Interview with Faisal
I conducted my interview over zoom with Alfaisal Al Churaikhi, who goes by Faisal, a shorter and easier way to pronounce his name. I met Faisal through one of my roommates at JMU, named Gabe. I visited Gabe over this Thanksgiving break, and while I was at his house, Faisal who has been friends with Gabe since they were in eighth grade came over to hang out with us as well. It was not until a couple days after, when the original person I had planned to interview did not answer a couple of my phone calls, did I think of asking Faisal to be my interviewee.
Faisal is of Iraqi descent and lived in Iraq for the first few years of his life, I actually forgot to ask how many. However, when he was around the age that began school his family moved to the United Arab Emirates, where they stayed until he was twelve which is when they moved to the United States. They moved the United Arab Emirates with the intention of staying there indefinitely, they just moved to the United States later after the opportunity presented itself to them, it was not as if they had always planned to move to the United States after the United Arab Emirates. They were able to make the actual move the same year as they began planning it, there was not much of a layoff period to plan how they would make the move. His dad was offered a job in the United States with a news media company. The company helped Faisal’s family a lot with the immigration of process of gaining lawful residency status as Faisal said “, they were in charge of handling the paperwork and the visa stuff and all that stuff to come here.” The job his dad was offered was located in Alexandria, Virginia so that is where they first moved to, and they have stayed there since then, which has been around 10-11 years.
Faisal’s family’s immigration experience did not align with Piore’s segmented labor market theory that we learned about in class. Piore’s theory says that an economy has a constant demand for jobs that have low wages, that have unstable working conditions, limited opportunity to move up in the company and often bad working conditions. He says that few natives will want to work these jobs, so they are often filled by immigrants. I did not ask Faisal what his dad’s salary was when they moved here as that would have been rude to ask and none of my business, but I find it hard to believe that his dad’s job did not have fairly high wages. Their family moved to Alexandria which is very close to Washington D.C. and therefore a very expensive place to live, and they have been able to stay there since they moved there 10-11 years ago, which essentially proves that his dad’s job was not a low-wage job like the ones that Piore described that immigrants would work at. Piore also said in his theory that these secondary sector jobs that immigrants would fill do not have prestige and are not very stable. Faisal’s dad’s job with a news company sounds like it carries some prestige to me and likely had opportunities to move up in the company if he performed well at his first position. So overall, Faisal’s family’s arrival in the United States was contrary to how Piore predicted immigrants’ working situations would be when they arrived. However, Faisal has seen a few immigrants come to the United States and have an experience similar to that of what Piore theorized. Later on in the interview, Faisal said that three of his dad’s friends who moved to the United States, at least initially, were not able to find jobs in their career field they had previously worked in, and had to do some other line of work. Faisal did not say whether the jobs they worked at first were “dirty work” jobs, as Piore theorized immigrants would end up doing, or not. His dad’s friends also lived with Faisal’s family for a short time when they first moved to the United States when they were looking for work. Faisal’s dad’s friends’ experiences were similar to those of chain migration that we learned about early on in the semester. In chain migration, the people coming over to the United States often stay with their friends or relatives who suggested that they move here, just as Faisal’s dad’s friends did. However, Faisal only could recall this occurring with three of his dad’s friends and he said that two of them are now living in Texas and the other one is living in Minnesota, so they did not all remain in the same place, like the immigrant networks that we learned about.
Faisal said that his family did not know anyone in the United States when they first arrived. He mentioned that this was hard for him, because he had to say goodbye for good to the friends he had made in grade school in the United Arab Emirates. He also mentioned that it was hard on his dad, who had made many friends through his work in the United Arab Emirates and his dad also barely spoke any English when he arrived here, which made it even more difficult for him. Faisal himself, was not a fluent English speaker when he arrived, but he had taken English classes in school growing up, so he knew English better than his parents did. He said that he was able to learn English fluently within 3-6 months from listening to people talk at his local community pool and from watching television in English. He said he would still not consider his parents to be fluent English speakers, but that they know enough to get by. He said that his family primarily speaks Arabic at home, with the occasional words in English sprinkled into a sentence. Faisal’s younger twin sisters who were born in the United Arab Emirates speak Arabic well he said, but their younger brother who was born in the United States does not speak it fluently and prefers to speak in English. Faisal also said that for his major requirements in college, he was required to take three foreign language courses, and he was allowed to take Arabic for these languages. I am not sure if he had the same professor for all three of these courses or not, but he mentioned how he had one that was also an Iraqi immigrant who he enjoyed talking back and forth to in Arabic.
