Weekly Competition #31
10 May 2019WINNERS ANNOUNCED:
eloquent_recipe and confident_swan
We loved reading your personal migration stories and the migration stories of others. It's so valuable in helping us understand different perspectives.
Eloquent_recipe used a story from a book which we thought was great and you might all want to check it out- The Boy at the Back of the Class.
Confident_swan shared a family migration story, like many of you. We loved how much was conveyed in a few sentences and particularly felt the final line was a powerful summary of migration: "It's leaving and finding home at once."
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This week, our competition is all about curiosity and storytelling. We'd like you to research the story of someone who has migrated. Tell us where they moved to and what their experience was like. You can choose to research a famous person, or someone you know. Winners will keep their entries concise (short but meaningful!) and show that they have really listened to a different person's perspective.
Comments (72)
With the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Anglo-Saxons (c. 5th century AD) and Vikings (8th century AD) invaded and migrated to Great Britain. In 1066, the Normans successfully took control of England and, in subsequent years, there was some small-scale migration.
Not very long ago, was Palm Sunday when Jesus migrated from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. Jesus migrated because he chose to leave the Mount of Olives. A migrant is a person who chooses to leave their home and to flee somewhere else. An immigrant is a person who is forced to leave their home due to war, weather problems etc.
A refugee is someone forced to leave their home. An immigrant is a person who comes to live in another country. A migrant is someone who moves from one place to another.
My parents have migrated from Poland to England and here is the reason why,
my dad was working in a business where he was set to control his friends bus and the friend was actually going to different places so he was earning more and instead of sharing the money like supposed to he pocketed the money . One day my dad found out his friend pocketed the money . The friend offered to buy tickets for a flight to England and my dad accepted the offer . Right before my dad was going to go he met my mum and they both flew to England and are both still here to this day.
A couple of years ago, there was a woman called malina and there was a malicious conflict in Africa. Everyday when she woke up from resting she would be anxious because all she and her children could hear were peculiar noises (at this time Malina and her family didn't know that there was a war.) Malina's husband knew exactly what was happening and he had been timing this event for several years. A couple days after he decided that he had never cared about Malina so one day her confronted her and suddenly left in a hurry! Before this, Malina was very poor and was actually homeless everyday she would prepare herself and her children for sitting on the horrible streets of Africa for many hours. Malina started to run out of money very quickly... Luckily, a couple weeks after, she found out that one of her relatives lived in Nigeria. Then is when she started to realize that her old husband must have stole her passport,oh how she was sad...The next day she decided something had to be done, so she migrated illegally across many borders with her children. Day after day, she started to find more and more shelters for refugees. luckily, there was a happy ending to this story until...
Mo Farrah moved to Britain from Somalia when he was eight but now he's 32.He was an athlete and won 2 gold medals in 2012 Olimpics in the 5000 and 10,000 metre races.His victories made him the first British athlete to take the gold medal in the same Olimpics.He holds 5 gold medals and 7 global titles at the European Athletics Championships.
There is a story of a girl called Manar. She is from Syria and then they had to move to a camp near Lebanon. The people there didn't like them there but they kept on going and were there for a few weeks. After, they moved to England but it did take a while and they moved to Bradford because a member of her family was there.
There was once a girl (wishing to remain anonymous) that was 17 year old in Istanbul, her life was unbearably hard. She was brutally separated from her birth mother, only at the age of 13, by her dictatorial father who went on to abuse her and her brother in every possible way. She was regularly tortured by him and threatened with death. 'I have had the most incredible journey of escape under this threat!' she said.
After an extremely risky process, she managed to make her way to Paris. Aged 18, she was terrified! She could not even speak French and had no experience of travelling alone. 'I felt all alone!' She spent 2 years at the Sorbonne, found a good job and her own flat. During holidays in England, she met the father of her 3 children. It was a huge surprise when she found out she was pregnant with her first child and had no idea what to do. So she decided to stay in London. She wanted the baby to grow up with her father and his family as she did not have her family. It felt precious. She became very emotional and did not want to hurt the father by taking the baby away.
