Communication Is A Valuable Skill For Migrants
Karl V.
24.03.2021
Migrating to another country is easier for some and harder for others. This depends on where you come from and if you are a refugee or a skilled migrant. Also, how old you are when you migrate changes the opportunities you have in a country. Depending on your life experiences, this can change how well you can communicate with others to make your migration easier or harder. One of those skilled migrants is Mr. Alvarez.
Migration Push and Pull Factors
As a young child, Mr. Alvarez experienced his first migration to Australia with his family from the Philippines because of civil conflicts with the military and other groups. He had a good life in the Philippines because his family earned enough money to live. However, his mother wanted to go to Australia for economic reasons and because she had a job the country needed.
After he migrated from the Philippines to Australia it was hard for him as a child in school because he often got bullied because he came from the Philippines and was different from others. He came from a different culture and went to a school where the majority of people had a similar culture and they thought and saw the world differently. Mr. Alvarez looked different than most of the other students in school and he had a different English accent that sounded a little wierd from others’ perspective.
He didn’t really overcome the bullying very well at that time because he often wasn’t very social with others. Mr. Alvarez also didn’t have many opportunities to be more social during this time because he got bullied and found it harder to make friends. He liked to play videogames as a kid and says that maybe that was the reason he wasn't very social. Looking back on those days, Mr. Alvarez shared that during this period he didn’t learn communication or social skills very well.
Opportunities for Skilled Migrants
After Mr. Alvarez was in an Australian school where he grew up he went on to study at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He studied computer programming and software engineering.
After he finished his studies he worked as a software engineer in Sydney. At that time Mr. Alvarez learned that it’s better to do a job in a team and be social with others. He liked Australia as a kid but got bored as an adult. He wanted to travel across the world after he had studied.
Mr. Alvarez travelled across Europe and enjoyed his time in Berlin very much. So he decided to get a working holiday visa and live in Germany. It was much easier for him to migrate to Germany because he was a skilled migrant. His previous experience as a migrant to Australia was something he learned from to help him settle into Germany more easily. He was more excited to discover a new country by being a resident instead of a traveller.
After Mr. Alvarez settled into living in Germany he started to look for a job, but it was hard for him to find out in his industry. He then started teaching English to students. However, after some months had passed he stopped teaching English and switched over to working as a consultant offering computer programming services. He liked teaching adults and connecting with them and helping them if needed.
Over the years, Germany has changed and become more international as more migrants have chosen to live here. Mr. Alvarez started to notice some of these changes. He thinks that Germany has become more expensive to live in over the last several years. He also thinks that Germans have become prouder to show their flag, because more time has passed since World War II has ended. He thinks that more people are attracted to Germany because it became a richer country and there are more job opportunities.
Mr. Alvarez thinks that it was easier for him to migrate to Germany because he had a degree that qualified him as a computer programmer and could get a well-paid job. He could easily get a Visa and come to Germany and this is a privilege and the experience is different for refugees who have a harder process to go through. Mr. Alvarez thinks that over the last few years it has become even easier to migrate to Germany.
In conclusion, Mr. Alvarez migrated twice. First from the Philippines to Australia and then from Australia to Germany. He learned how hard it can be to migrate to another country. Also that it was much harder for him to go to Australia as a kid because he was bullied. Coming to Germany for him was much easier because he was an adult, because he is not a refugee, and he is a skilled migrant. The biggest lesson he learned is the importance of communicating with others. This was something he did not do so successfully after the first migration, and a skill he learned and now values in his most recent migration.