Faisal said that the biggest things that his family was able to do once they arrived here to maintain their Iraqi culture was finding their local international grocery store that had all the spices and dishes that they had eaten before coming to the United States and finding a mosque. He described eating the Iraqi food from the international grocery store with his family as “going back in time to Iraq.” He also said that the mosque they found had lots of immigrant groups including Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans who helped his family feel at home here in America. He later said that his family has done a good job of blending Iraqi culture with American culture, so that they are assimilated to America, but it is still easy to tell that they are Iraqi. He said that they know some families who have placed much more emphasis on assimilating to American culture that you cannot tell that they immigrants, that they appear as natives. He did not explicitly say that he was glad that his family has blended the two and not placed their roots in the backseat, but from the way he was talking about it, I implied that he is happy that his family has retained a lot of their Iraqi culture.
Faisal and his family’s expectation of their life in America was not how they thought that it would be. He said that many people from other countries have this notion that once they move to America, they will “live like kings.” He mentioned that both he and his parents had seen this occurring in movies and just assumed it would be true, but in reality, their life here was pretty similar to other countries in that they had to work to make an honest living and they weren’t just given it. He also mentioned that his family members that still live in Iraq asked his family if Faisal’s family did indeed live like kings once they got here, so this notion must be pretty widespread in Iraq and likely some other countries as well.
Another thing we talked about in the interview was sports. Faisal never played sports on an organized team, but he did often play with his friends that lived in his neighborhood. He mainly played soccer when he did this, and occasionally played football with his friends. He said that before he moved to the United States he had never even heard of American football and he believes that most Arabs have never heard of it. He said soccer is easily the most popular sport played in the Arab world, with basketball being the second most popular sport. He said that he still does not consider himself a fan of American football, but enjoys watching highlights of the big hits in the NFL and he began watching these highlights about two years after he moved here. He said, “the way they clash into each other and then still walk away without a scratch, that’s just amazing to me.”
Another thing that we learned about in this class that I asked about was whether or not the local institutions in Alexandria were accommodating to Faisal and his family or not. He said that his teachers in 5th and 6th grade were very nice to him. He said his family did not really have any issues with other institutions like hospitals or social services, which he attributed to his dad’s employee visa. He also said that his parent’s reception from other adults was good and welcoming, but kids were not very welcoming to him when he first arrived. Kids at his school thought he was “the weirdo,” and would also make fun of him for not speaking English well and made jokes about how he looked like a terrorist.
We also talked about American and Iraqi traditions during the interview. He said his favorite American traditions that he has picked up since moving here are Thanksgiving and Christmas time. He would often enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with Gabe’s family. He also especially likes Christmas music and drinking eggnog around Christmas time. He had never heard of eggnog when he was living in the Arab world but has come to love it since moving to America. He said that the holiday celebration that is celebrated in the Arab world that Americans would probably like the most if they were introduced to it is Eid. Eid is the Islamic equivalent of Christmas that lasts for three days at a time and occurs twice a year, so Faisal said “essentially, you’re having six Christmases,” which he thought that Americans would enjoy, and I would agree with that assessment personally.
Another thing that we talked about in the interview was Faisal’s education in both the United States and in the United Arab Emirates. He was able to enroll in a school about two months after he arrived here. He said that the education system is very different in American than in the United Arab Emirates. Here, public schools are co-educational with both girls and boys attending them, while Faisal said that the public schools he attended while he was living there were segregated by gender. They would also have all the kids stay in one classroom all day and have the teachers of different subjects rotate in and out of the different classrooms, while in the United States the opposite is the case, where students move in and out of rooms and teachers typically stay in one room the whole time. He also believes that the areas of learning that the respective countries focus on are different. He said that he believes here in America, that our education focuses a lot on writing and critical thinking, while the United Arab Emirates’ education system stresses factual recall and test taking more than we do. This was surprising to me, as I have always thought that my classes were too test-driven, but I do not have any other country’s education system to compare it to.
The interview and this summary for that matter would not be complete if I did not mention Faisal and his family’s legal status in the United States. As I previously mentioned, they came here on his dad’s employee sponsored visa, so they were not undocumented when they first arrived. He said his family all gained permanent residency status within six months of arriving here. He said his parents became citizens about three years after they arrived here, and that those three years were expensive and stressful. Faisal himself was able to gain citizenship soon after his parents, which I found to be a close parallel to the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, which gave priority in the ability to become a citizen to people who have relatives that were already United States citizens. Faisal also mentioned that because of his citizenship he was able to get a driver’s license and work at the local Jimmy John’s when he was 16 which gave him a very enjoyable sense of independence. If he was undocumented at that time, he would not have been able to get a driver’s license because as we learned in class, undocumented immigrants have been unable to get a driver’s license until now and will be able to get a driver’s license in Virginia for the first time on January 1, 2021. He said that if his family had stayed in either Iraq or the United Arab Emirates he wouldn’t have been able to get a driver’s license until he was at least eighteen.
Overall, I conclude that Faisal and his family’s experience migrating to the United States was different than most of the types of experiences we have seen in this class, because they were never undocumented, gained citizenship in around three years, had a stable living situation immediately upon arriving here, and never had to work in harsh working conditions. I had fun interviewing Faisal and doing this project as a whole. I hope to keep in contact with him in the future.
