Running head: A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

A Reflection on the Migration Process and Its Impacts on Migrants and

Refugees
Cherif Chokeir
American University of Cairo

Author note
This paper was prepared for CORE1010-section 03
Under the guidance of Professor Matthew Hendershot

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

November 2nd 2014

Abstract
This paper discusses the migration process from a humanistic point of view.
It analyzes and synthesis the interviews I made with three migrants (two
from Egypt and one from Canada) and two refugees (one from Syria and
another from Sudan), in order to understand in a realistic manner the human
realties about their stories and reflect on these stories. This reflection covers
many important topics about migration: its reasons and impacts on the social
and cultural life of the moving people. Ive tried to base my study on the
responses that the participants gave me in the interviews, but also included
other external resources in order to understand the migration process and
apply the ideas in this paper on the real world.
Keywords: migration, refuge demand, social and cultural life in
migration

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

A Reflection on the Migration Process and Its Impacts on Migrants and

Refugees
Many social studies researches on the migration process provide good
information about the modalities of this process and its impacts on the host
and home countries. Some people think that migration is a simple question
about moving people who cross borders. Although it literally means to move
from one country or place to live or work in another(Migrate, 2014),
migration isnt as easy as it seems. This question is very complex and
involves many topics that might cover the human condition in its general
and specific realities. To understand such a complex question, it seems
important for us to try at first to specify its possible reasons. Then, it seems
more important to try to discern possible impacts that might have on moving
people socially and culturally. In order to understand such topics in a realistic
manner, it seemed more reliable to base the discussion on the interviews I
made with three migrants and two refugees, in order to try to imagine the
human realities behind their stories and apply them to the real world.
Reasons of Migration and Refuge Demand
There are many reasons that could insight people to leave their
countries for migration or to find refuge. These reasons, often called
push/pull factors, are variables: they could be different depending on the
type of person who moves (migrant, refugee).Before deciding to migrate
(or search for refuge), the migrant (or the refugee) always consider these

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

reasons and try to think of them wisely with the family in order to judge if
migration is the best solution and therefore should this person migrate or
not. When it comes to refugees, this consideration doesnt take a lot of time
as their lives are in real danger. As it is one of the clearest reasons, I would
like to start with it and then discuss some other push/pull factors.
Safety, Respect of Human Rights and Liberty
The essential reasons of refuge demand are the fear of persecution,
the search for security, peace and liberty. The refugees usually leave their
countries to escape terror caused by wars or dictatorial regimes. There might
be many reasons for a person to stay at his country (essentially the presence
of family and friends, and the love of the home land), factors that all the
interviewed people liked about staying in their country, but in this case, we
are speaking about a forced migration, as the refugee cant stay at the home
country in order to escape from persecution. For example, Ibrahim, a
Sudanese refugee in Egypt (refer to Appendix A for biographies) told me that
There wasnt any solution for me to stay in Sudan because of the bad
situation in Darfur; when you are arrested more than twice a month, you
couldnt stay. In a similar way, Meshaal, a Syrian refugee (refer to Appendix
A for biographies) told me that if he was back in time and he could
reconsider the decision of leaving Syria, he would also leave as he doesnt
have another solution. In these conditions, as Ibrahim also said The refugee
status is a good thing as it protects the human being and his liberty.

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

Considering the lack of security, wars, terrorism, persecution, and lack of

human rights found in many regions of the world and by analyzing the
reasons why the refugees I interviewed left their countries, I could now
understand very well why there were more than sixteen million refugees in
the world by the end of 2013.
Better Opportunities of Jobs and Higher Quality of Life
Another important reason that might cause people to migrate is the
search for better opportunities of jobs and/or to live a better life. For
example: Lobnas father (refer to Appendix A for biographies) worked with
the US government (at the radio station Voice of America) and therefore the
family needed to migrate to the US. This migration helped to keep a good job
opportunity and offered the family a better quality of life as Lobna told me I
was very excited about migration. We could find this idea of better quality
of life that pushed a person to migrate in many stories of African migrants
and refugees, who went to European countries where they could find higher
level of health care, better respect of environment and so on. However, there
are other people that might not care about these factors in migration. For
example, in case of forced migration, like what refugees are exposed to, they
might not be able to move to such countries, as their first goal would be to
protect themselves. For example, Ibrahim told me that in Egypt, there arent
any organized services from political institutions and Meshaal considered
that he could find all what he wanted in Syria, unlike Egypt. The refugees I

