podcast 3

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Welcome, everyone, to another episode of The Immigrant Experience, where we delve deep into the stories that shape our nation. I'm Mariana Al-Badry, and today we're exploring a topic that is as complex as it is compelling, the immigrant experience in the United States. To start, let's define what we mean by immigrant. An immigrant is someone who has moved to a different country, often seeking better opportunities or fleeing difficult circumstances in their home country. There are approximately 45 million immigrants living in the U.S. today. These individuals come from diverse backgrounds, each with unique stories and struggles. Speaking of struggles, immigrants often face numerous challenges, including language barriers, cultural differences, and economic hardships. These obstacles can make the journey to a new life incredibly daunting. In today's episode, we'll be focusing on two main points. First, we'll conduct an interview with Abir Hassoun, who will share their personal journey and insights. Second, we'll explore the broader U.S. immigrant experience, examining both the terms and the trials. Our goal is to shed light on the struggles that U.S. immigrants face today, to foster understanding and empathy, and to highlight the resilience and contributions of these individuals to our society. So stay tuned as we dive into the stories that bring to life the immigrant experience in America. All right, so now that we've learned a little bit about some of the issues facing immigrants in the United States today, we'll be looking at now how the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, Namesake, mirrors those struggles of not just first-generation but also second-generation immigrants. The story of Namesake is one of not just singular but many themes, depending on the lens that one reads it through. At its essence, it revolves around many difficulties that immigrants experience, such as a sense of displacement, nostalgia, and cultural homelessness. These are all manifested in the characters of Ishima and Esho, who in a way do their best to preserve their cultural norms and practices, whereas Gogol and Sonia, on the other hand, fully embrace the American way of life and abandon their heritage. However, it's only a matter of time until both Ishima and Esho give in to the pressures from Gogol and Sonia and slowly and gradually embrace the American way of life. So the gradual fading of one's own culture and background is something that many first-generation immigrants experience, and these are reflective of one of many themes or unifying themes, which is the loss of identity. Today we are joined by Abid Hassoun, a Lebanese U.S. immigrant who immigrated to Michigan, United States, at the age of 19, and she'll be sharing her experience and struggles as a U.S. immigrant and her experience raising children in a foreign land. We are really excited to have her join us today as she can help us have a deeper insight into what it really means to live as an immigrant in the U.S. today. Tell me a bit about yourself. My name is Abir. I moved here 20 years ago because I was married. I had two kids, two girls, and then I raised them. After 10 years, I decided to go back to school, and then I got divorced, and then I live by myself now, and I have my job. I work as a clinical lab scientist. What were some challenges that came with settling in the U.S.? The only challenge is that I missed my family. I had my sibling, my sister. She used to be my best friend. That's the only challenge for me so far. What kind of social support did you have, if any? My in-laws, especially that I moved in Dearborn, everything is... We had the same store. All people speak the same language, Arabic. And they were very welcoming. And you know, Arabic people, they have a great hospitality. They treated me very well. Did you face any kind of discrimination living in the U.S.? Not really, because here the people, there's different culture here, and they all appreciate each other here. They're all open-minded, especially, again, here in Dearborn, so I didn't have any discrimination. What was your experience adjusting to American culture like? What did you find was different between yours and theirs? Yeah, I think something was, like, better in this culture than the other culture. Just some, like, differences. What did you notice was different? What's worse? What's better? You know? Here, the better thing was, like, there were more opportunity. Job opportunity, school opportunities. People had the chance to go back to school and work and be independent. Because, like I said, there's opportunity here. Over there, there's no opportunity. Are there any differences in, like, the culture that you like or dislike from yours? My culture? Yeah. And American culture. Again, like I said, here, the good culture, like I said, people are more independent. And, well, I like also the Arabic culture. What I like about it, like, people, they're more active. Their lifestyle, like, because in Lebanon, I had a better lifestyle when it come about health. Like, we used to go walk, to go to the grocery store. That's a workout that's off. We used to walk sometimes, like, 20 minutes going back, 20 minutes back and forth, I'm saying. And people were more social over there because they don't sit on the phone. They, like, like to be, like to socialize more than here. But what I like about here, like I said, you get to know more different people, different culture. And that's something I never experienced in Lebanon. Can you describe the experience you had raising children in America? What kind of challenges you may have had? Challenges? Challenges, because people here, they're more comfortable, like, they have more money, more opportunity to buy whatever they want. So that was a little challenge for me, too, because, like, here people, they only sit on their phone because they have money to buy their own technology. So that was challenging for me to try my best not to let my girls sit on the TV or also they barely work out here because you only use the car. You don't move around. And the fast food, I did not like it, too. So I had to put me and my girls in my own, like, in my own bubble, not to be affected from this comfortable lifestyle. Because sometimes money, having more money is good and sometimes it's bad. The bad part of it is, like I said, people are spoiled sometimes. And if the parents don't pay attention to their kids, they're spoiled. And also they don't social. They sit behind the screen. That leads to depression. Yeah. Did you have, did you see any struggle within your children to kind of balance their American side and their Lebanese side? Did they have any conflict with that? No, not really. Because if you really pay attention, you're like very, you have some awareness from the beginning, you know, what you're doing, you won't have this problem. Because I made them get the best from the American culture and the best from the Arabic culture. Like I said, if the parents really don't get caught up into, like, the lifestyle here, just working full time and not paying attention to their kids, let their kids go to depression and don't know how to adjust between both cultures. So I didn't have time. I never did full time. I always made sure I worked part time and paid attention for all. What has