Scott: Hello Faisal, what is your full name?
Faisal: Full name is Alfaisal Al Churaikhi
Scott: Okay, and what country are you originally from?
Faisal: Iraq.
Scott: How old were you when your family began planning to move to the U.S.?
Faisal: I think I was 12
Scott: And how old were you when your family actually did move to the U.S.?
Faisal: 12, so that same year.
Scott: So, there wasn’t a big layoff between when you decided to come here and when you actually made the move?
Faisal: Yeah, so the reason for that is because the way we came here is through my dad’s work. So at the beginning of the year, the company that was based in the US, media company, offered him a job. And then throughout that year, they were in charge of handling the paperwork and the visa stuff and all that stuff to come here. That’s why I went here.
Scott: Did you did your parents or you have any specific goals or aspirations to achieve once you arrived here?
Faisal: Yeah, for sure. My dad especially, I mean, because the way he was brought up, he lived the first like 20 years of his life in a farm in the countryside, so his way of life was just essentially waking up taking care of the farm taking care of the animals and trying to get some something to eat. And then he went to school he went to college in Baghdad in the city. And then during that time, his main goals were to find opportunity where may be so that’s why we came here to the land of opportunities to see what we can what we can do for himself and for the kids, obviously, for me and my sisters.
Scott: Are you older or younger than your sisters?
Faisal: I’m the oldest, my sister are 14 yeah, twins.
Scott: So did they never go… did have any education in Iraq? Or were they too young?
Faisal: No, they were born in UAE in Dubai. So we went, so we lived in Iraq. We moved there when I was 6. Yeah 6 going on 7 and then and then we moved to the UAE, and that’s when like my sisters were born. Then we came here and that’s when my little brother was born.
Scott: Okay, Did your family ever consider migrating to any other countries besides the US?
Faisal: Well, not really. Because like I said, we were in Dubai, where we were relatively stable in there. And I guess the only consideration would be to move back to Iraq. But the situation never became stable enough to move back. And yeah, the job offer came and then we said why not?
Scott: So, did your dad and Sorry, I’m not supposed to do leading questions.
Faisal: No problem.
Scott: was it always considered a temporary move when you move to the UAE? Did you know?
Faisal: No.
Scott: Oh, okay.
Faisal: No, yeah, we were going there to stay for the for the long run. Yeah.
Scott: Have you always known that it would be permanent that you’d stay in the U.S.?
Faisal: In the U.S. That’s where it gets tricky. Because we’ve stayed here for so long. And I’ve gone to school here and my sisters are going to high school here. This might be the permanent move. We’ve sort of acclimated to the culture. We’ve found jobs here and all that stuff. So, this might be permanent. And then like every once in a while, we’d go back to Iraq just to visit family and stuff like that.
Scott: What method of transportation did you use to get to the U.S.?
Faisal: Plane.
Scott: Okay, I just asked because a lot of what we learned about in class is Latin American immigrants who come on long car rides with and sometimes
Faisal: One second
Scott: They have to pay a coyote a lot of money to come over. And a lot of times the Latin American immigrants that we learned about can take like months to get here.
Faisal: Yeah, yeah, so we were definitely because there’s a bunch of different types of visas so we’re definitely lucky enough to get the, I forgot what the visa was called at the time, but it’s the employee sponsored visa. So, they handled a lot of the work we just had to prove like within the visa paperwork, that when we came to the U.S., we wouldn’t come with nothing and then rely on the U.S. government for sustenance. We’d come with like a job lined up we’d have money saved up we’d have like means to get started working Yeah.
Scott: Was your whole family with you when you came over on the plane, the first time?
Faisal: Yeah, when I came to the U.S. it was me, my dad, my mom and my two sisters.
Scott: Was there anyone who you were close to, wait So. So, you moved here from the UAE and not from Iraq?
Faisal: Yes.
Scott: Okay, Was there anyone who you were close to that stayed in the UAE when you moved here?
Faisal: Yeah, pretty much all of my dad’s friends when we came here we didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know anyone Yeah, it was pretty much all my dad’s friends were still there all the family friends they stayed in the UAE Yeah, so we came here just like fish out of water.
Scott: How did it feel to say goodbye to all the people you’d known in the UAE?
Faisal: it was it was definitely very, very tough because I’ve sort of lived there for the majority of my like the young phase the tween phase of my teenage years. So I knew these friends ever since I was in elementary school. And I had to leave in towards the end of middle school, so it was it was definitely tough. Especially for my dad for him to leave his friends that he’s known for all these years for all his life and to come to a country where he knows no one, barely speak the language was hard adjustment the first two years three years it was definitely very hard.
Scott: Yeah, we’ve learnt a lot about that in this class.
