Nicaraguans, Peruvians love their rules, regulations and paperwork - including those related to immigration. Furthermore, the new President of Peru is a populist (of the worst sort) and during his campaign promised to kick all foreigners out of "his" country. As a result of all this, going through immigration control was a frightening experience; fortunately, we were very good at getting in the line with the nicest immigration officer (tall men under the age of 40) and never had any problems crossing the border.  That does not mean it has been easy.

Technically, we are not breaking (m)any immigration laws. However we were never able to get national identification numbers (DNIs) and this has created some real issues. For example, the kids could not get report cards last year because the federal Department of Education had not accepted them into the computerized student registration system due to our lack of DNIs. When I found out that we were in a centralized government database, I half-expected the police to knock on our door and I suppose they still might. To make matters worse, trying to do things like get a telephone line, join a gym or visit the doctor without a DNI can be complicated and sometimes unpleasant. In fact, I recently got harassed by a clerk for being an “illegal;” I am not sure if he was joking but it was sort of belittling and frightening at the same time.

Living in another country is wonderful but also has many physical and emotional challenges. Adding the fear of having the carpet pulled out from under you can make it even harder. It is not as if we were cowering in our apartment but that constant concern can be pretty hard to deal with sometimes. I cannot begin to fully understand the plight of undocumented workers in the USA, but I have certainly developed more empathy for their situation. Some very generous people have gone out of their way to help us navigate and enjoy life in Peru. When we are back in the USA I hope to return the favor by reaching out to others in much the same way.