“Why do people back home think money grows on trees?” is a question that my peers including myself have tried to understand. To give you some context, we all came from different cultural backgrounds but share the same stereotypical problems. Growing up and living in the UK is very different from living in a society for example, the Philippines, although westernized hasn’t really created modernization.
The idea of a family member leaving their home country was to look for ‘something better’. A country like the Philippines don’t necessarily have the most trustworthy Government. At times, filled with spiraling corruption and people mindlessly voting for a presidential candidate who praises ‘Jesus’ but with hypocrisy, believes killing is the answer to solve crime. The country struggles to accept that the root cause to this is that their society is made to believe in people of popularity, title and with money.
“At times, filled with spiraling corruption and people mindlessly voting for a presidential candidate who praises ‘Jesus’ but with hypocrisy, believes killing is the answer to solve crime”
Another disturbing issue evident is the ‘whitewashing’. Have you ever seen a dark-skinned person in Asian TV commercials? Women are made to think that the whiter your skin is, the more beautiful you are. It’s very rare to see a dark-skinned Filipino on television other than when wanting to add ‘comedic value’. Most Asian societies are smeared this thinking and it’s a stubborn stain. The ‘whiter’ you are the richer you are mentality.
“Most Asian societies are smeared this thinking and it’s a stubborn stain. The ‘whiter’ you are the richer you are mentality “
It is expected by those left behind to believe that you are ‘doing well’ in terms of work and money. Take my Aunt and Uncle for example; they migrated over to the UK and it wasn’t because they lacked the skill, but for better paid jobs and to further support a number of their family members. They work their fingers to the bone and feel the pressure to support the families they’d left behind, not necessarily suffering from poverty but to be part of the ‘trend’.
It is known that parents would invest their earnings to one child to be able to work abroad. It’s this thinkingimplanted in them that living in the western world would provide them better opportunities than their own homeland.
There’s pressure for this individual to make sure that they earn enough to provide for their family and at the same time having to deal with the pressures of western society; which most don’t fully comprehend the difficulties. Their life becomes a non-ending routine of work and sleep; at times working multiple jobs in order to pay for their living in the UK. Although admirable for supporting their family, where does the line cross? How can we expect that individual to still further provide once they have a family of their own? Do people really travel to the western world because of poverty or just following the ‘whiter you are, the richer you are’ trend? There could be many reasons.
What we cannot do is let this type of thinking continue and become the norm of what it means to work and live in the western world.
Art of Words 