Of movements, migrations and equality

Wanting a better life someplace else, migrants leave their mother/father countries and move to other places. Sometimes it is hope for safety and a better future for themselves and their children and other times, it is to ensure financial security for themselves. Whatever their aspirations, I am forced to think if the life of migrants is really as good as portrayed.

I know workers from South Eastern countries come to the Middle East trying to earn some extra money to send home to their families. Working from dawn to dusk, often in life-risking occupations, would their life have been better had they stayed on in their own countries and tried to continue on with their traditional occupations like farming or to have taken up jobs suited for their temperament and education or skill levels in their own country.

As an emigrant worker in another country myself, I have been pondering about these.  What brought on these musings ? The earnings of people from low income countries in “richer” countries, is different from what their counterparts from other countries would make. I guess it comes back to work place bullying and discrimination in the workplace.

From first-hand experience I know that salaries in my own organization were fixed on different scales based on where we came from. And I am surprised to read that even recruits into various new organizations in the Middle East are stratified based on where they come from. Benefits, wages, packages are reported different based on place of origin. At airports, one is forced to stand in long queues to get an exit or entry into our country of work, based on where we come from.

In the end, is it all worth it ? There is really nothing that unifies the world. Not language( even English has different categories of users- Native speakers Vs ESLs or EFLs), not ethnicity( Mongoloids, Caucasians, African or anything else), not even religion ( Christians from different countries are differently treated within countries and even outside and perhaps other religions have similar stories to tell). Would it be better for people to remain where they were born and try to make that country livable rather than work in another country and hope that country will make their life livable ? I don’t know.

I mean, is there hope for humanity- can human kind ever be one or think like one ? Man can only run from place to place, but where can he find true equality or dignity or respect or love- is there really a safe haven anywhere on earth ?