Faisal: Yeah.
Scott: How often How often did you return to either Iraq or the UAE to visit relatives or friends during your first few years in the U.S.?
Faisal: So, we couldn’t go back to Iraq rock, at least because of the situation it wasn’t very stable
Scott: Mmhmm
Faisal: until Yeah, till last year. Actually. That’s when I went. So, it’s been 10 years.
Scott: What about the UAE? Have you returned to visit the UAE at all?
Faisal: No, because shortly after we left, a lot of my dad’s friends also left within like the next two or three years. At the time that the UAE had these like these super strict citizenship rules. So, they wouldn’t give citizenship to people that have lived there for so many years, even though those people came with a promise that there be some sort of pathway to citizenship. And, and when that pathway essentially was cut off, alot of my dad’s friends decided to move to different countries.
Scott: Okay, what do you remember most about your first few days in the U.S.?
Faisal: What I remember most, I remember when we first came was it was very late at night. 12, I think. I remember the taxi that we that we got in it was one of those minivans I’d never seen a minivan In my life, so it was a like a minivan taxi. Oh, the first month we stayed in like an apartment that my dad’s work rented. And I remember that like, I’d never seen like an apartment complex. It was it was furnished because in UAE I lived in this this like, giant high rise, but this one it was like, they look like houses that were strung together. So I’d never seen that. And yeah, oh, when I turned on the TV, and I saw like Disney XD or whatever, Disney Channel, whatever it was about that time. I was so confused. Because it wasn’t anything that I was used to. That really stuck with me. And yeah, I feel like that’s the biggest.
Scott: Okay, how are cartoons in America different from UAE or Iraq?
Faisal: Well, I was surprised when there wasn’t cartoons when I turned on Disney Channel.
Scott: Oh.
Faisal: Oh, it was it was like yeah, I think the first show I watched was Wizards of Waverly Place.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: That was my first watch. Now, I was like, why is this on? Like, shouldn’t there be cartoons or something? Because over there there’s no like, live action TV shows. Strictly animated stuff.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: Yeah, so I found that super weird. And then and then when I saw that episode, I saw these these older kids essentially going to high school and all that stuff. I thought, Oh, this is what its gonna be like?
Scott: Did your family know anyone living in the US that suggested you migrate here specifically? Like maybe someone who has worked at your dad’s company who suggested he come to the U.S.?
Faisal: No, actually we did not know anyone.
Scott: Okay. When you first came here, did you come through Parris Island?
Faisal: No
Scott: Okay. I’m not sure if they even still do that. But I know they used to make immigrants first
Faisal: Yeah. In the early in the early 1900s. No, but we came with him on airplane to Dulles.
Scott: Where in the U.S. did your family first settle at?
Faisal: In Alexandria, like 20-30 minutes away from here.
Scott: Okay, why did you pick there specifically?
Faisal: Just the work that’s where they rented the apartment. Yeah.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: They had no choice.
Scott: Did the area you first settled in have a lot of immigrants?
Faisal: Not that we noticed, no.
Scott: Okay, I just asked because in this class it’s kind of common for a lot of immigrants to move to one area, especially immigrants from the same, like say a small town in Mexico, like one come to us. And…
Faisal: For sure
Scott: they’ll tell all of his relatives and friends to move to the same town.
Faisal: Yeah, I feel like the reason why we didn’t have this experience is because we didn’t know anyone that lived in the U.S. so we didn’t know where to go. Like we were at the mercy of the employee’s sponsor. So, I’m pretty sure they picked that place only because it was close to the work.
Scott: How long did it take for you to be enrolled in a school after you got to the U.S.?
Faisal: That took I think two months I wanna say.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: I have to do like these like placement tests and all that stuff.
Scott: Were you in the same grade you were in the UAE or?
Faisal: No, they put me down.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: For whatever reason, I’m still mad about that (laughs as if he is not too mad)
Scott: How is education in the US different than your education in the UAE?
Faisal: It is different in the sense that when I was here, you have a lot more freedom. Over there at the school was like a boys and girls like segregated, you had to have uniforms. It was Oh, and then there, you stay in one class and the teacher rotates, but here, it’s like you go to first period, second period, or whatever. So that was very different. And then the biggest thing, obviously, is the language over there. Everything is on Arabic, and then here, everything’s taught in English.
Scott: Did you find any ways that education here was similar to Iraq or to the UAE?
Faisal: similar in the sense that it was similar subjects? Yeah.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: But I would say, the actual curriculum, like what they wanted, you know, was very different. Yeah, yeah.
Scott: Did you think one country was harder, per se?
Faial: Yeah, so what I figured out is that there’s different focuses, like in the UAE and Iraq, and most of the Arab countries, the focus is really on memorization, and factual recall, and just taking tests endlessly, but here, it’s more writing, critical thinking. And yes, there’s still like, some factual recall. But it’s only to help you with the writing and the critical thinking portion. So, in terms of, I guess, process over there is obviously harder because you have to memorize everything. But here, it’s a little bit easier, because you can apply or get away with things by writing persuasively and whatnot.