They got married and went on to have 3 children. They were born in London and they were British. She has not put them on a Turkish passport as she still has nightmares of her father finding her and her children. She has been working and paying taxes for years and brought up her 3 children as a single mother until her youngest child got killed by a 18 ton heavy goods vehicle on her way back from school.
My grandfather migrated his country and moved to England. Life was hard in their old country. They had to farm from sunrise to sunset and didn’t get any breaks. They still didn’t have enough money to support their families. So they came to England. There were many different work opportunities; not always high pay. My grandfather came at the age of 21 and worked in a factory. The living conditions were poor. There was only one bed which was shared between 8 people. They took turns sleeping on the beds. My grandfather sent the money he earned back home so that he could support his family. When his family had saved enough money they moved to England and rented out a house.
Thanks for sharing this! Which country did your grandfather move from?
Mohammed Farah, who is also known as Mo, is now a famous runner after going through a thorny bush of obstacles. He migrated to England in 1992. Can you imagine migrating to such a huge place at the age of nine? As I had written before,he went through a big bush of thorns. At the age of eight, he went to the North Side of where he was born (Mogadishu,Somalia). Due to the fact of constant fighting. In Djibouti, where he moved to before going to England, he was looked after by his grandparents. At that time, his father was working at the Heathrow airport. (You know where you go when your off on holiday!)However it doesn't end there. When he was migrating,he had a problem. It is assumed he had problems seeking asylum. From there,he went to Feltham Community College where all his problems came to an end. A senior teacher, Alan Watkinson noticed his athletic talents and encouraged him to do his best in all his physical activities. Soon later, in 2010 he married a woman called Tania and asked Watkinson to be his best man. Soon then his hard work payed off and he is now the professional runner he ever wanted to be.
Freddie Mercury was a refugee from Pakistan to England. He had an amazing and at the same time a hard time because being gay was a bad thing at that time but he became a very famous singer with his band called Queen. He became very famous all around the world but fame comes with lots of problems like drugs. Saddly he died at 48 because he caught an incourable illnes but at least he lived an incredible life thanks to his career like a singer.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic´s father, Sefik Ibrahimovic, was a Bosnian Muslim who immigrated to Sweden in 1977 and his mother, Jurka Gravic, was a Croatian Catholic who also immigrated to Sweden. His immigrant parents met in Sweden and Zlatan was born in the country in 1981.
His parents divorced when Ibrahimovic was just 2 years old and he spent a difficult childhood in the immigrant-populated district of Rosengard. By his own account, he was a bicycle thief and school bully before he honed his football skills.
Aged 15, he was on the verge of quitting football to work at the docks in Malmo but his coach at Malmo FF convinced him to pursue a career in football. Thankfully Ibrahimovic heeded to the advice and we all know how his career panned out.
Ibrahimovic was eligible to represent both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia through his parents in addition to Sweden. Croatia did try to persuade Ibrahimovic, but he opted to play for Sweden and is now the nation’s all-time leading goal scorer.
Bebe from the footballteamo Rayo Vallecano was a poor baby born in Portugal that was left by his parents and became homeless but in a couple of years he was in the Manchester United team for 7 million. He is a great football player!! 👌👌
my grandmother´s friend was a refugees from India to Spain she moved to Spain because of her poor job lackey she founded a better job in Spain. She started to save money to buy a new house. Now she is a happy woman enjoying live with her family.
👍👍👍👍
I found a migrant who was the Duke of Edinburgh who left Germany since he was going to marry the queen in 1947. He migrated to England and he was the only son of Greece´s Prince Andrew. Prince Philip renounced both his Danish and Greek royal titles.
Bebe is a great football player.He was born in Loures, Portugal. When he was ten, his parents, who came from Cape Verde, left him in an orphanage. Between that home and the street he spent his childhood, and found in sport that escape from the harsh reality that so many children share around the world. In 2008, and thanks to that technical capacity that made him stand out in football, he was told to participate in the Homeless World Cup and several media said that Bebe had represented Portugal in the tournament. The following year, after the growth of his name in the local football scene, the Estrela da Amadora (from the Second Division of Portugal) signed him, paying him about 1,300 euros per month. Football has been his life, and the fact hat he has migrated to England and Spain makes him an extaordinary person and an example for everyone.
