WHY PEOPLE MIGRATE?
Apr 26th, 2007 by kendi
Marcus Gastin, a film director born in France in 1952 to Greek parents has always been intrigued by the life of emigrants, having spent most of his early years as an emigrant. As such the desire to produce a documentary on the life and working conditions of immigrants was Something he found he could easily relate to. While working on the project he found out that immigration is a subject that is applicable to persons from Africa but the exact antithesis to Europeans. The project depicts not only the lifestyle of African emigrants but that of European emigrants as well.
Q WHY DO PEOPLE MIGRATE?
For most emigrants the reasons to change countries may be economic, political, educative or the desire to fulfil a dream. For every emigrant, it’s a journey towards a goal. This is a small odyssey that makes up the first episode, which also talks about the various reasons people migrate and how they arrive at their final destination. The second episode is focuses on how the emigrant finds his place in the new society, how the native people accept and receive them, this is all about integration. The third episode is about dreams and what inspires people to travel out of their respective countries. In my research, I found out that not every one has the desire to migrate or even want to live in another Country. Only those with a strong will to survive outside their comfort zone eventually travel. For Every emigrant the dream is very important. The desire to travel and live outside ones country takes Tremendous amount of courage for each person.
In putting the stories together I realized that every emigrant has a very important and unique story to tell, this made it extremely difficult to make a choice from the various characters I initially interviewed. What I ended up doing was selecting the characters with the most outstanding stories, that were Not only peculiar but very strong. I have three or four African emigrants, one is from Ghana and the other is from Nigeria. It took the man from Ghana, seven years to finally arrive at a destination, Greece. Upon his arrival he discovered he had become too old achieve his dream, which was to play football. Here I found a character who was motivated to travel for a better life go through tremendous hassles to finally arrive, only to be faced with the harsh reality that he had not been given the true picture of things. His quest to be a Football Player was not to be. He currently lives that dream and hope through his son who is just five years old, who is been couched on how to play football. The story of the Nigerian guy is another amazing one. This is a guy who had a thriving business back in Nigeria. Then he is told that to be a big business man he has to have a second home, and the only way to achieve this is to travel abroad. First he decides to travel to England, his inability to secure a visa finds him undergoing a trip to turkey where he Eventually finds himself in Greece. Speaking with him you will almost believe that his dream will be actualized someday.
Q CAN YOU COMPARE AFRICAN EMIGRANTS WITH EUROPEAN EMIGRANTS?
In my opinion there is a huge difference. First, the European migrant is faced with lesser obstacles, and finding a seemly perfect life outside their native Countries is not so difficult. On the other hand the African Migrant has it more difficult but somehow acclimatizes. Every emigrant has an exceptional story behind him, which is sometimes sad or happy? It took the man from Ghana, seven years to arrive in Greece. I understand for others it takes much longer There is a lady from Kazastan, who came to Greece with three children, she was almost deported because she could not speak the language but today she is currently living quite comfortably with her three children. This again is a contrast to the Greeks who migrate to Germany and Belgium and end up working in Steel companies as coal miners. Immigration for the Europeans is very organized.
Q WHAT IS AN AVERAGE MIGRANT GOING TO GET FROM THIS FILM? WHETHER AFRICAN OR EUROPEAN?
The idea is not to put all emigrants in the same category, I don’t mean to stereotype emigrants but for everyone to understand that in spite of the different cultures whether one is from Nigeria, Greece, Kazisktan. Each one has the desire to first pursue a Dream, hope for a better life, find a new job. Irrespective of where we come, when we leave our Native countries we become migrants. I hope other migrants can relate with or understand all the issues I have tried to address in the film. The emigrant is living his dream. Besides, Greece is a growing multicultural society and I hope there is a better understanding of why people choose to make their lives else where.
Q WHEN YOU PUT ALL THE STORIES TOGETHER, IN YOUR OPINION ARE THE EMIGRANTS FINALLY HAPPY TO LIVE THEIR DREAM IN A FOREIGN LAND OR DO YOU PERCEIVE THAT THEY HAVE CONQUERED PARTLY AND WANT MORE?
I don’t think you can isolate any case from the other as every case is unique. What I commonly hear from migrants is I did not choose to be an emigrant. But all emigrants choose to be so because it’s a choice one makes when you decide to go abroad. An example is a Greek in Marseilles, France, who says he is leaving Kalakos because of starvation, but the question is you are not the only person leaving from kalakos, some people stayed behind, I don’t try to make it all beautiful, this film should hold a great lesson to humanity especially for the western countries.____________________________