Scott: If you had stayed in the UAE, do you believe you could have attained the same education you got here in the U.S.?
Faisal: I would? I would say so. Yeah, because the UAE has so many opportunities for studying abroad. So I would say so.
Scott: do you think if you if your country (I meant to say family) had stayed in Iraq, do you think you could have attained the same education?
Faisal: Oh, absolutely not. Yeah, the schools there are essentially a joke they’re just people just show up there because they’re bored of being at home.
Scott: so when you moved to the U.S., did you mainly maintain culture from Iraq or the UAE?
Faisal: No, Iraq, even when they were in the UAE It was pretty much Iraqi customs.
Scott: Okay, How did your family go about trying to maintain your Iraqi culture and customs once you were in the U.S.?
Faisal: So, the biggest thing is the food. Thankfully, we were able to find like a, like an international grocery store that sold different spices and different dishes. So that was the biggest thing, the food. Every time we would eat like a home cooked meal, it would feel familiar. It’s like we’re going back in time to Iraq when we would sit together and eat others otherwise Oh, it really really, really helped when we found a mosque. That’s when we started meeting other Arabs, other Iraqis. A lot of different different cultures, even there was a Pakistani community, an Afghan community. So that’s what really helped us because we were brought together by religion. That’s what really made us feel the most at home.
Scott: Was your life in America, how you imagined it would be? When you first arrived in America, was your life here as you imagined it would be?
Faisal: No, absolutely not. Very, very different.
Scott: what about your parents, was their life similar to how they thought it was going to be?
Faisal: No, again very different.
Scott: Can you describe how it was different from what you anticipated?
Faisal: Yeah, so as far as parents are concerned they had this notion that yeah, it was like when we come here that like we’ll somehow like live like kings and oh, America has all this like opulence and all that but they were shocked to find out that here is essentially the same as it is in every country, where your paycheck truly only lasts you that amount of time that it’s given. So let’s say like we were living paycheck to paycheck like we weren’t struggling, but it wasn’t like, Oh, I can go out and buy. I don’t know, like a gazillion inch TV or this brand new car, I was still living within our means. So they were shocked by that they thought it would be like, oh, extravagant because what they see in the movies. And then for me I thought it would be, again, sort of what I saw in the movies where when you go to high school, like all the cool kids are gonna sit on that table all the weirdos are in that thing, and then all the, it’s very cliquey which I mean, yes, there was a little bit of it, but for the most part, I didn’t see that. Yeah, those are the biggest things.
Scott: Okay, would you say that, over time after you had been living in the U.S. for years that your life became more like what you expected?
Faisal: No, I wouldn’t say so. I mean, I feel like we’re still I feel like yes, we assimilated with American culture. But we’re still very, very much connected to Iraqi to Arab culture as well. So I yeah, I feel like I’ve like stuck because because we know some families that the sort of, I don’t want to say abandoned but but they let go of that, that Arab culture and then focus on American culture. And their life is you can like you can’t tell them apart from an American family versus like a, an immigrant family. But if like, we’re different, we still try to meld the two together.
Scott: Okay. Did you feel as if local residents were welcoming to you and your family when you arrived here?
Faisal: Yes. As far as the adults, but when I came here, the kids were not nice at all.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: I was Yeah, I was like, sort of the, I was viewed as the weirdo for whatever reason. I was made fun of because, because of like, my English wasn’t very good. Like, when I first came. So, I was made fun of that because of that. And obviously, because of the way I look, they made the terrorist jokes.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: But yeah.
Scott: Okay. Did you feel as if local institutions such as schools, hospitals, and police were welcoming to you and your family?
Faisal: School? Definitely my fifth and sixth grade teachers were very, very nice. They were amazing, actually. Other institutions, we didn’t really interact with, just the schools.
Scott: I asked, because, in our class, we spent a couple of days learning about how a lot of people when they move here don’t have health insurance and hospitals are not very accommodating to people without health insurance.
Faisal: Yeah, I mean, we’ve heard a lot about that. But again, thankfully, because of the employee sponsorship, we were able to just like sort all that out.
Scott: How long had you been living in the U.S. until you began to like American foods and customs/ traditions?
Faisal: That’s a good question, I think it is it started in 10 honestly, 9th-10th grade, so like, three-four years in.
Scott: Okay, what is your American, favorite American tradition?
Faisal: I don’t know if we can classify as tradition, but the holiday time is my favorite, like the music, the getting together. Like I used to go to have Thanksgiving dinner with Gabe’s (later in the interview I explain who Gabe is) family. I remember doing that a couple of times. It was really fun. And then yeah, the food that is associated with it. The drinks, eggnog, I love eggnog. I had never heard of it until I came here. Yeah, so like this holiday/Christmas time is my favorite.
