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Monday, 4 October 2010

"The Two Countries I Call Home" - Immigration/Migration Assessment

Darlene Nguyen 8p1
The Two Countries That I Call Home
My name’s Darlene Nguyen and I was given birth in California, United States. As you see, I’m half Vietnamese because of my last name. My parents are both from Vietnam and they immigrated to California to have a better life and thought it was better for us. Unfortunately, we had to move back to Vietnam in 2008. I had to move back here for push factors because my dad often comes back here for his jewelry business that he opened up about a few months ago in 2007. He didn’t want to waste money anymore by fleeing back and forth. Also, he thought that living in the US was boring, having nothing to do, while in Vietnam he had many friends and things made him busier. I’m half glad and half not glad about the external migration. I was pretty shocked when my parents didn’t tell me about the movement. I actually found out that we were moving from the amazingly, large stack of posters faced down on the table. My parents weren’t home yet when I walked home from school and when I walked in, the papers were sitting on the table. I was curious, like always, and took a sheet and immediately saw pictures of parts of our house on the top and along the side of the page. I quickly skimmed through the description, noticing that someone is describing our house. Then, I saw at the bottom was a picture of a man named George Wong. I couldn’t believe that my parents wanted us to settle in Vietnam.
Moving to this region wasn’t much of a big problem for me. Since it’s partially my homeland, I visited this country every winter break. Some positive things about going to a new place are that it could be much more different than the place that we lived in before. Sometimes different things are a good thing because you can learn what you have in common with them and what you don’t. Also, buying things is very affordable here, when you calculate between the dollars and the Vietnamese money. A negative thing about going to a new place may be that you won’t be fully adapted to the country for a while. I felt like an outskirt coming to a new school. But also leaving my country could affect the relationships I have, such as the friends I have made. We haven’t interacted with each other for two years, until one of them found me on “facebook” in the summer of 2010. I was really ecstatic when I found them and wanted to catch up but things have changed and we’re not immature like before. Also I leave my whole family back there with all the cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. Although I’ve known them all my life, it wouldn’t be weird hanging out with them because I’m comfortable with them and I come back to visit them every winter break. A positive effect about leaving the country may be that we could make new friends and meet my 4 cousins that still live here. Overall, I’m okay with my parent’s decision of relocating where we live. Moving to an urban area like this isn’t necessarily pleasant, but it makes me feel like there are people everywhere and it keeps me company. Either way, California will always be my home and so will Vietnam.

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