My cousins and my uncles moved from Madrid, Spain into Chicago in the USA. They moved there because of my uncle's work. They really like this change because it is like a completely different place and people are very different. The style of life is much more divergent and chill. They also like Madrid but to live in they prefer Chicago.
bebe is a famous footballer from portugal who plays for rayo vallecano who migrated from portugal to england to play for man united but now hr is playing for the sapanish tram rayo vallecano . he was abandoned and he was having a hard life in the childrens homes and i think football changed his life an saved him of what could of happend if he hadnt of had football
Jesus and the Holy Family, according to Matthew's gospel account of their flight to Egypt due to Herod's threat
My auntie, uncle, and my cousins migrated to Luxembourg. Nearly 6 years ago because my uncle was moved from Spain. At first, my auntie wasn't very confident as she didn't now anyone and she didn't have a job. My cousins weren't very scared as my little cousin was 5 and the middle one was 7. The eldest one now has 14 but at that time she was 9 and she was a bit scared about moving out of Spain and she didn't want to be alone and don't have friends. My uncle, was already confident and happy as he already lived there and worked there, he already new lots of people. This year, they are all very happy and living happily. They are all more confident than 5 years before. They want to stay there a lot longer.
my oncles friend was a refugee from China to Spain. She move to Spain because she didn't have enough money to buy a house. She wasn't healthy and in Spain they are better hospitals.
Rita Ora
The pop singer and her family fled Kosovo for the U.K. when Rita was just one year old. This was in order to escape ethnic persecution. Some of her songs involve her feelings to refugees, specially from Syria
Albert Einstein is one of the most relevant scientifics in history. He learned to talk when he was three. When he was 4 during a disease which had left him in bed his father gave him a compass. It was then when he started to be interested by physics because he didn`t understand how it could always be pointing North. But in 1895 he had to migrate to Italy. After that he joined the polytechnic university in Zurich.
Albert was German and he was a famous scientist however before the second world war 2 because the German government didn't like what he was researching. so he moved to Switzerland.
Bob Marley moved from Jamaica to Miami after he was shot during political violence. He did respected afro American people but he always wanted to return to Jamaica.
My best Friend reliable_eagle moved from Ghana to britain
The Duke of Edinburgh is perhaps the highest profile UK immigrant. He was born in Corfu in 1921 and is the son of Greece’s Prince Andrew. His mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg. Prince Philip renounced both his Danish and Greek royal titles and became a naturalised British subject just before his engagement to the Queen in 1947.
so me and my family went to newzeland for a few years and my sister was born there but we had to leave early because of the earthquakes
In my old school there was someone who when they moved into England from France didn't speak any English and even after several months of English lessons she still didn't speak at all to anyone in our class. I can now imagine what would be like to move into a different country for a year or two and try to make some new friends who speak a whole different language.
P.S. i found it fine to go back to england because i was only 5 years old but i had a strong kiwi accent and i can't remember how that went down with my friends
My dad moved from Singapore to England when he was 1 year old.Because he was so young he cant rememeber what that was like but he can remember what it was like when he moved back to Singapore at the age of 7. He says it was hard to get used to the heat he had to take salt tablets everyday. He also found it very hard because he left all his friends in England. He also found it hard as the school in Singapore is very different.In the end he made a few friends and he is still in touch with one of them today
Athlete Mo Farah moved from Somali to the UK because of war. He didn't speak a word of English and had to grow up in a culture that was totally different to the one he used to live in. Mo might have experienced some racism because of the time he emigrated. He would also have really struggled with the language barrier initially because his mother tongue and English are complete different. However, he found his talent in running and has gone on to become one of the UK's most successful Olympic athletes of all time. He even moved away again to complete training at different altitudes!
