I’ll take you home again Kathleen
Across
the ocean wild and wide
To where
your heart has ever been.
(Irish
emigrant song about returning home)
RETURNING
HOME.
Cynthia emigrated from Jamaica to
Britain in the 1950s. There she met her Jamaican husband Timothy. They both
worked for British rail. Like many other immigrants they planned to return home
and bring up a family in Jamaica. They had two children and decided for the
children’s
education and for financial reasons to remain in Britain until retirement. They
returned annually on holidays to Jamaica and on one holiday bought a plot of
land on which they would build a house which would be their new home on return.
They enjoyed their holidays in Jamaica, free from racism and the starkness of
London streets in winter time. They looked forward to return. Retirement day
arrived, they packed up and returned to an almost complete house that they
struggled to complete with an indecisive contractor. Like other houses, it was
surrounded by a high wall they thought would give adequate security. They were
mistaken. Regularly robbed, unwillingly they decided to steel grill all windows
and doors for their own security. But they felt more like prisoners. Their
relatives consistently begged off them and if they refused to give they were
insulted. Gradually they got the message that they were unwelcome even if the
Jamaican government of the day officially welcomed them back. They longed to be
back in Tottenham. They felt trapped. Having sold their house in London and
invested in a house in Jamaica they felt they made a huge mistake. However,
they decided to tuff it out. Then Timothy, who more than Cynthia had a return
bug, died suddenly of a heart attack. Cynthia was always betwixt and between
about returning to Jamaica in the first instance. Her lived experience of their
return to Jamaica helped make up her mind to return to London after Timothy
passed away. She was not enamoured by their relatives and some neighbours who
resented their presence. So, she made up her mind to leave whether or not she
could sell the house. She sold the fittings and house furniture. Then she went
to meet the local priest, a foreigner, and requested to stay in the rectory for
a few days. Though she was of a different faith she felt that he would be
sympathetic to her plans. He understood. She then employed a bulldozer
operator, paid him, and had the house she and her husband constructed razed to
rubble leaving nothing for anybody to pilfer. The next day she took an Air
Jamaica flight back to London.
I left home young and not till old I
do come back,
My accent is unchanged, my hair no
longer black,
The children don’t know me, whom I meet on the way,
“Where d’you come from, reverend sir?” they smile and say.
(He Zhizhang)
There is a tendency for those who
are emigrating to idealise their destinations. However, as the time of
departure nears, leaving home, family, friends, city, town and village become
part of the internal preparation. In making a decision to leave there are a
myriad of relationships that are broken. As the day of departure draws near
another tendency to idealise where one is leaving surfaces. It happens at a point when one realises that
they are not part of future plans or events. A throwaway remark by a friend may
spark it off. A feeling of exclusion emerges as one is caught betwixt and
between. But since departure is planned there is no turning back. One is left
in a vacuum, neither at home nor away.
At this point in one’s confusion a tourist brochure
memory of home emerges to compete with the ideal of the destination. The memory
of home dominates. It is a kind of nature’s sanity shield in coping with the separation
of departure and the future confusion and discomfort of the unknown. It is this
memory that one carries for the rest of their lives even if it bears no
relation to the humble, deprived situation left behind. A tourist brochure
memory is not reality but it is a comfort blanket to return to in times of
confusion and discomfort in the new. It also keeps alive a strong return
migration tendency. Returning on holidays at holiday times of year in the home
country feeds this memory and encourages return. During holidays the weather is
good, there are people around and they know that one is here for the holidays.
The first question probably that an immigrant is asked on return is; where are
you now and when are you going back?
In the minds of the locals, family,
friends and neighbours, a returning immigrant is placed somewhere other than
where they are standing just now. An immigrant is supposed to be away,
somewhere. The immigrant on holidays in their former home is emotionally porous
and that condition remains after return from holiday, pulling at the heart
strings with a return tune that seems easily accomplished. As they return from
holiday they feel caught between two homes, past and present. Thoughts of return migration seem a reality.
Sadly, for some they pursue a dream that has not been properly thought out,
objectively analysed based on economic, social and cultural facts. The tourist
brochure picture distorts the facts, a hasty decision is made to uproot on the
assumption that there are now opportunities where in the past there were
none.