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

interviewed showed me that sometimes migration couldnt be to find a

better job, or a high quality, but only to escape from danger.
Study and Get Higher Educational Level
Many students, especially in todays globalized world would prefer to
move to other countries in order to get higher level of education, or even
study fields that dont exist in their home countries: these people are often
short-term migrants who spend between one and three years to study and
then go back to their home countries. Ragui (refer to Appendix A for
biographies) is one of those people: he wanted to study the environmental
science major, but couldnt find it in Egypt so he went to the American
University in Sharjah, in UAE.
The diversity of people I interviewed showed me a diversity of reasons
that might push someone to leave the home country. The reflection on these
factors is important as they let us know what expectations are those
migrants and refugees intended to find, and therefore would explain what
impacts migration has on their human experiences. Understanding these
factors is important so we could prevent many migrations that could lead to
a dramatic end like legal migration and drown at sea, human trafficking etc.
Impact of Migration on the Life Conditions
In this section, I would like to reflect on how did the migration process
affect the people I interviewed in a direct way. Here also, the diversity of

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

interviewed people learned me that the impact of migration on the moving

person may vary according to the destination country, to the persons first
conditions in the home countries and also to the reasons of migration.
Amelioration of Life Conditions
The general representation we might have about migration is that it
ameliorates our life conditions: it provides us better opportunities of jobs
with higher salaries and makes our life better than it was in the home
country. This could be sometimes true: Lobnas and Chriss families had good
life conditions: they live in well-developed cities, their parents had good jobs
and earned good salaries. In the case of Chris, this was a big amelioration as
the grandfather was originally from the Upper Egypt. For Lobnas family,
there could be amelioration, but, as she said, her family didnt face any
problems in finding jobs or to settle, as the father worked already with the US
government: they arent the type of family that faced a lot of problems in the
life conditions even when they first arrived to the US. However, Lobna is now
working in a pharmaceutical company and she is probably earning a better
salary than if she was hired in a similar Egyptian company.
Difficult Life Conditions
However, this could be explained by the fact that Chris and Lobnas
families migrated intentionally to western developed countries (Canada and
the US). But if the migration is a forced one, as in the case of refuge demand,
or asylum seeking, the moving person only wants to find security and

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

therefore the host country isnt necessary a developed country. In this case,
the moving persons conditions could be worse than in the host countries. Of
course, the refugee tends to be in a secured place, and this could be seen as
an advantage of the host country, but this doesnt hide from us the real
conditions the refugee could face. If the country is a third-world country, the
refugee would probably find difficulties in searching for a job or a residence.
This was the case with Ibrahim who told me: I am registered in the UNHCR
at Egypt, but I must search for a job and a residence myself. It is difficult for
me to bring my family here at Egypt as I only earn thousand pounds
monthly, and I couldnt find a residence for them and the salary isnt enough
to take care of my family. In a similar way, Meshaal told me that he thinks
migration is bad as his conditions were better in Syria: he was working as an
instructor, had a farm, a milk shop, a house; he could get whatever he
wanted in Syria. But here in Egypt, there is discrimination between Egyptians
and Syrians at work: he earns less salary. He even sometimes prevents
himself from eat in order to buy diapers for his children. But the interesting
idea he gave me is that perhaps he sees his life worse in Egypt because he
was forced to this migration. By interviewing these refugees, I understood
how there could be a migration that makes a persons living conditions worse
than in the home country. From a different perspective, the migration could
get people to live in more difficult conditions as they are away of the life they
frequented. For example, Ragui told me he finds that the basic differences
between life in Egypt and in UAE is that he must have a total responsibility in