Scott: Okay. Are there any Iraqi traditions, Iraqi or, or traditions from the UAE that you think Americans would love if they were exposed to?
Faisal: I think yeah, I think Americans would love our celebrations. So, you know how you guys have grown. Christmas as one day, our like equivalent to Christmas, it’s called Eid. And that’s a three-day celebration that happens twice a year. So essentially, you’re having six Christmases. So, you guys would really enjoy it.
Scott: What months do those occur in?
Faisal: It depends on the year because it follows a lunar calendar, not a solar calendar.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: So, every year, it’s like a month or two are Yeah, month and a half back. Yeah.
Scott: Once your family had gotten settled in the US, did you recommend any families or people from Iraq or the UAE, to move to the U.S. as well?
Faisal: So, we definitely did have questions from people that were along the lines of hey, should I come over and whatnot. And we just told them about the realities of living here. Because everyone again, has that perception that, okay, if I come here, I’ll somehow instantly find a job and then be a-okay. But it’s definitely not like that. There’s a lot of people that came here and spent months looking for a job that’s within their profession and their trade and then weren’t successful and had to move back. So, we just told them about the realities essentially. Well we did, we did get a lot of questions.
Scott: Okay. We, in our class, we learned a lot about how people come here. And a lot of times, like you said, it takes a little while to find a job. So, a lot of times they stay with the family that they know that recommended there. So, have you ever, have you guys ever had a family friend, move that did struggle to find a job and had this sort of stereotypical, I guess if you could say, immigrant experience where it’s a little bit harder when you first show up? Have you?
Faisal: Yeah.
Scott: You have?
Faisal: Yeah, for sure. For sure. We had, it was with one of my dad’s friends son had that experience. We had it with three other of my dad’s friends that also decided to come here. They’re now, two of them are in Texas, and one of them is in Minnesota, I think. So therefore, it was definitely hard for them. Especially facing the reality of not being able to find a job within their career field and then having to do something completely different. That they didn’t think they would do. But yeah, so far there, they stuck it out that they’re still in the US to have somewhat of a stable job and getting by.
Scott: Do they ever stay at your house for a time when they first arrived here? And didn’t? They did?
Faisal: For sure? For sure. Yeah, one of them, it was like different times, but all of them Yeah, definitely.
Scott: Okay. How long did it take you to learn to speak English fluently after you arrived in the U.S.?
Faisal: Fluently, actually. So, the way in the UAE we had English lessons, but it was just like ABC, like high, bye, very basic things. But when I came here, the first summer there was like a little community pool. And I would go to the pool, like every day and just listen to people talk. And then I would also watch, like all these shows, and then listen to how people talked. And that’s how I learned and that took, like, maybe like three to six months until I learned it.
Scott: Okay. What about your other family members? Did any of them take longer than you are shorter than you?
Faisal: Yeah, I mean, my mom and dad are still essentially learning. They tried like all the classes and all that stuff, but I don’t I wouldn’t say even if you ask them, I don’t think they would say that they know English fluently, but they definitely know enough to talk and…
Scott: Get by?
Faisal: Get by, Yeah.
Scott: Okay, what was the most difficult part of the immigration process in your opinion?
Faisal: Difficult part. Oh, it’s definitely the part when you first come here you have a green card. So, the in between stage between the green card and getting the actual citizenship that says you’re an American citizen, the naturalization process That’s, that’s the toughest because you’re like in this anxiety stage of, Oh, am I gonna get it? Am I not gonna get it? And you have to jump through all these hoops and it’s actually really expensive. Each form you have to file has a different fee. So that stage that three years was really, really hard.
Scott: Did your parents end up becoming citizens?
Faisal: Yeah, thankfully.
Scott: And how did this? Like, what was your legal status when they came here?
Faisal: So, we all were permanent citizens. So ,we had the green card. And then after applying and after they got their, they went through the naturalization process and they got their citizenship. There’s a little process that they can go through where because I was under 18. I can get citizenship through them. That’s what happened.
Scott: Okay. Did your parents continue to vote any rock after migrating to the US?
Faisal: No.
Scott: Okay.
Faisal: There wasn’t a way for them to, like you have to be in person to be able to vote.
Scott: Okay. What was your favorite part about high school in the U.S.?
