What Drives the Movement: Desperation Kills

Though I've been busy these days with my own reality, it's just hard for me to ignore what's happening out there. I'm not from the Latin American countries and I'm not illegally crossing the borders, at the moment, but I can totally understand what drives the movement. I can relate as this is something I have felt almost all my life. Desperation.

For the people living in the countries where others dreamed of moving to, it can be hard to fathom why some parents would haul their children through barbed wires or float them on boats risking their lives in the process. It's easier to judge than to understand especially if you haven't experienced some kind of desperation and poverty in your life. I know the desperation that comes with chasing a better life. Hard life is tiring to the core. Poverty strips you off humanity and values. It's hard to think when there's no food on the table. Desperation can make you do crazy things, it can make you irrational. Desperation can kill you and your children. Desperation kills.

It's difficult enough for me to lose my parents. I can imagine how traumatic it must be for the immigrants' children to be separated from their families. I am very far away but I can certainly feel the pain of it. Empathy will not diminish with distance as I am familiar with that painful feeling. I feel connected to these children.

My dad passed while he was working in another country, so his children can have better lives. Economic migration is not a new thing to me. If we border any other rich countries, I'm sure illegal crossing would happen any minute. The majority of people here are living desperately. Who knows, I might be one of the children swimming in the sea. I'm grateful enough that I was born with a different reality. Can you imagine being born in that reality? Here we are far from the rest of the world so people just work hard to get to other countries. It's the ultimate chance to a better life. Did you grow up with your parents telling you to study hard so you can work abroad? Did you grow up with your loved ones telling you to come and get them someday if you make it to America, Australia or somewhere? Did you even have that kind of conversation during your childhood? Did someone tell you that 'you are this' and that they won't like you? Or that they don't like poor people. They are just setting my expectations so I won't be so surprised if people mistreat me. Did your parents get tired of working for peanuts that the only chance is sending you to the other side where the grass is greener? Did you feel the need to move somewhere not for traveling or seeing the world but to have a better life? One day you'll wake up and realize that everything is hopeless where you are, lack of jobs, better living condition, and proper healthcare. Locals are living in poverty. Foreigners get better job positions. You cannot avoid not feeling bitter and desperate to seek what you don't have that you and your children deserve. Feel grateful if you never have to think about race or migrating or social inequality. There are a lot of things to think and be sensitive about, and sometimes it sucks having to consider everything at the same time. Sometimes, the only way is to be blind to it in order to survive. To deny the existence of this reality.

A chance for a better life does not mean to be rich, it only means access to basic needs, decent living and the much-needed leisure from time to time. It means leaving something for the rest. It means not having it all at the expense of others. It's not fair to judge people from wanting more out of life or from moving out of the countryside. Where I am, there are uncontrollable forces of nature and calamities that can strike everything to dust, every year or any moment. There are things that we cannot control. Choices are limited. Some people don't have the luxury of choice contrary to what you have learned in self-help books. Circumstances were deliberately brought upon the lives of people through centuries-old colonialism, neocolonialism, neoliberalism and economic colonization. People get stuck in the rut. The poverty level is downright different. Richer countries benefit greatly from poorer countries. Lands were strategically stolen for you, so your children can have a home. So you don't have to tell them to study hard and migrate to other countries someday. So they won't get separated from you. Now it is fine to get out of that culturally-conditioned mindset that lets go of guilt. It is fine to have a little bit of guilt in order to have some empathy.

The residents of the rich countries should be aware of the harsh realities and what caused the other nations to be poorer in order to understand economic migration. It's not fair to wash your hands clean and say that you have nothing to do with it. By not using your voice, by being afraid of your own government, by allowing the powerful leaders to torture children, you as an individual perpetuate the movement and suffering. It is time to own up to your shit, and take responsibility. It's time to stop denying the reality. It's time to be aware. You, me, everyone is responsible. Everyone.

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