A REFLECTION ON THE MIGRATION PROCESS

study and in life, as hes a student living there alone. This could be also
another factor that conditions the persons life conditions: whether the
migrant or the refugee is alone or is with his family.
The interviewed people showed me that the life conditions a moving
person could differ due to a number of facts: whether the person is a migrant
or refugee, the destination country, the level of qualification and the
presence or absence of a family. The impact of migration on the life of
moving people is an interesting thing to study, as it could show us many
misunderstandings we might have about migration: it could make people
who think that any migration would be a solution to their issues reconsider
this decision and think that migration isnt necessarily a good thing
Impact of Migration from Social and Cultural views
The migration process, as I mentioned above, affects peoples life
conditions: they could get better or worse. However, the migration process
also affects peoples social and cultural lives. There are many possible
consequences of migration on peoples social interaction, but also on their
way of thinking and point of views.
An Enrichment of Culture and Education
To begin with, migration enriches both host and home countries
cultures. It allows these cultures to merge if there are social interactions
between the migrants or the refugees and the local citizens. The moving

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10

person could discover a new culture he didnt know, learn a new language,
and learn more about the host country, its people, their habits, foods and so
on. For example, Lobna told me that she faced a huge problem when she
went to the US: she didnt speak English. For a while, this could seem
catastrophic as she didnt know how to communicate with local people at
school, in the markets, at the neighborhood and so on. But this became a
good challenge for her: she learnt a new language and socialized with the
Americans, made new friends. During her 42 years she spent in the US, shed
learned many experiences about the American culture. She told me that if
she could reconsider migration after all these years, she would migrate again
as she now knows lots of things about eastern and western cultures. She
visited 70% of the worlds countries after her migration to the US. It seems
that the migration helped her to discover a wide variety of cultures as the
American society is constituted from different ethnic groups. In a similar way,
she told me that Americans discovered about the Arab-Islamic culture with
their interaction with her. It seems therefore that migration has for effect to
give the moving person more knowledge about other countries cultures and
also enriches the host countrys culture, makes its population discover new
ideas, taste new food, discover other peoples way of thinking. But
sometimes, as I mentioned before, migration could be for educational
reasons. In this case, the migration provides the moving person a wide
variety of knowledge that might not be accessible if the migrant stayed at
his home country. For example, Ragui, although hes still at his first months

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11

in the UAE, might, on the long term, know about a field that he wouldnt
probably learn about if he stayed at Egypt. From another perspective, Lobna
told me her mother could continue her education and receive her Ph.D.
degree because they were at the US. She wouldnt have done such an action
if they were at Egypt. Ibrahim explained that one of the benefits of his refuge
in Egypt is education. In Darfur, education is very expensive and one of the
major things he likes about Egypt is the presence of educational facilities: he
could now play the guitar for example. But a strange thing is that Meshaal
told me that education is one thing he doesnt like about Egypt, that it is very
bad in this country. Combining these refugees answers, I understood why
they had different opinions about the same education: it is the moving
persons origin and destination countries that determine his benefit from the
knowledge in a country. However, throughout the interviews, I discovered
that migration helps people to educate, to learn more about the worlds
different cultures. Thats why migration could seem a good decision to
people who are curious and want to know more and more about the worlds
variety of cultures.
Reverse Brain-Drain and Benefit from Migrants
But, we should ask ourselves how we could benefit from these people
knowledge and experience. In fact, many of these migrants and refugees
might be highly skilled and educated people. This brain-drain could badly
affect the home countrys economy as its highly professional people migrate

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12

and leave the country. Thats why we should try to reverse this brain-drain by
making contracts with such migrants in order to guarantee they help the
country with their knowledge by creating developing projects, high-education
level institutes in their home country. These migrants should also benefit
their countries by spreading its culture abroad and by helping to raise their
countries exports by facilitating commercial transactions with hosts local
people (Raviv 2014)
Assimilation and Multiculturalism
However, as I mentioned before, the cultural benefits of migration only
occur when there are real interactions between the moving person and the
local people. Although the human is social being by its nature, these
interactions arent always present. In fact, the moving person could choose
to interact with people with intention to totally become one of them
(assimilation), or to interact with them but while conserving the national and
cultural identity (multiculturalism) There is of course, the other option of
isolation in which the moving person lives in an ethnic community (ghetto)
and refuses any interaction with the host society. The assimilation model
provides the moving person total inclusion into the host society. The person
loses the national identity and becomes totally a member of the host
countrys community: there is an imitation in clothes, food and even the way
of thinking. In the multiculturalism model, the moving person tends to
conserve the national identity, its thoughts and beliefs but interacts with the