Faisal: So thankfully, in high school is the time that like I said, I got acclimated to America, and to American youth, especially. So that’s when I made a lot of friends. That’s when I sort of made most of my memories. My favorite part was that for the first two years of high school was the walk from school. I was lucky enough to live within walking distance to school. So, my favorite part was walking to school, and especially from school, because I had a lot of other friends that would walk home. I Remember those days very vividly. It was a lot of fun. And then during the second part is, is driving and being able to get a license. Now, I thought that was super cool that in the U.S., you can get a license at 16. That’s not very common in other countries, you have to be a lot older. So that that was definitely very exciting. Getting to drive a car and then once I got my license, going out with my friends, getting that that feeling of independence was really cool. I feel like I wouldn’t be able to get that in other places. Oh, getting a job for the first time at 16. Very, very cool. You know, the job was like, very simple in a restaurant and like making sandwiches at Jimmy John’s. But it was it was still really cool. getting a paycheck at at 16 of 16 years years old. You definitely feel a lot freer and a lot more independent in the U.S. as opposed to other countries.
Scott: Okay. In Iraq or the UAE. Do you know how old you are? You have to be to get a driver’s license?
Faisal: I think I believe at least 18 some countries are.
Scott: Okay. How old were you when you met Gabe?
Faisal: Oh, Gabe that was in eighth grade. I want to say I was 14-13.
Scott: Like, were you friends right when you met him?
Faisal: I think so. Yeah, I remember like a time of like, like getting acclimated to him, I think yeah, we were walking home one day, and then I saw him and then started talking.
Scott: Okay, and for Professor Trouille. And my class. Um, Gabe is my roommate at JMU. And he’s Faisal’s friend from home. So that’s how I met Faisal saw through my roommate, Gabe. What was your least favorite part of high school in the US?
Faisal: Was definitely the least part, was the sense of confusion, especially when it came to college time. Because I’m the first in my family to, to go to college. And to finish so I couldn’t like go to my dad and ask for help and like, hey, how do you do this or how you do that? I couldn’t go to any of my parents. So very confusing. Super complicated process. I didn’t know what I was. I was doing, I don’t know how to apply and I didn’t know what I want to do with my life. So that sense of confusion all through high school was the worst part. Like it came to a point where every night I would just stay up and say, I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know what I’m doing. Like, what the heck, what do I do? That was that was the hardest and worst part, honestly.
Scott: Okay, and this is backtracking a little bit. I kind of forgot. But, so you mentioned how you got a job when you were 16. So, did you have a social security number from when you first arrived in the U.S.?
Faisal: I don’t think it’s when I first arrived. But after I got my green card, yes.
Scott: And how long was that after you arrived in the US that you got your green card?
Faisal: I think within six months,
Scott: Okay. I just asked because our roommate here, who’s from the UAE. And like, wasn’t here before college doesn’t have a social security number. So, it took him like forever to be able to fill out the paperwork to get a job on campus.
Faisal: Yeah, I think I think that’s because of the type of visa because it says it’s a student visa. But for us, the type of visa that we came in is the employee sponsored or work visa, so the process is a lot more expedient.
Scott: Okay. What was your favorite part about college in the U.S.?
Faisal: Definitely getting to pick your own classes and own start times and stop times. Having again, that, that freedom and that independence to really say like, yes, I’m grown up now. I can, I can choose whatever path I want. And I can choose to get there, whichever way I want is definitely the coolest part. And then, yeah, getting to drive to college, seeing the campus or just being on campus on college campuses is definitely a very fun experience. Because there’s so many different people from doing different things, and you have so many options to do everything that you want. That was very, very cool.
Scott: And how did you decide, end up deciding where you want to go to college?
Faisal: It was actually kind of forced upon me because my parents were like, you’re not going anywhere that’s far you have to stay at home and go to school. And luckily, there’s George Mason University, which is about 30 minutes away from my house, so Okay, I was like that was my realistically my only choice.
Scott: Yeah, my mom commuted there, but we live about an hour from there.
Faisal: Wow. very dedicated, I would not be able to stay in a car that long.
Scott: What was your least favorite part about college?
Faisal: Least favorite part. Again, the just the connfusion and because also because there’s so many choices, you kind of get like paralyzed and you don’t know where to go and what to pick. And because there’s this general sense that for immigrants at least or for my family at least, is that once you pick something in college you have to stick it out for the rest of your life like there’s no this mentality of Oh, I can change this I can adapt and do whatever in the future, that doesn’t exist. I could see you’ve chosen this path at 18 and a half and this is your path for the rest of your life and that was really scary. And that’s when you start thinking Oh, am I in the right place? Am I going the right way? Am I doing the right thing?
Scott: Did you become friends with any other immigrants while you were at George Mason?
Yeah, I mean George Mason has a lot of diverse population let’s say. So yeah, I definitely had a lot of friends they’re both immigrants and nonimmigrants honestly. And the most helpful part was actually the professors. They were all super cool super laid back. And they helped me with all the questions that I had about where to go and what to do the confusing parts they helped me a lot.
Scott: What is your first language?
Faisal: Arabic.
Scott: Yeah, I figured it was Arabic. Did you ever talk to any professors in Arabic, like during office hours or anything like that?
