Immigrant Interview
The single most fascinating point about immigrants that come to the USA is the reasons that informed their living home to come and settle in what is widely seen as an unknown land to them. Of course, such a life altering decision cannot be taken so lightly. It has been said that immigrating to a new country can be the most adventurous undertaking that a person can indulge himself in. Additionally, these immigrants often face challenges that form a bigger part of their experiences in the new land. For this cause, I decided to coin my interview around these experiences with a bid of finding out exactly how they were able to assimilate in their new home. I got the privilege of interviewing my neighbor who had migrated from Sudan, country in the horn of Africa. Mr. Asad came to the US at the peak of the war in his motherland. He tells me of how he escaped death and sought asylum in the United States (Assad, 2003). During the 2003 wars that erupted in Sudan, most of the citizens escaped to neighboring country of Kenya, while others fled to Europe and the Americas. Asad is one of the lucky few that were assimilated into the US from the war tone country. His assimilation process was not as smooth as he had hoped for. The narrative that follows will give an account of Asad’s assimilation into the place he now calls home.
When I first approached my neighbor Assad, he was a bit hesitant to partake of the interview, but after I explained to him of the significance that this assignment had on my grades, he obliged, of course after an assurance from my side that I would not use the information gathered for purposes outside their original aim. After this assurance, I administered a number of questions listening and jotting down the responses I received from my interviewee. To the question on why Assad left Sudan, the answer was short and precise, war. Assad recounted how the warring factions killed each other in his home country a situation that kept growing worse with each day. Being an orphan with the only surviving kin in the US, Assad chose to come to the US to meet up with his brother and escape from being enlisted into the armies of the warring factions.
America was his place of choice because his only surviving kin was living here. Through the interview, I established that Assad had initially escaped to the neighboring country of Kenya before being reunited with his elder brother in the US. Assad came to the US as a single individual. His only family was his elder brother who had become US citizen years ago. Assad told me of how he felt when he first landed at the JF Kennedy Airport. Firstly, that was his first time to have ever boarded an airplane (Assad, 2013). Assad humored me by stating that in his home country, bus rides were a luxury of the rich and the poor could only occasionally take such rides. Assad states that he experienced some level of culture shock; the sociocultural climate in Sudan is very different from that in the US. He readily loved the country and her people.
Assad admitted that the assimilation process was not an easy one. He had to adapt to a culture that was strange to him. He also faced some language barrier. However, His brother’s support helped him surmount all the challenges. The assimilation process meant that Assad had to take up language lessons to familiarize with the dialect of his new home. This he did studiously and finally mastered the basic communications.
Work Cited
Assad Salim, Personal Interview. 1 Oct, 2013.
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