My Grandfather was born in London but from the Republic of Ireland and didn't know who his family were until about 30 years ago and now , after retiring, he is constantly going over to Ireland to build bridges with his long lost relatives. I myself have been lucky enough to go to Ireland and meet some of my family i felt so relieved that these people i had never met before welcomed me to their country. After that trip i feel very proud of my heritage.
The model and actress of Modern Family, Sofia Vegara, was born in Columbia, in 1972 and moved to Miami in 1994. She got a perfect score on her citizenship test.
i once find it fine when we went to england but when i was a 4 year old my italian accent could not change
My cousin, Freddie, moved from Australia after he was born there. He stayed there for about 18 months. He moved because the majority of his family (except from his mum and dad) lived in England. He wasn't treated any differently when he came back to England and doesn't have an australian accent.
My Mum was born in Japan but when she was a child but she had to move to Indonesia because her parents were in the Foreign Office. She later moved to England. My Grandma Lived in Greece, Iran, and Burma; and my great grandfather lived in Israel , Japan, and New York. My Dad was born in New Zealand and then moved to England after he met my mum. My Grandma told me that adapting to different lifestyles in different countries was harder as a grown up. She also told me that when she went to live in different countries, she would have to go by boat, she said that the boat journeys were very long and rather boring. The thing that she did enjoy was the varieties of foods from different cultures.
Wow! What varied and interesting experiences! It would be interesting to compare these accounts and see what they have in common.
Somebody I know had moved from Iraq to England forever because of the war. His experience must have been hard because their mum had to take care of his aunties since their they had no one else. So, his aunties became like sisters to him so I think he must have felt very heart-broken because he had to leave them. Furthermore, I think it would have been scary for them because of not only the fact that a terrible war was going on but also because he was going to live in a new place with different people. Also, they had no family in England so it would have been hard for him and his family to become settled. Moreover, he only moved here two years ago. I think it's harder to move to another country when your older, since ,when your little, you don't know as much about the world around you. For example, when I was two, myself and my family moved to England and I can only remember little parts of the move: I can't remember things like the plane journey or getting to the house.
Migration is often misunderstood with immigration and being a refugee. However, migration is simply moving to a different place from time to time. I didn’t think there was much of a difference until a friend of mine migrated. One of my family friends have moved to a different place entirely because of his parents job opportunity being better there. He moved from England to America and it was very different but he enjoyed it very much viewing it as a new adventure. He saw many things there that widened his horizons and never wanted to come back! It was very hot in the place her lived and he and his family visited many different attractions and he overall enjoyed the experience. Initially, he saw it as a bad thing but then he went and saw how it changed his life. It changed his entire outlook and ways of living.
I read a book called The Boy at the Back of the Class about a boy named Ahmed who was a refugee from Syria, forced out by the war in his country. During his journey to England, he lost his mum, dad and sister. When he arrived here, he arrived as an orphan. Even though this story isn't real, I think it showed the experiences that lots of people go through. In the UK, Ahmed tried to help many refugees by campaigning to the government and the queen not to close the border. It was a very inspirational book and I recommend it to anyone.
Me and my family has moved from Africa to sweden because my dad got a good raise
I know one female singer and actress who her family escaped from kosovo when she was only one year old. She escaped with her famiy to London.
My bonus cousin has moved from Ukraine to Sweden because she was abtoped. she is similar to me in some way but she speaks a little more english than me. she moved to sweden when she was 8 years old :) and i love her
Ryan reynolds is a famous actor who was born 23 ocktober 1976 vancouver british colombia Canada. He moved out when he's carrer startet to take of. Now he livs in a cozy house in new york in the deep woods of Westchester County, with his wife blake lively and there two doughters.
Adolf Hitler was a immegrant from Austria and moved to Germany and in the first world war he served as a soldier and was outraged with what the allies did with Germany. That encouraged him to do what he did and becuase he blamed it on the jews. It is said he died in a bunker but it is not clear becuase for some time ago a Argentinian man claimed he was Adolf, he pronounced it after Argentina would not punish old nazi´s. The thing is his age is correctly lined up with Hitlers.