Now
that Ireland is experiencing emigration again comparable to the worst decades
of the past there is a regular mantra from institutional leaders in public life
that emigration is a temporary glitch that will reverse itself when the “economy
picks up.” In a celebrity-driven world optimism is an opiate, a myth, that is used to divert attention from a harsh
reality that the future for many is not coming back nor is it going to be
better than the past. Continuous economic growth is an enduring myth that a
fragile public need to be nurtured with by institutional leaders even if the
opposite is true.
The
democratic, equality aspired socialist order that evolved after the second
world war began to decline in the late 1970s. A realisation that not everyone
would have in the future their own house, two-car garage, children at
university or that the next generation would be better off than their parents
began to emerge. Various emergencies, food, oil, riots, three-day weeks
signalled to the populations that the socially underpinned deals of the
previous three decades were off. According to the new dealers, society did not
exist, implying that the structures that underpinned society did not exist
either. Essentially, this meant that it was the individual that succeeded or
failed by his/her own wit or weakness. The social partners in society were
undermined. Everyone could have political rights but they do not provide jobs
and incomes. Competitiveness became the key word. The link between productivity
and reward was blurred, wages stood still or declined, wealth was transferred
to the top of society ending up chasing speculation in markets detached from
manufacturing, commerce and everyday life. Wage earners, like the mythical Syd,
were encouraged to invest in the market particularly in those state agencies
that were privatised. Risk replaced trust, designer charity replaced justice
and jobs were outsourced to China.
The
public was also told that if at thirty three they were using public transport
to get to work they were failures. At the same time they were advised to aspire
to own their homes. However, this time the home was equated to a casino chip
that had access to endless refinancing in the mortgage casinos. The credit card
became the pass to any possibility. Interest rates were liberalised by
effective lobbying in parliaments making the institutions of the state, courts,
lawyers, police, sheriff, banks and licensed debt collectors. Sadly, when the
economy failed, people were left scampering for survival, emigration again
became a reality, this time from opulence at home to hardship in a foreign
city. Abandoned and massaged by their leaders they leave in the false
assumption when “things get back to normal and growth takes hold” they will be
back.
However,
both at home and away people need to be given the painful facts regarding the
possibility of return migration. This would prepare them to make long-term
decisions in regard to settlement, investment in property and integration.
People left hanging between two cultures, like broken tree branches, perish.
Few in public positions are telling the public how it came about that too many
people are now chasing too few jobs. About thirty years ago Europe and the
United States began to export manufacturing jobs that came cheaper elsewhere.
Only a tenth of the investment flowing into stock markets ended up in industry.
The rest chased speculative casino-type profit. According to the gurus of the
day the future lay in financial services, a European carry-over from its
past-get others to do the dirty work. Even now, unemployed Europeans are still
being advised that their futures are elsewhere, new conquistadores, and when
things improve they will be back having acquired work experience and new
skills.
A
few things that need to be kept in mind about return migration.
*Get
objective information about the economy that one plans to return to.
*Work
opportunity, housing, health care, communications, children’s education,
security.
*The
returning immigrant has a lived experience of emigration.
*Those
who haven’t experienced migration are acting out of the anecdotal accounts of
others.
*There
needs to be a shared experience of home and away.
*Those
returning have had a three-phased life-before leaving, living abroad and now
returning.
*The
home economy may not need the skills acquired by the returnee.
*Those
at home may view the returnee as a threat to their jobs.
*Realise
that nothing is the same as before.
*Industrial
skills are of little use in a service economy.
*Return
can be as traumatic as leaving.
*Be
prepared for culture shock, the discomfort of change and the emotions of
departure.
*In
a family each member has a personal journey to travel.
*Each
individual needs time to process their journey home.
*Odious
comparisons hurt.
*Home
and away cultures are not perfect.
*Be
aware of being a “when I was.”
The boy came home from a foreign land,
Weary
and wan with his staff in his hand;
Five
years’ absence had left their trace
On
golden hair, on sunny face.
His
gait was weary, his limbs were sore;
His
youthful friends knew him no more.
(The
Return. Patrick MacGill)
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