Immigrating to another country legally is not a walk in the park. You cannot merely say that you want to try staying in a different nation. The immigration officers often ask how you’ll be able to afford living there. At times, even someone who has millions in the bank gets denied since their intentions do not match the reality that they may face overseas.
Prolonged wars in Syria, South Sudan, and Afghanistan have contributed heavily to a global refugee crisis. The number of refugees today, estimated at 65 million, is the highest it’s been in 20 years. — Kenneth E. Miller Ph.D.
While a single rejection may cause you to set your sights to a new location or remain in your motherland, that is not the case for desperate people. They do not mind spending thousands of dollars to get smuggled into a foreign land. They don’t even think about the illegality of their actions. These folks merely want to get away from their own country at any cost.
In case you are unfamiliar about where this desperation comes from, you should know that many people prefer to become refugees than deal with the following forever:
- Homophobia
More and more countries legalize same-sex marriage. Many others may not have that regulation yet, but they do not shun the members of the LGBTQ community.
What’s highly unfortunate, though, is that there are still nations where you can only be a straight man or woman. No one has a right to love someone of the same sex. You cannot show your true colors either. Otherwise, it may lead to imprisonment or a death sentence.
- Poverty
Some parts of the world are so impoverished that men, women, and children resort to stealing and violence to have money. A typical reason for it is the disproportion between the number of jobs available in the country and the number of people who can work. If we are honest, overpopulated locations have a shaky economy. It does not help too that many of them lack proper education; that’s why they do not pass for positions that require a college degree or a specific specialization.
“We now have decades of research showing that when people are chronically treated differently, unfairly or badly, it can have effects ranging from low self-esteem to a higher risk for developing stress-related disorders such as anxiety and depression,” said Dr. Vickie Mays, a UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor. —
- Racial Discrimination
In nations in which there is a single political party, religion, or race that reigns, the individuals who do not follow the major rules that they created usually feel discriminated. It can go from pure isolation during group meetings up to random folks calling you names on the streets or refusing to stay anywhere where your “kind” may be.
For people who no longer desire to live in discrimination, they choose to vacate their homeland. Starting anew somewhere is better than often getting persecuted for your beliefs or origin, after all.
- Famine
Hunger is another problem that pushes folks to leave their country and find their luck abroad. As mentioned above, it is already bad that people do not have the means to buy food for the entire family. However, if you cannot grow vegetables or fruits and raise your source of meat due to the environmental changes that occur in the area as well, you are more likely to experience famine than not.
- War
Last but not least, families prefer to become refugees because the ongoing conflict in their homeland puts their lives at risk every day. The citizens need to maintain vigilance since the opposing groups might drop a bomb or start shooting each other at any time of the day. They also have to be wary of looters and sometimes kidnappers who will stop at nothing to get what they want. To keep their kids from growing up in that situation, therefore, they decide to flee the place.
The stories that I hear make me think that there is nothing a human won’t do to another human. On the other hand, I feel that people who have gone through horrible experiences can get better if they find another human. — Marianna Pogosyan Ph.D.
In Conclusion
No one wishes to vacate the land where he or she was born and not be able to come back. Some may dream of a better future in a foreign country, but they still plan on re-visiting the friends and families they left in the motherland after every year or so. You can read more information on a family website like FamilyEducation.com and VeryWellFamily.
Unfortunately, in the case of refugees, these folks leave even if they know that there may no longer be a chance to return there. It must be sad – for sure – yet they do it without a second thought because they want to live freely.