My best friend moved from Göteborg (Gothenburg) to Skellefteå (Skelleftea).
She was three years old when her and her bother and mom & dad moved to Skellefteå. They moved because one of her parents got a work here in Skellefteå. When they finally moved to Skellefteå the whole family started a new chapter of their life.
I have moved from Gothenburg in south sweden to Skellefteå in north sweden. It is about 13 hours with car to go from Gothenburg to Skellefteå. I moved when i was 12 years and started 6th grade in Skellefteå i was nervous because it was a huge change from a school to another. We moved because my dad got a job here and my gandma and grandpa lives here. The most of my family lives in south sweden but we still visit them on holidays.
Hello, I and exhilarated_cello have a bestfriend who moved from Sweden to South America. Now we are going to tell you about her story.
When we was in 4:th grade a new girl from Italy came to our class. Her mom is from Sweden and her dad is from Italy so she could speak both Swedish and Italian. We became bestfriends very fast. But in the end of 5:th grade she told us that she was going to move. And it wasn´t to a close place, she was going to move to the other side of the Pacific Ocean to a country named Costa Rica. We felt very sad because we knew that we probably wasn´t going to ever meet her again.
She moved because her mom fell in love with a man who live in Costa Rica. We still have contact with her on social media every day and we miss her very much. We really want to meet her again.
My sister is adopted from Ethiopia. She is now living in skelletå sweden. her biological parents left her under a bridge and the polis find her and take her to a orphanage. my parents adopted her and now she is 17 years old.
My grandmother is from a Turkish-Cypriot background, she came from an English-ruled Cyprus to England in 1954 when she was 6 years old. She lived in London borough of Islington for a long time, and over the years she learned English and Greek. She went to school and qualified with a secretarial course and became a secretary for a lawyer's office and then worked for a Cypriot company and she still does. My grandma is living proof that you can go from not knowing any English at ALL, to becoming a very successful person.
A long time age my parents migrated (moved) from Ethiopia to Cuba ( because of a war ) and wanted to school there. Then some years later my parents moved to Madrid; then they had my sister and then me. Then when I was in year 2 we moved to London.
My grandparents migrated from Galicia, Spain, to London in the 60s to have a better life. My grandparents had no money but they desired a better life. Family told them they were crazy as if something went wrong they could possible ruin their lives. But they refused to listen to the crowd and promised to send half of the earnings back to Spain from England. They managed to cross the border and started their lives.
My grandmother decided to work as a maid at peoples houses and my grandfather at a factory. They learnt their way round by going on buses home and by the generosity of others. They learnt English through patience and listening, it was difficult at first but they got the hang of it.
Then they had my uncle and my mother and provided for them the best that they could. Once the children moved out the lived about 10-15 years in London to then move back to Galicia in the year 2000.
When I was four years old my family and I migrated to a country in the Middle East named Qatar. We moved there because the job my father had here in the UK forced him to often leave the country and miss events that were important to me and my sister, like our birthdays. I was very excited to explore a new country but I also knew that soon I would feel an overwhelming homesickness for my home town, London.
On the plane there I was told that Qatar was a desert. Of course my four year-old brain assumed that I would soon be living in a pyramid and riding camels to school on the hot desert sands. I was both disappointed and relieved to find that in fact I would be residing in a gargantuan house in Al Rayyan, Doha. Finally, after seven years I moved back to cold and rainy England. I do feel homesick for Qatar but I am also relieved to finally be back in my home country.
My mother migrated from Australia for better job opportunities. It was quite hard for her because she left her entire family behind to move to a completely different country she had never been to before. In addition to this, she had to adapt to the change in temperature and environment and decent accommodation was extremely hard to find. The hardest thing about changing countries is trying to settle in to an unknown place and leaving behind everything you know. It's leaving and finding home at once.
My dad migrated from Sierra Leone which is in Africa, to England here's the reason why...
