Millions of people move from one place to another. When it isn’t just the city that changes but the language and culture, it can be difficult to feel at home.
A doormat says “Home Sweet Home.” (Credit: Andy Dean Photography)
This article, by high school student Enzo Cazzaniga, was produced out of News Decoder’s school partnership program. Enzo is a student at Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich, a News Decoder partner institution. Learn more about how News Decoder can work with your students.
Ayse Yılmaz was born in Turkey, but moved to Switzerland in 2011 alongside her husband. She found it difficult to leave, but she understood that life would be better for the two of them in Switzerland.
“The arrival in a new country is a fresh start,” Yılmaz said. “It is a new chapter of your life. It is a new place you have to turn into a home. It’s hard to leave those for whom you care behind, but I had to understand what was best, and that life would be better here.”
The term “home” has become embedded into the vocabulary of people worldwide. Its resonance stems from its versatility. It possesses multiple meanings and none of them definite.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the word “home” may be used to refer to one’s residence, such as a house or an apartment. The term can also mean an institution for those who require special care, or even the type of family you come from.
Home can also be an emotional state. It is a feeling of belonging.
What immigrants leave behind
According to the United Nations, as of 2021, 281 million people live outside their home country, due to reasons ranging from finding employment abroad, to being forced to immigrate on account of violence, persecution, conflicts or even human rights violations.
For many immigrants, as for myself, their country is not all they have to leave behind. Many are forced to forsake families, treasured belongings, traditions and festivals, and in some cases even important aspects of their culture, in order to take a chance at improving their life.
But how exactly do immigrants turn an unknown place into a home? What difficulties must they overcome in order to integrate themselves in a new culture?
Language barriers make it difficult to communicate. Yılmaz described how that made her feel lonely.
“While I couldn’t fluently speak the language, I was not fully able to explain my thoughts, to express myself, to ask questions when in doubt,” Yılmaz said. “Overall, I had no chance to speak my mind, and so I was just alone with my thoughts.”
She took language courses. Some weren’t helpful enough; others were quite expensive.
Language can be a barrier.
Marina Braga, a Brazilian who moved to Switzerland in 2022, has also experienced language barriers. “Not knowing the language makes me less independent,” Braga said. “I have to avoid going to certain places to which I’d like to go, just because of the language.”
To feel comfortable and develop a sense of identity with the culture, it helps to integrate. “Not knowing the language makes it harder to be immersed in the culture,” she said.
Back in 1997, Queens University Belfast psychologist John W. Berry found evidence that acculturation helps immigrants develop a sense of belonging because those who immerse in two cultural communities have access to two social support systems. Berry defined integration as an acculturation strategy, where one maintains their own culture, while in daily interaction with groups of other cultures.
Yılmaz said that working and interacting with Swiss colleagues helped her adapt to the country. “When I started working, I began chatting more with my Swiss co-workers, and at that point, I think I started feeling less different from them,” she said.
Yee Ling Willems, a teacher at my gymnasium who was born in Malaysia and came to Switzerland later in life, pointed out that as a minority, immigrants have to make the effort to accept and learn about their new country’s culture. “You cannot expect the majority to conform to the minority,” she said.
“Learning and practising a country’s tradition helps us feel more comfortable in it,” added Willems said.
Integrating without losing identity
For Braga, integration is a learning process. “Every time I interact with a local, I feel a bit more adapted, as I get this feeling that I am learning about where I am,” Braga said. “That’s reassuring.”
Practising traditions they bring from home countries can give immigrants a sense of belonging, even during the toughest times.
Danylo Bryhinskyi, a student at my gymnasium who migrated from the Ukraine to Switzerland, said that practising and embracing the Ukrainian culture helps him overcome homesickness.
“At home we still speak Ukrainian, we eat Ukrainian food, which one one hardly finds here, and we also read Ukrainian books and literature,” Bryhinskyi said.
Yılmaz pointed to things she has from her homeland including ceramics and a sculpture. She said she eats Turkish dishes daily in her household. These objects and traditions bring back memories from Turkey and give her a sense of understanding who exactly she is.
“I might feel comfortable and love it here in Switzerland, but I know that I am not Swiss,” she said.
Straddling two cultures
Yılmaz has three children. “Sometimes when I am taking walks with my children, they will look at me and say ‘I don’t want to leave this country, mommy.’” Yılmaz said. “Whenever they say this, I remember that Switzerland is where I have to stay.”
Braga agreed. “One of the reasons we came here was that this experience here would be very beneficial for our daughter,” Braga said. “I want to provide her with a chance of having contact with multiple cultures, I want her to learn about them and I also want her to have a chance of going to school in a country which has one of the best education systems in the world, as that will certainly open doors for her in the future.”
Whether an immigrant fully develops a sense of belonging in a new country depends on a number of factors, such as how long they are gone and the conditions in which they had to leave.
Bryhinskyi said that while Switzerland’s safety, beautiful nature and the quality of its educational system makes it the “best country in the world”, there are still Ukrainian traditions he can’t practise in his new country, and many people who are of importance to him aren’t here by his side.
Because of that, he admits that he is not able to call Switzerland his home yet. “My friends aren’t here with me,” Bryhinskyi said. “It’s not the same without them, for example the sense of humour here is different.”
For some, like Willems, calling a new country their home doesn’t necessarily mean that their places of origin are no longer their home.
“I consider myself very lucky, as I don’t have just one home, I have two: Malaysia and Switzerland,” Willems.
Yılmaz agreed. Even though she considers Switzerland a home of hers nowadays, that does not mean that she no longer has a sense of identity and a feeling of belonging to Turkey, her homeland.
Creating roots in a new place
Other immigrants, like Braga, do seem to feel that moving to a new country leaves them feeling rootless.
“I think it is funny, but I actually don’t feel like I belong anywhere, and I think this is true for many immigrants,” Braga said.
That comment led me to reflect on my journey as an immigrant, and wonder where I belong.
Upon turning 11 years old, I was told by my parents that we would leave our homeland, Brazil, to move to Japan. My father had found a great job opportunity. Nevertheless I recall thinking at that time: “How am I supposed to abandon the only home I’ve ever known?”
Leaving behind everything that shaped you as a person to essentially start a new life abroad can be complicated. At times you stare at a reflection of yourself and wonder who the person you see really is.
However, as I reminisce about my time in Japan, and the experiences I’ve had in Switzerland so far, I realise that my Brazilian roots are still part of who I am, but so are the lessons, the laughs and the moments I have had in Japan and Switzerland, immersing myself in their cultures. And each day I learn something new that will stay with me.
As long as I remember who I really am.
Three questions to consider:
- What are some reasons people have for moving from one country to another?
- Why might someone be unhappy when they move to a place where they feel safer than where they were?
- If you were to have to move now to another country what would you miss about where you live now?
Enzo Cazzaniga is in the fourth year at Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich. Originally from Brazil, Cazzaniga lives in Switzerland and enjoys studying mathematics and physics.
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