Found a piece I wrote for credits to get my diploma at 16, and feeling pretty proud of baby me. Didn’t know where else to share it. (the grammar in some spots is questionable imho)
Interview Report
In this interview, I spoke to 28-year-old S.K.: a Syrian immigrant brought to America by his mother at the age of six to create a life for them and pursue their education. As the interview began, it became obvious almost immediately that he cares about family a great deal. When asked what he misses about Syria, S.K. answers that there's a multitude of things that he can't quite specifically list off, but what he misses most is the convenience of living in the same town as a majority of his family. He also states “\[The hardest part of immigrating was\] leaving my family...the process itself was difficult, but that was my mother’s battle not mine. For me it was simply leaving everyone behind and travelling 20 plus hours around the world not knowing when I’d see them again”. However, despite missing his family, S.K. still sees the positives in coming to America. He states that his favorite thing about the US is the ability to dream and be whatever one wishes, and that his favorite place is Seattle, Washington due to it being his home throughout high school and where he first established roots in his early adult career. His journey to achieve his dreams wasn’t easy though.
Early on, S.K. didn't face any discrimination or ostracism partly due to his white appearance and lack of noticeable accent. After 9/11 though, some treated him differently and there was even a rumor claiming he was a terrorist spread through his school. He recalls it as the following: “...being Syrian I always made it a point to tell everyone that's what I was. Mainly to not be harassed while I was eating my packed lunches from home. But I remember a day where a bunch of kids insisted that I was a terrorist. They made up a rumor around school that spread quickly and I was eventually interviewed by a sheriff for a bomb threat I had never made. It was traumatizing, luckily the school found out it was a rumor due to some of the children being honest, and those kids would be suspended and or required to switch schools, but what was sad was ultimately I had to change schools. After that I wouldn't bring up my ethnicity, and generally never had big problems like that, however it would make for awkward conversation later on down the road when people would make some mean comments and not know I was of Arab descent.” However, despite how traumatizing this incident was, S.K. never changed how he treated “natural” Americans. Instead, his belief of avoiding stereotyping and treating others how he wanted to be treated had been emboldened.
In order to promote tolerance and fight ignorance, I believe it’s crucial to include S.K. 's answer of what he’d like more people to know about immigration, “Now that I'm older I have a far deeper understanding of the process, and it's very important to me to express these issues. When the war broke out in Syria all my worst fears had been realised. My cousins, who I share a very close relationship with were stuck in a conflict they had nothing to do with. Being a minority, Christian-Syrian, my family was heavily persecuted by ISIS. And it was all over night. But the worst part was I was completely helpless. I had already started helping my cousins with the legal immigration process well before the war started. What people don't realise is the immigration process itself is broken. But during conflict it becomes that much harder. And these are blood relatives, who are refugees from a war they can't even fight. For instance, people think that they can just apply for Asylum, however, the issue is they need to be on US domestic soil in order to apply for asylum. This is a terrible system, and actually encourages illegal entry, as the law states you can only apply for political asylum on domestic soil. So they can't apply for asylum at let’s say an embassy abroad. The immigration system needs to be fixed. It's funny because we have a whole political party in the US that wants to fight illegal immigration yet they are ok with the law making it an option for entry. Ultimately they would immigrate to Canada and Germany where the systems allow a sponsoring, unlike the US. And the ironic part is, they became contributing members to those nations. All my cousins that have immigrated are employed, already own land, and do community service in their gratitude for immigration during such a hard time. The US on the other hand just shut the door in their face, no matter how hard I would fight to bring them over”. He states that his advice to those that wish to be allies would be “to be understanding of the hurdles they face, and to accept them into our society with no bias or fear because they are different. We are all more alike than we are different and embracing that is key”.