My dad is from Sierra Leone , Freetown but there was quite a lot of droughts and low payment in the 1980s so he wanted to migrate to another friendlier and safer invironment to build a healthy more bright future for his family. He dreaded the fact that he couldn't escape with his siblings but they were to young . As he was the oldest out of all 5 he had to do it by himself. Scared but determined he departed from his family. Seeing how he had never been on a plane before it was quite hard but there in England he met my mum who also like my dad migrated from Jamaica to come to England.
wow cheerful leaves that is amazing I never thought your parents would of had to go through all of that but I guess it was a happily ever after.
Yesss😄 Luckily
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, to an Isaaq Somali family from Gabiley, Somaliland. His amazing story tells of increadible determination. Farah is the most decorated athlete in British athletics history, with ten global titles, and was the first British athlete to win two gold medals at the same world championships. I find is story inspiring, and like the fact that although he may have had a slight disadvantage in his early life, he became the increadible role model that he is, in and out the running world.
My old classmate moved from Afghanistan to Sweden in 2015 I think. He and his mother had to move because of the war. They lived in a small apartment but had to move a few times. He was in my class right up to grade 6 when his family was told that they would move to Afghanistan again. When our teachers told us he had to move back to Afghanistan, everyone was sad. Some guys in the class bought a football for him became very depressed and could not go to school. He did not want to eat and needed to drip. His family refused to move and they were allowed to stay in Sweden. When they found out that they could stay a while he got better. He would go in my class but he changed school and moved. Last time a saw him was last year in August or September.
My parents migrated from Zimbabwe to England. My mum moved to England when she was 18 and my dad moved to England when he was 17. My mum stayed in Leeds for 3 years whilst my dad stayed with his uncle for 4 years. By the time my parents were dating, they decided to move to New Castle Upon Tyne. In 2006, me and my twin sister were born. We lived in New Castle for 3 years and decided to move to Bracknell.
I have heard that Albert Einstein migrated from Germany to new Jersey, the reason being that he won the Nobel Prize for physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Also because when he was much older like in his 70s he had to have a very special surgery on his abdominal aortic aneurysm for him to survive but what he stated was truly unbelievable, he stated that he has had a very wonderful and honourable life. That is why this terrible fate happened and the very well know smarty-pants died at the age of 76yrs old
My mum had lived in Hungary and my dad had come from Nigeria. They gave birth to me in 2008 and i had stayed there for 3 years so then my parents had chosen to migrate to England, London. The reason they had chosen to move to England was because they had wanted me to go to an English school as it would better for me also because they wanted to work in England as they could earn a better salary. We are still living in London but now i have a brother and a sister.
Wow an interesting history on your family!
Born on July 12, 1997, Malala became an advocate for girls' education when she was still a child, which resulted in the Taliban issuing a death threat against her. ... In 2013, she gave a speech to the United Nations and published her first book, I Am Malala. In 2014, she won the Nobel Peace Prize. She was a refugee that made her dream real, in my opinion she is THE INSPIRATION for everyone
My father, who used to live in a tiny island in the Indian ocean, has had to migrate now that an active volcano threatened to destroy his home and the surrounding area. He then migrated to France where he met my mother in a party. We migrated to Argentina and soon after the financial crash, to Spain. Where we live happily now.
My nanny migrate from Honduras to Spain because it is really dangerous. In Honduras the capital they stab you in the street and also at night it is really dangerous and when you want to find job it is really difficult,also if it is like a lawyer because you need to study a lot
Malala lived in Pakistan and she really liked studying. When she was getting back from school a gunman shot her in the head and unbelievably she survived. She says the importance of studying . Now she lives in England and is studying in oxford.
Albert Einstein found refuge from Nazi threats in the United States, where he became a symbol of scientific genius.
He decided to study in Switzerland. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, Einstein transformed modern science with his theoretical work on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, quantum energy, light, gravity, relativity of space and time, and conversion of matter into energy.
My nanny is from Brasil but she needed to migrate because if she stayed in Brasil she would not had a good job. She was realy sad for leaving her family in Brasil but if she stayed there she wouldn´t be happy. She had been my nanny since I had 3 months and now she is like part of my family.
