Immigrants

Something I feel in Germany and never felt in Czech is that I am an immigrant. Of course, when I say “immigrant” I mean it as in the following sentences (some from my mum): “This year we have a lot of immigrants in the school” “this neighborhood is full of immigrants, drug addicts and prostitutes” “thirty immigrants were rescued from the see” “immigrants collapse national health care system”

Modest me, I never considered myself an immigrant. I always thought I am a young professional, who, of course, moves freely in this, our continent, Europe. This said, like anyone who ever had to apply for a visa I worship the Schengen agreement and the euro as if they were respectively the arm and leg of Saint Theresa.

I am aware that, as much as I would like to avoid it, we all have prejudices that are not possible to cure. The only thing to be done is trying not to pass them on to our kids, so they don't grow up thinking that Chinese people should be painted wearing yellow hats, Americans are ignorant and obese and Czechoslovak girls come to Spain and not the other way around.

Also, the prejudices change with time, and not always for good. My neighbor told me that while watching the news, her husband and she were wondering if they knew some Spanish person. Took them a while to realize their son had just spent the afternoon with one. Seems I’m just not the type. No wonder. Flooded by news of millions of hungry Spaniards crossing the Pyrenees, holding a ham and a picture of Merkel, I think my neighbors were going through all the short hairy engineers with white undershirt they know.

To make things worse, while in Prague I used to mingle with Americans in expat bars, in Nuremberg I regularly visit the Galician center. So all together the prejudices, the news, and the tall blonde Germans I end up doing things that remind me of my mother, like getting stressed about putting the yogurts in the right rubbish can and cleaning the kid before going out of the house, so the neighbors won’t tell “tsk, tsk, those immigrants…”