Emigration often becomes an act of protest. We strike against imperfect living conditions, closed prospects, or failed relationships. Why is there a desire to run away, buy a one-way ticket, and what do we lose along the way?
“I don’t think I have a homeland. It’s just that I used to live in Russia, and now I live in the States, and this is my home, ”says Anastasia, a resident of New York. The decision to move can vary from person to person. Someone weighs the pros and cons for a long time, thinks through the algorithm of their actions, deliberately makes sacrifices. The other obeys emotions or literally acts according to the script.
“It is believed that the child, in response to the perceived reality, unconsciously makes a plan for the future, which in transactional analysis is called a “script”. Some parental messages can provoke departure: “don’t belong,” “don’t be close,” or even “don’t live.” In the latter case, the child decides: “I will live only if I find myself far away,” says existential psychologist Elena Stankovskaya.
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Children grow up, and the “script” begins to play a cruel joke with them. Surely any of us met successful people who desperately want to leave for no apparent, at first glance, reasons. Elena Stankovskaya comments: “When a person ignores the available opportunities, this can mean entering a “scenario”. Very painful experiences in this case are associated with unreasonable fear, for example, that life is in danger.
At such a moment, even a quarrel with the seller in the store can work like a detonator: “In this country, no one respects anyone, tomorrow I’m buying a one-way ticket.”
obstacle course
We speak, think and joke in Russian. The native language plays a key role in the formation of national identity, which allows us to divide the world into “us” and “them”. Not surprisingly, one of the most difficult barriers for an immigrant is language.
Alexander Solovyov, Ph.D., recalls: “While working at a high school in Texas, I met a teenage schoolgirl who moved to the United States with her parents. She spoke to me only in English, knowing full well that I was Russian. The desire to assimilate was so great that she tried to suppress in herself any manifestations of her “primary” culture.
However, perfect command of a foreign language does not mean that you have become your own in a new environment. National identity also includes a system of permissions and prohibitions, a common origin and past, symbols and myths. Erasing this background is as difficult as erasing memory.
An excellent example of how national identity works can be seen in the new film by Angelina Nikonova “Welcome Home”. Heroes from different countries of the former USSR have lost their sense of belonging to a certain geographical point, but they have a common past that united them in modern Babylon – New York.
Alexander Solovyov believes: “Motherland is a complex sociocultural concept, which in many respects differs from the place of residence. In this sense, of course, it cannot be changed. But it is quite possible to consciously call yourself an American, a Frenchman, an Italian after a long residence in the country, if a person considers the generally accepted norms and conventions of this country to be his.
By the way, often it is immigrants who reach great career heights. Freud explains this as compensation for psychological vulnerability, alienation. The desire to get back on your feet as soon as possible, overcome nostalgia and stress awakens the dormant creative forces of those who once bought a one-way ticket.
Children of the world
Cosmopolitanism as a philosophical doctrine appeared in ancient Greece. Diogenes declared himself the first citizen of the world. “Globalization has given rise to a new stratum of people – managers of large transnational corporations. They easily move anywhere with a standard set of social benefits. For many of them, the concept of homeland does not have much meaning. Another example can be representatives of some modern subcultures, such as neo-hippies and hipsters, who put cosmopolitan values above national ones,” says Alexander Solovyov.
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The history and culture of the native country is part of the “I”. Does this mean that by choosing the entire planet as a certain place of residence, we undermine the foundations of our personality? feeling of self-identification as a citizen of one country, but lives where he wants. Another thing is when such a “cosmopolitan” says: “There is no trust in all these institutions and countries, I will rely on myself.” In this case, the message “do not belong” comes into force (see above).
Wherever you go and whatever lifestyle you choose, the country where you were born and raised will stay with you. “It’s like faith. Atheists believe in the absence of God. But they do believe! adds the psychologist.
Cinema: Welcome Home (dir. Angelina Nikonova, 2013).Book: V. Iontsev “Emigration and repatriation in Russia” (Guardianship of the needs of Russian repatriates, 2001).