An effect of Korea 2-1-09

The other day I was getting on the elevator in my dentist's building when I saw a young woman getting out a mop and bucket. She was obviously part of the cleaning staff for the building. She looked Russian to me. She was pretty, but seemed to be on autopilot. She didn't look happy. In the parking lot, she walked slow and didn't seem to be in a rush to get to work.

I began to wonder if she felt the way I did in S. Korea or when I worked as a cleaning maid for a short time in NY. It's drudging work. I remember during the entire week I was a "maid", I went into huge, sterile houses and did what I percieved to be nothing. The houses were spotless. Why they had a cleaning service was beyond me. I sometimes wondered if the cleaning supplies themselves may possibly soil the houses I worked in. lol. It is mild torture to do something meaningless all...day...long. Does she feel that way? Does she dream of other things and sometimes allow despair to creep in? I know that's how I felt.

But I'm off the page. This woman I saw in the dentist's building was surely not from here. I want to ask her how she feels here. Is she happy with America so far? Are Americans cruel to her or do we take advantage of her the way some Koreans tried to take advantage of me when I was there? Does she ever feel as hopeless as I did there? I aim to solicit no pity here. I'm just observing my thoughts on this. Does she ever think the thoughts I thought in Korea? Does she have other Russian-Americans who can talk with her on a daily basis and who help her figure things out? Has her standard of living gone up or down since she made the choice to leave home? I wanted to ask her how welcome she feels here and how much opportunity she feels she has been graced with since her arrival. It matters to me now that I know what it feels like to be on the outside of a culture looking in.

Maybe I'll look at immigrant issues when I study social work.

I know my grandma was just happy to be here and she wanted her family to identify as "American". She went so far as to refuse to speak Italian in her household. She didn't want my dad to have an accent. Understandable. He just learned some...colorful words, but besides that he understands no Italian.

How easy and/or difficult is it for people who come to the US to make it home today?

I know that the family factor is huge. I used to wonder in Korea if I could ever make it a home. I just toyed with the idea. It was nothing serious since I feel that the US would be home no matter what its state of affairs. But I played with the idea and realized that I could never make the transition that I see others making unless my family was with me. How much does the family factor in to immigrant retention rates here? In other words, how much more likely are people willing to stake it out and deal with all the challenges of making a new country a home when their families are with them? My guess is that it affects it a lot. No matter how much opportunity and civil rights exist here, I can understand how some immigrants would still hesitate to remain here if their families could not be brought also. I wonder if it's a major issue (this seems to be a topic I'm woefully ignorant about).