Surviving the Unequal Rights of an Immigrant

Disclaimer: This article is based entirely on my personal experiences and the things I have faced. It does not represent every person or every situation in any country, nor do I mean to generalize.

As dictatorship grew in my country, the lives of young people suddenly became about one single thing: escaping for survival. With heavy hearts, many of us had to leave our homes, our lives, and our families behind.

We had to run to a neighboring country — one that seemed safe enough and where the travel costs were affordable. There weren’t many choices for us.

Back home with our parents, many of us hadn’t even reached the age or stability to earn a steady income.

But everything changed overnight. Using whatever little savings our parents had gathered for us, we ran toward safety.

None of us chose this path because it would make us happy. We chose it because we had to stay alive, even though we knew the road ahead would be incredibly rough.

When you arrive in a new country with a much higher standard of living than where you grew up, it is never a holiday. The moment your feet touch this foreign land, the feeling of real happiness stays in the past.

After all, isn’t laughing among your own family and people the best moments of life?

The Unseen Cost of a Place to Live

When you start struggling to survive among strangers with different cultures and traditions, your very first problem is finding a place to live.

You have no idea what the place will look like, who your neighbors will be, or what kind of attitudes the people around there have. You just close your eyes, look at your budget, and pick whatever cheap place is offered to you.

One thing is certain: for ordinary people like us, buying a house or an apartment when we first move is completely impossible. This means you have to deal with a foreign landlord.

At first, when they want your money, they act very nice and welcome you warmly. But when the actual paperwork comes — the part where they have to put in effort to register you officially as a foreign tenant — their enthusiasm disappears. If you want them to do their job, extra charges suddenly appear.

This is when you realize a painful truth: whether it is their responsibility or yours, everything costs your own money. Why? Because they are native citizens of the country, but you are not.

(Of course, I don’t mean every landlord is like this. There are still many kind-hearted apartment owners who genuinely help.)

Navigating the Unknown Without a Voice

The second problem is language and getting around. Because we had to leave without enough time to prepare, there was no chance to study the language beforehand.

In transportation, if you get lost, you cannot just easily ask someone for directions like you did back home. But I must admit, in this modern era where you can do everything with just a phone, it isn’t as hard as it used to be. Google Maps and Google Translate are truly our lifesavers.

I honestly cannot even imagine how people survived when they moved to foreign countries in the past without smartphones.

Even after you find a safe place to live, get used to transportation, and learn how to deal with foreigners, another wall hits you: you don’t have the freedom to choose your own career. There are so many restricted jobs that only native citizens can do, and foreigners are legally banned from applying.

Therefore, to survive in this country, you just have to chase money first. You tell yourself, “As long as it brings in an income, I can do anything. There is nothing I can’t handle.”

With that strong mindset, you go from one shop to another. You walk from morning until night, asking everywhere, “Are you hiring? Do you have any job openings?”

And every single time you enter a place and ask these questions, the reply is always the same: “Where are you from?”

When I answered honestly, their sense of looking down on me in their eyes was so frequent that, eventually, I became completely numb to it. At the same time, I kept reminding myself that the most bitter moments we face in life are often the very things pushing us toward a better one.

The 60-Day Countdown

When I exchanged my parents’ hard-earned savings into this new country’s currency, the math was terrifying. Compared to the cost of living here, I could only survive for about 60 days if I ate just two pieces of bread a day.

If I couldn’t find a job within those 60 days, the future was too scary to even think about. But I kept believing that if I put in the hard work, the output would show up somehow. Luckily, when I had passed a little over 30 days, I finally landed a job.

The world will never favor you. If it wants to drag you down, it will pull you to the very bottom. But if it wants you to succeed, it will push you to the highest peak based on your own hard work.

Month after month, year after year, I kept moving up step by step without stopping. During this time, I experienced everything.

Facing the Bitter Truth of Racism

The worst experience — and I am not sure if it existed in the past, but it definitely still exists today — is racism. To some native citizens, people from poorer countries are looked down upon and treated like servants.

Even if you have the skills and reach a certain position, you can never expect equal or fair opportunities. This is happening in reality.

I have faced moments where people literally said, “You guys are from that country, so you have no right to sit on this bench.” And keep in mind, this wasn’t a special seat that required high qualifications; it was just a regular, ordinary bench in a public area.

No Matter How Hard You Fall…

Every time I am treated this way, it doesn’t break me. Instead, my mindset becomes sharper, and my hunger to succeed grows stronger.

What I want to say is, we can never know what will happen tomorrow.

But just because we don’t know, do not stop shaping the future you want. Keep visualizing your dreams. No matter how hard you fall, and no matter how much it hurts, get back up.

If your mind is strong and hardened, you will be able to face any ups and downs.

No matter where you are in the world, and no matter what conditions you have to survive in, nothing will ever be able to move you again.

[This article was originally published on my Medium profile and featured in Mind Café. You can read the original piece here.]