Interview With an Immigrant
Profile of the Interviewee
The immigrant who was interviewed for this paper is John Smith (not his real name). He is a twenty-nine-year-old male immigrant of Pakistani origin who lives in New York. Both his parents are from Pakistan but settled in the United Arab Emirates after their marriage. Smith has also spent all his childhood in the United Arab Emirates where he was born and has only visited his home country Pakistan twice in his whole life.
Smith moved to New York from the United Arab Emirates at the age of eighteen to pursue higher studies in engineering at a well-known university. He lived with one of his uncles who has been living in the United States for several years and is a citizen. Smith is currently pursuing his doctoral degree at the university and is also a researcher as well as an assistant to one of the professors. He spends most of the time at the university or in the lab where he performs his research work. He has not yet applied for citizenship of the United States but plans on doing so as the time for his marriage comes near.
Conditions in the Home Country
Smith has Pakistani origins but he does not identify culturally with Pakistan. He identifies with the religion Islam and also speaks the mother tongue Urdu fluently but does not identify with the values of local Pakistani culture. He is not fond of cricket or Pakistani music. He prefers football and western pop music. This he attributes to his western and liberal upbringing in the cosmopolitan society of the United Arab Emirates. Smith is more culturally aware of the United Arab Emirates where he has spent the first eighteen years of his life and often refers to the country as his home country as opposed to Pakistan.
Smith says that while he was a child he often heard his parents talk about things in the home country. Compared to the general poverty in the rural parts of the country, Smith's parents belong to a family in the relatively prosperous city of Lahore. They are also second cousins and their marriage had been decided when they were children. He says he liked to listen to stories of his uncles, aunts and grandparents but never identified himself with them. He would occasionally speak to them over the phone and he says he feels affectionate towards them. Being an only child, Smith claims he was very attached to his parents as a child.
Education and Childhood
When asked about his education and childhood aspirations he explains that he went to a reputable private school in the city of Abu Dhabi. He says he was interested in science and mathematics from the very beginning and was one of the best students in class. He had an inclination towards scientific discoveries and experiments and would often dismantle his battery-operated toys to investigate the circuitry. His social circle consisted of Pakistani friends of his parents and their children. At school he interacted with friends from India, Bangladesh, other Arab counties and occasionally children from western countries as well. He says his interest in the United States was aroused with the American involvement in the Iraq-Kuwait war of 1992 when a large number of Americans began to be seen around the cities of the United Arab Emirates. He was also interested in their technological developments and space exploration activities and was fascinated by the moon landing of 1969. It was his dream then to pursue engineering studies in the United States after completing school.
Societal Attitudes and Norms
About life in the home country he says that life in the United Arab Emirates is comfortable and easy. Society is cosmopolitan and tolerant, although there is less mingling between immigrants and the local citizens. People are well-educated. He says while school education is easily affordable for many middle-class people, university education is very expensive. For this reason, immigrant parents send their children to their home countries for higher education. Some send their children to universities in the UK and U.S. If they can afford it.
About life in Pakistan he claims to know very little. He also says that his parents did not push him to adapt to the cultural norms of the home country since they saw that it would be difficult for him. He says that family life was more important in Pakistan compared with career and scholarly pursuits which is why he did not want to go to Pakistan.
He also said that there was greater poverty in the rural areas than in...
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