My groom[Juan] migrated from Romania to Spain with most of his family. He came to work with horses , as he was not in a great economic position. His grandchildren are still in Romania.
My nanny migrated from Ukraine to Spain eleven years ago when i was three. She came to Spain to find a good job and it was very hard for her because she had to learn a totally different language and alphabet she had to learn how to write with our letters and also grammatically correct. She used to struggle with past tense and present tense. She know speaks perfectly and she teaches me russian and i teach her some english.
PD: she is so nice
My old classmate (we can call her Doris) moved from Syrien to Skellafteå, Sweden year 2012. Doris moved here whit her family because it was restless where they lived. She went in our class in almoast 2 years and we was almoast bestfriends. Year 2014 moved Doris to Umeå. I don't know why but i think it was somthing whit her dad's job. She gave me a note wit her telephone number so I could call her. But when i tried to call her did it not work, I think that Doris gave me the wrong number:(. I have not heard somthing from her since then but I hope Doris and her family are doing good.
When I was much younger, I met a family who lived on our street. They had three children, two younger boys and a girl about my age. I soon became very good friends with the girl, although she was in the year below me at school, so I didn't see her as often as I might have done. Her family was from New Zealand, but had migrated here years previously, though the rest of her family still lived in New Zealand. Last year, I found out that they were moving back to New Zealand, and they did, in January. My friend and her brothers, were devastated at this news - all their friends live in England, and they were very happy here. However, there was a very important reason for them to leave: her father was adopted by the family he grew up with, and as his adopted mother grew older, he felt that he should pay something back to her. She protected him, and looked after him, even though he was not her child and she had other children, so he felt he owed her something, and the least he could do was to look after as she got older. Also, all their family lived in New Zealand, and her parents missed the country. Eventually, they moved away, finding a house near Christchurch, and a school for them to go to. Despite the distance between us, and the time difference, we still keep in touch and are very good friends, though I miss her a lot, and do not get to talk to her/contact her as often as I used to. However much I didn't want her to go, I understand that sometimes there are more important and emotional reasons for somebody to immigrate, and that sometimes it is imperative, but you should not let things like this get in the way of family and friends.
My grandmother migrated from Hong Kong to England when she was 16 all by herself. She came from a poor family with no schooling at all, being the eldest of seven, aged 9, she had to cook, clean and care for the whole family including her twin baby brothers whilst her parents went out to work.
When she got to England she found work but she never stayed in one place for long. Despite not knowing a word of English she was able to travel as far north to Newcastle and as far South to London for work, which for me would be a very daunting task! My grandmother say’s it’s what she had to do to seek a better life despite the loneliness and hardship she faced. If it were me I would be very homesick and extremely scared!
I believe most migrants like my grandmother are hardworking people, extremely strong, brave and resilient because to uproot from your homeland and to face adversity in another country is a very difficult thing to do.
My mother migrated from Sri Lanka to England. From her early childhood memories to her doing her exams, she was in Sri Lanka. An English university was taking people all over the globe and since she passed the university exams, she had a choice of moving to England. She seized the opportunity of moving to England and after her last years of secondary school, leaving Sri Lanka was a tough decision to make; she had shared all of her early childhood memories there. There would have to be family left behind, different cultures and tropical weather. 8,917 km away from her family, she began her life in England. She found life in here quite unusual at the start. It was a new realm to enter, a place for a brighter future still awaiting ahead. She still missed Sri Lanka and all of her family that were still left far away. After a while, she became used to England as it is and is now even happier of leaving Sri Lanka than before because of the amazing opportunities there are. In addition, she is grateful for moving there since in her culture, she was not allowed to go to faraway places but in England, she was free to go wherever she wished to go to and she learnt more things in England that she would not have been able to learn in Sri Lanka. Moreover, in England, she had the freedom to choose whatever job she had a passion in because in Sri Lanka, you were often forced to do a certain job that your parents wanted you to do.