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13

host society and knows about their culture, thoughts and beliefs. When it
comes to Lobna, I think she had a great experience in the US meeting new
friends and socializing with the Americans. Her long term migration to the
US made her closer to the US culture. Using her words, The more you get
involved in a culture, you become the culture. Her everyday life became like
a normal American. She taught me that long term migrants are more
intended to be part of the culture of the host country than short-term ones.
However, she didnt completely assimilate: she conserved her Egyptian and
Islamic identity. When it comes to the refugees, they seemed more attached
to their culture and refused assimilation. Ibrahim told me that hes proud of
his Sudanese identity and that if his child was in Egypt, he would refuse to let
him assimilate and make him conserve his identity. Meshaal told me that
hes teaching his children the Syrian accent, that he wants them to conserve
the Syrian identity. It seems that the refugees are more attached to their
identity because they didnt want to leave their country in the first place but
were forced to. Their homesickness is bigger than the migrants. Meshaal
told me that If I could, I would go back home from tomorrow even walking
on feet. This reminds me of what Raghda said in the Amreeka movie (Debis
2009). However, Meshaal told me that Egyptians are very kind, they like him
to speak and tell stories, and there is a real love for the stranger. In a similar
perspective, Ibrahim told me that people treated him in a good way because
he was a refugee. In a practical way, it seems that we should respect all the
cultures, try to understand them and treat people on the same level. An

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14

interesting fact is that this idea was the special remark for me given by both
Lobna and Ibrahim. Although they might have different conditions (a migrant
female and a refugee male), they have different nationalities
(Egyptian/American and Sudanese), but they agreed on this idea that is the
basic human right we should all consider in our treatment to each other.
Lobna said that one should not make cultural differences as to divide but we
must consider that we are all humans with the same feelings, problems; we
lose humanity by separating nations into categories and Ibrahim said I
want Egyptians to let intolerance and racial discrimination based on color or
ethnic reasons. I want equality among humans
From another perspective, it seems that the controversy between
assimilation and multiculturalism involves the generation condition. In fact, it
seems that the first generation (the generation who first migrated to the
country) is more likely to be attached to its identity than the next
generations: generations 1.5 (young adults migrating to the country) and 2
(people born in the country). For example, Chriss father (generation 2)
identified himself more as a Canadian than an Egyptian, and used English
language better than Arabic, while his grandfather (generation 1) used
Arabic more than English and identified himself as an Egyptian. Chris
(generation 3) himself is an exception: although he tends to identify himself
as an Egyptian, people normally identify him as a Canadian because of his
language (he usually speaks better English than Arabic), his foreign name
Christopher and his thoughts that are different from Egyptians. Lobna taught

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15

me real differences we could find between generations: she told me that

generation 1 (her parents) maintain more Arabic and Islamic culture (100%
of the culture) than her sisters and her (generation 1.5) (60% of the culture)
and they are more attached to the culture than her sisters children
(generation 2) (10% of the culture). We also discussed the role of parents:
did they force her to attach to the culture or let her assimilate. It seems that
this depends on the parents personalities: her parents were open minded
and let her interacts with the Americans with no restrictions but just
remembered her about her identitys concepts and limits.
Therefore, it seems that the assimilation or multiculturalism models are
determined by the moving persons conditions (refugee or migrant), the
migration longevity and the generation. However, whatever model we
choose we should accept all cultures and respect them. These questions are
very interesting as they let us understand how people react to the different
cultures; this could be used to try to regulate differences between countries
that could be based on culture.
Citizenship issue
A citizenship is a legal status given by the governments to a person
who becomes part of the national community, has all the rights and must do
all the duties provided by the constitution of the country. Trying to
understand how the citizenship could affect the moving person, I asked the
interviewed people if they want to get the host countrys citizenship or not

