ASC233 Reflective Essay on My Immigration Experience

Answer:

Reflective essay on my immigration experience

For as long as I could remember, it has always been my dream to study in Australia. All I could talk about was going to Australia getting their first class education and experiencing life there. Australia has a good reputation especially in terms of how they treat immigrants and thus I felt that I would face a few challenges while there. Also, their universities are ranked among the best in the world. Once I got the opportunity, I applied for the chance to further my studies there and when I got a positive response it was one of the happiest days of my life. I knew in Australia I would get the opportunity to further my career far much better than I could have done at home.

I have had a variety of challenges and good experiences in Australia that I will remember for the rest of my life. The day I landed in Australia, I was so excited I could not keep still so much so people at the airport were looking at me weirdly. I could care less about them since they did not know how happy and grateful I was to be in Australia. The second reaction I had was culture shock for me since the first thing I saw at the airport was white people doing manual work or asking for money on the street which was very weird for me since where I am from white people were seen as the rich people and they did not do manual work at all they employed us to do that kind of work (Rienties, Beausaert, Grohnert, Niemantsverdriet, and Kommers, 2012, pp. 690). Also, there were very few people walking around which was quite different from home where the streets were always packed.

However, reality also set in when I realized that I had to share my living quarters with other new migrants and strangers to me and it was a bit hard. I had to adjust to living with them and it was difficult since their practices were quite different for me. One difference that was quite clear between me and my new roommates was our food, they ate food that at home was considered weird or disgusting. This was quite hard for me to adjust since just the smell made me lose my appetite and thus I went for a few days without eating. They also had schedules quite different from me so we clashed quite a bit, therefore, it got so hard to live with them that I had to forfeit my place there and look for somewhere else to live (Ryan and Viete , 2009, pp. 310). This was a bit hard since I had to ask for money from home so that I could move because I had not earned enough money from my housekeeping job. Once I found a good place to live life got on better.

Once I started school, it was really exciting since I was now starting to live my dream. I had to adjust and get used to the huge size of the campus so that I would not get lost and miss some classes. After a while, I got a schedule that got me through school and work and also had enough time to relax and unwind. However I still faced some challenges in Australia, one thing that bothered me most was the language barrier (Russell, Rosenthal and Thomson, 2010, pp. 240). I found that I could not easily communicate with those around me since English was not my first language thus it was quite to get things done. My first time at a store was hard since I could not find the things I was searching for and the shop assistant could not help me out since she did not know what I was searching for (Smith and Khawaja, 2011, pp. 705). But after a while, it got easier for me since I started to learn some common terms used by Australians which made life easier.

With the language barrier, it made it hard for me to make new friends and this made the first day of school more daunting since I had no friends. It is very hard being alone in a new place so this put me down quite a bit. I, however, made friends with some international students who bonded with me because we had the same experiences (Leask, 2009, pp. 210). When I had few to no friends I started to get homesick because I was lonely and my source of comfort has always been my family. I was so homesick I would call home so frequently so I could talk to them and get some sort of comfort from them. At some point, I even considered going back home but I knew I had to complete what I started and not let down my family (Sawir, Marginson, Deumert, Nyland, and Ramia, 200, pp. 170). I still get homesick but it's now less frequent as I have started to make a home here, have friends and I am having a good time in Australia. Also after searching a while, I found my church where I worship to this day, here I got to make friends who helped me navigate around the areas I had difficulty with. This was good since religion is very important to me (Sherry, Thomas and Chui, 2010, pp. 40).

Some of the people I met in Australia during my first days were not as welcoming as I expected. They would stare at me while I walked down the street and it was quite weird for me since it made me feel out of place. After a while, however, this stopped being an issue for me since I made friends with the local people and they welcomed me and made me feel at home(Khawaja and Dempsey, 2008, pp. 40). All in all, in the begin I had a hard time adjusting to living in Australia but after a while, I adjusted. Right now I can say I am living my dream of studying in Australia even if I still a few challenges most of my experiences have been good. These experiences both the both and good will stay with me for life shaping the course of my life for the better.

References

Khawaja, N.G. and Dempsey, J., 2008. A comparison of international and domestic tertiary students in Australia. Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, 18(1), pp.30-46.

Leask, B., 2009. Using formal and informal curricula to improve interactions between home and international students. Journal of studies in international education, 13(2), pp.205-221.

Rienties, B., Beausaert, S., Grohnert, T., Niemantsverdriet, S. and Kommers, P., 2012. Understanding academic performance of international students: the role of ethnicity, academic and social integration. Higher education, 63(6), pp.685-700.

Russell, J., Rosenthal, D. and Thomson, G., 2010. The international student experience: three styles of adaptation. Higher education, 60(2), pp.235-249.

Ryan, J. and Viete, R., 2009. Respectful interactions: Learning with international students in the English-speaking academy. Teaching in Higher education, 14(3), pp.303-314.

Sawir, E., Marginson, S., Deumert, A., Nyland, C. and Ramia, G., 2008. Loneliness and international students: An Australian study. Journal of studies in international education, 12(2), pp.148-180.

Sherry, M., Thomas, P. and Chui, W.H., 2010. International students: A vulnerable student population. Higher education, 60(1), pp.33-46.

Smith, R.A. and Khawaja, N.G., 2011. A review of the acculturation experiences of international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(6), pp.699-713.