Calling Somewhere Else "Home"

I've been thinking a good deal about immigration lately. Granted, this class is largely about immigration, but I've been thinking about it for a while now. I think it all started in high school, when one of my friends made the comment that if immigrants didn't like how things were in America, then they should just "go home." It seemed strange to me that if someone has a foreign face, their "home" is perceived as being elsewhere other than America, even if they are citizens of this country. If a person of traditional European descent was a flaming liberal and complained about Bush, taxes, and a lack of organic foods in the supermarket, would my friend have made the same comment? Would the liberal have been told to "go home," to go back to Germany or what-have-you? I think not.

This past summer, one of my best friends told me about her plans to move to Italy after graduation. She is white, never been abroad before, and felt nervous about having to go somewhere where she didn't speak the language or know the customs. "I can't take all my pots and pans with me to Italy...what if I don't like it there, and have to come back? How...How do people just pack up and leave like that?" I thought about what she said, and replied, "People do that because they have to. That's how the immigrants in America feel. They give up their lives in their home countries to come here, and even if they aren't used to life here, they can't go home." Where would they go? Back to the house that they sold? Back to the job that they've quit? Unlikely.

The movie that we watched today, "Picture Brides," was poignant and moving. Riyo's experiences as a picture bride to the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii is fraught with hard work and tears. At first, she feels that she doesn't belong to Hawaii; she still considers Japan to be her home. Whereas the other women sing in the fields while they work, Riyo remains silent. She is not yet a part of that community. But as the film progresses, we see that Riyo gradually becomes integrated into the plantation community; she never does return to Japan. We see how the immigrant groups incorporate aspects of their own culture into that of the white community in Hawaii. It was particularly apparent in their language; it was as though the immigrant groups developed a language all of their own. The film reminds me very much of the fact that no matter where we go, we carry a part of our past with us. It is also impossible to remain unchanged by our environments; no matter where we go, we take a part of that place and incorporate it into ourselves. For Riyo, Hawaii eventually becomes her home, just as stateside America became the homes for so many of us.