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16

and how they think this could change their conditions. Lobna already have
the US citizenship. She told that this didnt affect her in a social way but in a
logistic way: her entrance and exit of the country became easier; she could
now travel easier around the world. Ibrahim told me he didnt want to get it;
he only wants to get a developed countrys citizenship. He thinks, however,
that the citizenship (in Egypt at least), wont affect his status and offer him
better conditions as he would be easily recognizable due to his color and
ethnic origins. It seemed for the interviewed people that the citizenship is a
secondary issue that doesnt matter although some academic studies
mentioned that a dual citizenship could benefit the moving person as it gives
the feeling of being part of the society and gives the person basic equality
rights among other citizens.(Faist & Gerdes 2008)
Conclusions and Future Study
In order to understand well the migration process, we should, at first,
try to discern the reasons of migration and refuge demand. The push/pull
factors that insight people to migrate (or not) are interesting to study as they
represent the roots of the migration process. At second, we should identify
the impact of the moving process on migrants and refugees life conditions.
Analyzing the interviewed people responses, I discovered that migration isnt
always a good thing. As this is against what people usually think, it is
important for migrants and refugees to study well other peoples conditions
at exile in order to take the decision wisely. At third, we should understand

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17

what impacts has the migration process on the moving peoples cultural and
social lives. Analyzing these impacts, we could easily understand how
interaction between home and host countries culture could affect the
moving person, and what responses do they have on this interaction. The
interviewed Ive done helped me to understand in a realistic manner why do
people leave their countries, and what impacts has this moving on their life
socially and culturally. In a humanistic perspective, these interviews should
be done by whoever wants to migrate in order for him to understand the
human stories about migration and refuge demand, in order for him to
imagine exile and take the decision whether to move or not

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18

References
Barkin, Paul. Piovesan, Christina. (Producers) & Dabis, Cherien (Director).
(2009) Amreeka
[Motion picture]. United States: National Geographic Entertainment.
Faist, Thomas. & Gerdes, Jrgen. (2008) Dual citizenship in an age of mobility
Retrieved from: www.migration policy.org
Migrate. (2014) In Merriam-Webster.com.
Retrieved Nov 1, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker
Raviv, Shaun. (2014, Feb 11) Why 'Brain Drain' Can Actually Benefit African
Countries
The Atlantic. Retrieved from:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/why-braindrain-can-actuallybenefit-african-countries/283750/

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Appendix A
This appendix contains the biographies of the interviewed people and the
photos I took with them.

Abd-El-Aziz, Ibrahim is a twenty-six years old Sudanese

refugee from Darfur, West-Sudan. He was a student at the
Agriculture College in Sudan. His family lived in Darfur
when the war began in 2003. The war affected directly
the family: his father died in 2008 because of it, and
Ibrahim was frequently arrested for political reasons. He
was traveling to Malaysia, but was arrested at the Airport where someone
helped him and made him successfully move to Egypt. Arrived at Cairo on
the 28th of August 2012, he was registered at the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees office in Cairo (UNHCR). Although hes married
and has a son, he couldnt bring them to Egypt due to his difficult situation
and actually lives in Haddayek el Maadi district with other Sudanese
refugees.

El Ashtar, Meshaal Ahmed is a Syrian refugee from Homs. He worked as

an instructor in Syria, but also owned a farm and a milk shop. When the
Syrian crisis began in 2011, he was forced to move with his wife to Istanbul,

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20

Turkey where his first child Osama was born. They spent
a year there but as they didnt have a passport, they had
to move to an Arabic country that could accept them
without a visa. Under the governance of the ex-president
Mohamed Morsi, Egypt accepted Syrians without visa so
he went to Cairo where he had his second child, Ibrahim.
Hes been a year and four months in Egypt and works in a milk-products
shop in Haddayek El Maadi. He has some real difficult conditions as his wife
is now pregnant and his salary isnt sufficient to the family needs.

El Bakri, Lobna is an Egyptian long-term migrant at the United States. My

mothers cousin, she was born in Cairo and started learning at a French
school. She has two sisters and she is the middle child. Her mother started
her career as an educator. Her father worked with the US government at the
radio station Voice of America. After the 1967 war, the US embassy in Egypt
was closed, and he was transferred to Greece. Because of his occupation, the
family decided to migrate in 1973, when Lobna was on the 10th grade. As she
didnt speak English, Lobna had real problems in communicating with her
teachers and schoolmates. But fortunately, her teachers were patient and
her parents supported her; she learned the language in five months and
start making friends. After graduating from an American high-school, she
went to Rutgers University in New-Jersey. She met her ex-husband, an

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21

American that converted to Islam. Some

years later, they divorced. For twenty seven
years, she held different positions in the
pharmaceutical company Bristol Miles
Squibb, essentially about international
quality.

