A Migrant Story (My Personal Experience as a Migrant in a Multicultural Community)

Reflecting on my experience as a migrant religious is a unique experience. It gives another perspective of being a migrant. It is a quite different experience of understanding migrants in common or considering migrants as having categories. But I am pretty sure that migrants of any category from household service workers to the high skilled migrants, unauthorized to the authorized migrants, low paid or high paid migrants, living in other country for good or forced will have at least some common experiences.

            My first experience as a migrant was homesickness. I miss home, my parents, relatives, the things I used to do, the food, the people, the environment. I found myself living with new ambiance, living with new people who had different backgrounds and personalities; I have new parents in the face of my formators and my brothers in the face of my companions.  It did not last long . It took only the first few days because of some reasons: First, the people are familiar to me. They were not totally new to me. I had met some of them before, especially the formators. Before I arrived, I had already Filipino friends. Most of them are religious and nuns. Secondly, I used to live away from home early at age twelve when I entered the minor Seminary. For me it was just a matter of adjustment probably because Indonesia and the Philippines share many common things which made me think and feel ‘I am still in Indonesia’, especially about the religious values. I grew up in a very Catholic family and my parents are regular churchgoers with a deep conviction about Catholic faith.

Certainly, there other instances when I or other people (at home) see myself as “different” especially when I went home for vacation. I see myself as someone who needs to adjust again with the situation. Three years’ time is a significant span of time. I witness many changes there at home. For instance, before I left home, I never do laundry because my sisters were there. When I went home for vacation, they were all already married and I had to find time to wash my clothes. From their part, they saw me already as a different person. I was considered as a lucky person to have such good education and opportunity to study abroad.  It was very obvious by the way they treated me, and the way they greeted me.  

But for me to cross a national border and live in another country is a complicated reality. It is not just being away from home, my family or common things that I encounter everyday. It is an experience of cross-political, social and cultural boundaries, which certainly have some implications. Politically, I entered in the territory of another nation state which has its policies and laws that I need to obey. In other words, politically I am bound to any laws of the country.  For instance, I have to obey the immigration laws and every two years I have to renew my Visa and my Identity Card or ACR (Alien Certificate of Registration). Socially, I meet and deal with people of difference social status, class or structure.  Especially in my ministry, I meet people of different status or occupations. From people who are living in rural areas, squatter area to the rich people and the politicians; from lay people to people in the high hierarchy structure, religious and nuns. Culturally, I encounter people who have different ways of doing things, different set of norms or guiding principles of everyday life. Still, I have to admit that Indonesia and the Philippines share some cultural values as other Asian countries do, like the spirit of cooperation among neighbors (bayanihan), respect the elders (galang), hospitality, religiosity and also sense of gratitude (utang na loob). Certainly, these resemblances of cultural values operate in different levels and with varied emphases. Because of these similarities I do not have major difficulty to adjust.  But I live not only with the Filipinos but also with other nationalities which means I need more adjustment and learning process.

I do believe that all migrants who cross national border experience this reality. There are some who cross the border legally known as authorized migrants and some choose illegal ways. They are called unauthorized migrants or undocumented migrants. In some cases, there are migrants who by purpose can become unauthorized even though they enter as an authorized migrant by applying a tourist visa. It is simply to avoid another charge for them.  These are common experiences of migrants in labor force, who often migrate because of economic reasons.

My experience as a migrant is a religious experience. I was in a diocesan seminary before I entered this congregation which then eventually sent me here for my studies.  The phenomenon of migration in the year 2000 struck me and gave a major shift in my life decision. I experienced huge changes in my neighborhood. Some people were very busy going in and out in the local agencies office to apply for work in Malaysia.  There were many brokers too who entered one village to another village looking for workers. I did not know whether they were legal or illegal. But I did witness the movement of people. Not only that, I was struck by the fact that some of my classmates in Elementary School were applying for work.

When I knew that the Missionaries of St. Charles (Scalabrinians) whose primary mission is for migrant ministry entered Indonesia in 2002, I was very happy and soon after I applied. For me, this initial experience gives a significant role in my religious experience. It gives me a deep reflection of my vocation journey that vocation does not start from zero. It must start form somewhere or by a particular experience that transforms life decision.  

As migrant religious, I live not only with the Filipinos but also with other people form different nationalities. There are at least nine nationalities: Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Italy, Columbia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Haiti. This multicultural community I live in has a significant role for me to understand myself as a migrant among other migrants. We have a motto: “become a migrant among migrants”. This means in order to serve migrants we have to become migrants ourselves. I can not do ministry to the migrants if I do not have the experience of a migrant. An effective missionary for migrants is a migrant. Yet, to be a migrant I must be able to live in multicultural community. This is precisely the challenge in all religious communities too.

Community in diversity is a reality of this time and I think the Catholic religious communities are forerunners or pioneers in witnessing this to the world that the community in diversity is possible.  One common problem in religious communities that  I can still observe until now is the issue of one culture dominating other culture. It has to do with power struggle of minority members of colonial countries vis- a-vis a west culture of dominant group of a religious community within which the congregation was founded. I am discussing here about the claims or feelings of some members of western culture about the superiority of their culture. Nowadays, one can say that it was not stronger as before when they still are the majority. But this kind of mentality is still prevalent. I think there is always power struggle in a community where the majority is imposing their culture to the minority even if they are not necessarily the western culture. It can be a Latino culture, Filipino culture or Indonesian culture, etc. It means any culture are prone to do so if they have power complex. Nowadays, most of the majority members of the mainstream religious congregations are from the countries outside Europe. There is a fear from the old western born members that the members of non-Western culture will take over everything. 

Another experience in my congregation is that Filipinos are become stranger in their own country. For instance, in theology house now there are seventeen theologians mostly from Latin America and Indonesia. From this number only one is a Filipino. The same thing happens to the members of the European continent. The numbers are declining  in the last few decades due to vocation crisis in their continent. This reality tells me a divergent aspect of migration. It turns out unexpected. It is also a phenomenon in global cities wherein the citizens of the country who happen to live in sub-urban cities become strangers among migrants who reside there.

This reality raises many questions about the natural development of migration and its impacts to the whole dynamic of global culture? Migration is becoming a multi-faceted reality which affects political decisions, economic policies, introducing a mixture of cultural values that affect not only the sending or host country but also whole global milieu. Migration phenomenon becomes everybody’s concern where in some way or another people engage to it. Migration sometimes is not a matter of money or economic pursuing of greener pasture but a transformative experience of each individual dealing with reality of diverse culture.