been, like, the most rewarding part of your journey immigrating here so far and adjusting to the society here? Like I said, the comfortable lifestyle, the opportunity to go back to school and work and have your own money, paying your own bills. You know, like overseas, there's no opportunity. It's always war and drama over there. So I thank God to have this opportunity and move here. And I know you said something about sort of feeling homesick when you came here, like missing your sister. Is that something you still struggle with? No, not really. Because now I have my girls. I'm busy with them. And she visits me more often. And because she used to live in Lebanon and now she lives in Canada, she comes visit me. So I see her at least twice a year. And I talk to her on the phone. We FaceTime each other because of the technology. That's a good thing about technology, because it's bad. And it's good. That's a good part. I can always FaceTime her. So now I'm good. But do you, like, still feel, in a sense, lonely that, like, they're not here physically with you? Yeah, of course. We'll always be right there. That's what I'm going to do. Okay. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Next up, Doris is going to discuss some of the modern research done on the immigrant experience in the U.S. Specifically, what kind of mental and social pressures they face living in a foreign land. Okay. So now we will have Doris, who works on researching some of the articles related to the experiences of immigrants. So would you like to share the research that you've conducted, Doris? Yes, I will. Hi, everyone. My name is Doris Williams. For our research topic, I have checked into some articles, and the first article that I found for our podcast is titled The Immigrant Experience. And this article, the title of the article is Everyday Discrimination and Mental Health in Japanese Immigrants Living in the U.S. But before I dive into this article, I'd like to describe what it represents. A corporation, which refers to us relating to a different culture. And then the first article we looked at, which is titled Everyday Discrimination, focuses on a Japanese-Canadian American living in the U.S. and how many of them hesitate to use professional services, but then they struggle with mental health. Immigration, though it allows for advantages, social advantages, but patterns like separation from family members and then assimilating to a new culture, and then discrimination makes it, the level of stress very difficult. And it is a stressful nature for immigrants living due to the high level of stress. And Nairi, in the next slide, Nairi talks about how there's a discrimination, how Gogo expresses discrimination with his name. And especially in Raleigh school, people could not understand his name, so he couldn't wait to change the name. And then when he was able to change the name to Nikio, then he was able to feel himself, feel his true, authentic self. And then the second article that I'm diving into for our podcast is titled Everyday, what every American should know about the immigrant experience. And then in our article, the researcher was born with a 10th grade student, and then she experienced, and narrated her experience living in the U.S. with her mom, who is the first generation immigrant, she's the second generation. She continues by saying that as the daughter of an immigrant, she had so many negative assumptions about immigrants, and she felt angered and disappointed. And then, now we're looking at the story, and then we're talking about how Gogo's experience in the namesake, and also our interview, the person we interviewed, they experienced so many negative stereotyping, how people talk about, you know, people can say things like you don't belong there, people can say things like you're adding to the strife, go back to your country. Gogo also experienced a similar thing with the article, how he felt discrimination against his parents, how when they go to the store, they go to the places, people would rather talk to Gogo instead of talk to his parents, because of stereotyping, and they believe that the parents cannot understand what they're saying. So all of this relates to the article that we research, and how also our interviewer went through a similar experience. All right. Thank you so much for the interesting research, Doris. As we come to the end of our podcast, let's go over the main points again. We first began by defining immigration and talking about some of the common issues that immigrants face coming to the U.S., like discrimination, cultural adjustment difficulties, and financial difficulties. Then we went into the namesake, focusing on the story of Ashimi and Ashoko, on their journey of the different phases and immigrant experiences. By focusing our investigation, we developed links between these individual narratives and more general patterns and concerns, offering a thorough comprehension of the experience of immigrants. These themes were clearly demonstrated in our interview with Abir Hassoun, an immigrant from Lebanon, who provided first-hand knowledge of the struggles and victories faced by immigrants in the United States today. Abir talked about her own struggles and experiences, including overcoming homesickness, specifically missing her family, discrimination, and cultural adjustment. Her experience related to the hardships shown in the namesake, giving our conversation a deeper meaning in real-world context. The namesake by Kimball O'Heary provides a thorough examination of identity, belonging, and the experience of immigration. We witnessed the complex and frequently agonizing process of assimilating into a new culture while attempting to maintain one heritage through the thorough characters of Ashimi and Ashoko. Their narratives serve as an acknowledgment to the lasting power of cultural roots and the persistent power of family. The book also serves as a reminder that immigration is a journey that involves more than just physical relocation. It's about assimilating into a new community while maintaining ties to one's home country. Immigration is a journey that is full of opportunities and challenges. We together wanted to shed light on the complex traits of the immigrant experience through the analysis of the namesake, our research, and our shining interview with Abir Hassoun. Resilience, flexibility, and ongoing struggle with identity characterize this journey. We hope that this podcast has helped you gain important insights and a deeper understanding of what it's like to be an immigrant, inspiring you to show compassion and take action to support immigrant communities. We invite those who are listening to dig deeper into these topics and to interact meaningfully with immigrant communities. There are numerous ways to promote an inclusive society, such as by getting immigrant rights organizations, taking part in the cultural exchange initiatives, or simply just by listening to immigrant stories. We are grateful that you were able to participate in this investigation of the American immigrant experience. We hope that this podcast has helped listeners gain helpful knowledge and a greater appreciation for the achievements and struggles faced by immigrants in our society. We wanted to sincerely thank our listeners for joining us, as well as Abir Hassoun for sharing her story. Until next time.