Faisal: I did, I did. For whatever reason. Part of my major is you have to take a language credits, or three language credits, three language classes, sorry. And I don’t know if I if I just didn’t know about it, or I chose not to test out. But anyway, I took the language credits and I chose Arabic. And the teacher there with you to the head was was amazing. He was also Iraqui. So, you just go back and forth all class and I’ll tell a class as well. So that was really fun.
Scott: Do you know how old he was when he moved to the U.S.?
Faisal: I think he was in his 40s and when I had him as a professor he was like 60 years old.
Scott: Okay, would you say you think his immigration process was similar to your parents’.?
Faisal: Well, I mean the pre-9/11 world and immigration process was completely different, so I would assume it was completely different.
Scott: Okay, what sports did you play growing up?
Faisal: Sports, I didn’t officially play for a team or anything organized, but just with friends or something like that, mainly soccer. Sometimes I’d play football, never really understood football, I just know a quarterback throws the football and someone has to catch it. That’s all I know. Those, oh and towards the beginning of my college years I started picking up basketball, that was really fun. And I think those are the only 3.
Scott: Is basketball popular in the Arab world?
Faisal: Honestly not as much as soccer, but there’s still like basketball teams in every country, there’s still tournaments and championships but soccer is the dominant sport.
Scott: Does anyone play American football at all there?
Faisal: No, no one has even heard of it, and no one understands it if they have heard of it.
Scott: How long after you moved to America, did you become a fan of American football?
Faisal: I wouldn’t say I’m a fan, because I don’t really watch the games or follow it, I just like watch highlights. I think the way they clash into eachother and then still walk away without a scratch, that’s just amazing to me. But I think that started like 2 years in, is when I started watching that stuff.
Scott: Okay, do you still have family in Iraq?
Faisal: Yeah, so all of my sort of extended family is still there, my grandma, aunts, cousins, uncles on both sides are still all over there.
Scott: How often do you go to visit them?
Faisal: There’s no real like number, like I went last year in 2019 but before that I didn’t go for 10 years, so it’s very hard to put like a time period or number but I have an intention of going every year something comes up and it never works out.
Scott: Have you ever? Have any of them ever expressed interest in moving to America as well?
Faisal: For sure, yeah. They, pretty much all of them. Cause, they think, like I said, when you come here like $1 can buy you a whole supermarket. In reality, it’s a lot harder living here, it’s a lot more expensive. Don’t know the reality cause of what they hear and what they see.
Scott: If you had to guess, would you say that any of them will end up moving here?
Faisal: If I had to guess, I mean in the immediate future, I would say only maybe one of them. He is my mom’s sister’s husband, so him and his family. He’s a Dean now of the psychology department I believe in Baghdad University, so he has the most I guess chance of coming here. The others only have their business and whatnot so I don’t know how you could translate it and bring it here. It’s a lot harder.
Scott: Do you think you’ll live in America for the rest of your life?
Faisal: That’s a good question, I feel like yes, cause I’ve lived through my high school years, my college years here, sort of my whole career plan is U.S. based. So I feel like I’m gonna stay here for the long run. But I definitely have in my future, to somehow either go back or in between and help my country out, help Iraq out in whatever way I can. Cause their governance and government isn’t so solid. So I’m hoping to use whatever government experience I have here to translate over there in the long run.
Scott: Has anyone in your family ever worked in the Iraqi government.
Faisal: No, because it was during a time when Saddam was in power and he was dictator and he would only hire his family members, so it was very difficult to work in the government.
Scott: Okay, do you think you’ll stay in Alexandria for the immediate future?
Faisal: For the immediate future yes, cause it’s close to DC, DC is the hub of the politics world and I love politics, so in the new future we’ll say.
Scott: Who is your current job with?
Faisal: So right now I work in the Department of Justice. I’m doing their pathways student program and I’m also doing my Master of Public Policy at George Mason.
Scott: Okay, do you think you want to stay with the government for a while?
Faisal: Yeah, I would say so. I definitely like that world. Yeah, I would say so yeah.
Scott: Okay, Do you speak Arabic exclusively, like does your family only speak Arabic when you’re at home?
Faisal: When it’s me, my parents and my sisters to a certain extent, yes. But my little brother, we’re trying to get him to speak Arabic, but he’s more comfortable speaking English, just cause of everything. But for the most part it is Arabic, or sometimes Arabic mixed in with English, so like every 5th word or whatever is gonna be an English word. But we try to keep the language as much as we can.
Scott: Okay, Was your brother born in the U.S.?
Faisal: Yes, he was born in the U.S.
Scott: Would you say you speak Arabic better than your younger siblings?
Faisal: Definitely, yeah I would say so.
Scott: Okay I think that’s all I have for questions, thank you Faisal so much this has been fun.
Faisal: Likewise, thank you for this opportunity.
Scott: Yeah, no problem, have a nice day.
Faisal: Alright.
Scott: Seeya.
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