Normally I would write a post about
some up-to-date events happening that involve the class, but after the asylum
role play I wanted to talk about something stemming from that experience. Last
semester I took Dr. Pendry’s Migration and Transnationalism course, and I had
to interview an immigrant. While the immigrant status is a very loosely defined
word as far as general conversation goes, throughout this class and Dr. Pendry’s
we now know the distinction. I interviewed a fellow student whom I have known
since our freshman year, she and her brother are here from Kenya. When I
interviewed her about her migration experiences and the citizenship application
process, she had a lot to tell me, most of which I had never known about her or
even thought about in the general context of migration and transnationalism. Sylvia
Iradukunda and her brother were actually born in Rwanda, but because of the
political and ethnic turmoil there, they moved to Kenya when they were still
very young. It wasn’t until they were nearing high school age that they made
the move all the way to the United States. At this point, they were granted
entry to the United States under their parents’ statuses as economic migrants, which
Sylvia later told me she disagreed with this label but her parents accepted it
thinking it was the only way they would be able to stay.
Sylvia and Julius were enrolled
into high school here in the US and upon graduation they were excited to begin
their college careers. Unfortunately, they were temporarily barred from
applying to colleges here because they did not have citizenship or individual
visas once they turned eighteen years old. Sylvia then told me the incredibly
difficult process of applying for a student visa, and it was explained to her
that her graduating here actually made things more difficult to be granted a
visa. While I do not understand why – neither does she for that matter – she and
Julius were both finally given visas and shortly thereafter applied, got
accepted into, and enrolled at the University of Tennessee. The overall process
took nearly two years. At the time of the interview, Sylvia was in the process
of applying for US citizenship. Based on what I had learned in Dr. Pendry’s
class thus far, I honestly did not think it would be that difficult for her to
get citizenship. She arrived in the United States in her early teens, her
parents were upstanding members of their community, she and her brother
graduated from a good school in Memphis, no “red flags” on her record – I thought
she would be in the clear. As we later discussed, this was not the case. She is
now on her second round of petitioning for a citizenship status, and thus far
her application is still pending and has received no word aside from the usual “we
have received your application and will keep in touch”.
I realize that immigration is not
the focus of this class, but after going through the asylum exercise, it made
me think back to that experience and really put into perspective a few things. The
process for applying for citizenship only differs from the application for
asylum in a few key areas, the most prominent being the reasons why and
conditions under which someone has arrived in the United States or another
country. Even so, from just Sylvia’s account of the never-ending circles she’s
experienced for citizenship, I realized just how many road blocks can, and
often are, in the way of becoming an “official” American. After playing as an
officer for the asylum exercise, I can only imagine just how hard it is to get
approved for asylum. The statistics we discussed in the beginning of the class
finally make a little more sense to me, but unfortunately that just makes me more
upset for refugees rather than more understanding of our government and its
processes and decisions. For a nation that is supposed to be so understanding, open, and a safe haven for others, we have a long way to go if we want to actually live up to that name and reputation.
No comments:
Post a Comment