Who wants french citizenship?

I have never thought about the immigration situation while growing up. Althought I should have.

My father was born in Algeria and he immigrated to France with his parents and brothers when he was 2. My mom was born in france after a young woman from Tunisia and a young man from Yougoslavia both escaping their countries and both freshly immigrated to france met in south of france. But oddly enough they never talked about the immigration issue: the requirements of the visa, the filling of forms, the queues at the embassy. Not like it was a taboo or that they forgot, but just like it was over, no need to talk about it.

As for me, I was born in france, my french passport allows me to travel almost everywhere with no need of a visa and the time I wanted to study abroad it was pretty easy to get a visa. But then one day I faced the difficulties of immigration too: I got denied entrance to a country under the fact that I didn’t have enough reasons not to remain illegally after entering (or as they say overstay my visa). For me the reasons were obvious: I wouldn’t take the risk to be stuck in one country, and my passport was a proof of it: it was full of stamps of all the countries I have visited and traveled to. Another proof: my family still lives in france and I will never choose to be stuck somewhere and never see them again. But for the foreign embassy, all that was not enough proof. I think it is cultural. They say: the crisis is very bad in france, everybody wants to work somewhere there are jobs. I say: not everybody wants to work and I’d rather stay unemployed but close to my family and free to move and travel than work!! So what did I do: I just got married with my longtime boyfriend. It was supposed to happen anyway (we’ve been together for 7 years) so we just did it earlier that what was planned. Not a traumatic experience but it got me very interested and I started asking questions around me and unfortunately I discovered that a lot of people and families were struggling.

Here are just a few examples: I met a guy at the coachella music festival. He was young, fun, he was from columbia and he lived in palm springs. After I said I was french and married he said “oh me too, I had to”. And then he explained to me that he immigrated to the US with his family but because he was over 18 when that happened he didn’t get the green card like the other members of his family. His parents and younger brothers had not problem living in the US but for him nothing was easy. After fighting for years, the neighbors’ daughter decided to marry him to make his life easier. Another story: the woman who does my nails is very pretty. She is from cambodia and she has the same skin colour and the same smile of the people of cambodia. She reminds me of the amazing people I met there. And so I was curious and I asked questions: about cambodia, the culture, about her, why did she leave her country… And little by little she opened up a little more and after a few months she revealed to me that only 1 out of her 2 sons got accepted to the US when she immigrated and the other one never succeeded to get just a tourist visa because they say: if he comes he will never leave and will stay here illegally. Really?! Here’s another one: one of my lyft driver was brazilian. Because I lived in Brazil and learned portuguese we started talking a lot about brazil, what I loved there, where did I go, where he was from, his job there. He told me he was a baker and had his own bakery shop in Sao Paulo that was very popular. So what was he doing in the US driving cars? Well, his younger brother married an american woman, they had 2 kids already and unfortunately she died giving birth of their 3rd child. His brother got overwhelmed with the sadness and the responsibilities and asked for help to his family. His older brother (my driver) decided to leave everything to come rescue his brother. The US understood the situation (bravo!) and granted him a 10 year visa but decided that his wife and kids couldn’t come with him. So this man (this very same man who was driving) had to choose between his wife and kids and his brother and nieces. And he decided to do the sacrifice for his brother. The same as the previous story: the US never granted even a tourist visa to his wife because they assume that she would remain here if she enters once.

I am sure there are 1000, 5000, 50000 of these stories but there will never be enough to read, to listen to. Until the whole citizenship system disappers, we need to keep fighting. Nobody should be considered an illegal immigrant. Nobody is illegal. No human being who has the chance to live should be forced to stay in a country where he is in danger. Our generation assumes that we live in a global village, that we are all inter-connected, that what happens in china will affect people in chile but we still want to differentiate between a italian and a persian, a canadian and a ethiopian. Why? Haven’t you noticed that we all live the same life, we all want to be happy, to eat good food, to gather with friends and family, to protect our children? No human being who is happy will choose to leave everything behind and go on the risky journey of immigration. So listen to the voices! Listen to the calls for help! We have to make an end to it. The fear of immigration, of rejection, of being expelled back to the country we tried to escape from! For now, the only solution I see is to trade marriage contracts. As wedding is getting less and less popular, let’s take this powerful tool we have and spread it to the people in need.

Until we change the laws, Let’s get married!