Being an immigrant

Have you ever thought about being an immigrant? Having to adapt to a new environment, a new culture and a new life. It can be thousands of different reasons for immigrants to move from their own country. Better education, better jobs, war, political reasons, natural disasters, etc. However, many immigrants have several jobs and they still do not have enough money to pay the bills and support their family. No one said it was easy leaving a life to build a new one in a different country. It’s been made several short stories, books and movies to show how immigrants live and problems they meet. I have watched ‘’The Reluctant Fundamentalist’’ and read an extract from the novel Honour by Elif Shafak to get a better view of how it can be.

Having read the extract from the novel Honour by Elif Shafak I am starting to believe that immigrants have a strong wish that people could look at them and think of them as they think of everybody else. As written in the extract, Iskendar Toprak says ‘’but people like us would always be outsiders. We Topraks were only passers-by in this city – a half-Turkish, half-Kurdish family in the wrong end of London.’’ These sentences gives me an idea of what Iskendar as an immigrant think that everybody else thinks of him and his family. This probably seems like a small problem for many people, but if you try putting yourself in a situation where people look at you like ‘’you are not from here’’ or ‘’you don’t belong here’’ I think you will understand how annoying it can be from time to times.

When I think about the movie we watched that is called The Reluctant Fundamentalist  I mostly think about Changez that in the movie is from Pakistan. Changes who was like any other American, was a respected man in the society with a good job in New York. That was before 9/11. When the tragic terrorist attack against New York happened, people became more aware of Islamic immigrants. Changes who is from Pakistan then starts to notice a change in his public treatment. I remember one incident in the movie where the changes in his public treatment appear clearly. Changes are going on a business trip with some of his colleagues when the police at the airport stops him, and only him. Changes then have to go to a room and strip naked in front of two cops only because they have to check him. That would never happen before 9/11.

Comparing the extract from the novel Honour and the movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist, I think that the movie and the extract reveals that immigrants don’t like to be treated differently just because of where they come from and what they believe in. It also reveals that being an immigrant can be very hard and challenging sometimes. As I said earlier in the text, having to adapt to a new environment, a new culture and a new life can’t be easy for anyone.