Nemeh, Ragui Rafik is a 19 years old

Egyptian student. Born to a family from
Lebanese origins (in fact his grandfather
married an Indian woman), he went to Singapore in 1999. When he was four
he went to the College de la Sainte famille, the Jesuits School located in
Heliopolis. He obtained primary level certificate and then moved to the
middle and high school of the same College, situated in Ramses. There I met
him; we became friends and spent many years together at school. We
graduated together from the same school last spring. He obtained his French
Baccalaureate in June. He wanted to study the environmental science major.
As this major doesnt exist in Egypt, and as he already wanted to enter AUC,
he decided to move to the UAE, where hes actually studying this major at
the AUS (American University in Sharjah)

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22

Soliman, Christopher Chris was born in Ottawa, Canada. His

grandfather, an originated man from Upper Egypt who was an
Electrical engineer, moved to Canada as his wife had a good job
opportunity there. The grandfather worked at the Canadian
government. Chriss father was born in Canada and later worked at
Nortel Telecom Company. Because of his parents work, the family
needed to move to England when he was one year old. Three years
later, the family went back to Canada. When Chris was ten, his fathers
company went bankrupt and had to dismiss almost everybody. It was hard
for the father to get a new job in Canada as they liked hiring young people.
The family already started thinking of returning to Egypt, so they migrate to
Egypt. I first met Christopher during the First Year Experience program.
Actually, Christopher is a freshman at AUC and wants to be declared at the
mechanical engineering major. He actually lives in Sheikh Zayed.
Appendix B
This appendix contains the questions I used in the interviews. There could be
some variations depending on the persons situation and/or the interview
itself.
Interview questions

1. To begin with, please present yourself in a few words. (Who are you?
Where do you live? Whats your job? Are you married? And brief story
of your life)

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2. What was the first country you have traveled to, and what was the first
one you wanted to go to?
3. What was your first idea about migration as a concept (or in case of
refugee, about refuge)? Did you want it or just need it (reasons of
migration)? Were there any possible reasons for you to stay in your
home country? (push/pull factors)
4. And now, after what you spent abroad, what do you think about
migration? Are there any misunderstandings you discovered in your
idea about migration?
5. Why did you choose to go this country specifically?

6. What was your idea about the destination country before going there
(did you ever go there just for travel?)Did you really know about its
culture and people? If not what was your first impression when you
went there? Did this idea improve (became better or worse) and why?
7. When you went there and spent just a few days, did you want to go
home, or like the country and want to stay? And now, do you want to
stay or go home?
8. When you got in contact with local people, did you think they accepted
you? Did you want to be totally part of them (assimilation), or apart of
them (isolated), or part of them but with your own culture and beliefs
(multiculturalism)?

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9. What basic differences you found in your everyday life between your
home country and your host country? What about people?
10.

What were your conditions in your host country?

11.

List three things you liked to do when you were in your home

country but now that you cant do in your new country. And three
things you couldnt do in your home country but now you could do in
your host country.
12.

Did you ever face discrimination in any field of life based on your

origin, your language, your religion etc.?

13.

Did you ever felt homesick (want to go back to your country)?

How frequently? And what did you do then?

14.

If you were back on time before migration, would you reconsider

this step in your life? Would you change the destination country?
15.

Describe the most precise as possible your first feelings in the

host country within two weeks. How did these feelings improve?
16.

Do you want to take the host countrys citizenship? If you have

already taken it, what differences you think happened when you took
it?
17.

What do you like most in the host country? And in your home

country?
18.

What connections could you find between your host and home

country?

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19.

25

If one of your friends in the host country wants to migrate to your

home country, what advice would you like to give him?

20.

If you were a parent (or if hes really a parent, it would be as a

parent), would you like your children to hold on their traditions or

would you let them adapt? What actions would you take to do this?
21.

What differences would you find between the 1st generation

(principal migrant), generation 1.5 (about 10 years old who migrated),

and generations 2 and 3 (people who were born in the host country)?
22.

(Special question for a refugee) As a refugee, how do you feel in

this country: respected and considered for humanitarian causes or

misunderstood and afraid?