Interview with Joanne Wills
Introduction
When organizing this interview, I learned that Mrs. Wills was visiting England for a family event. To accommodate the five-hour time difference, we carefully planned the timing of our Zoom call. Once the consent form was completed, I prepared a list of questions exploring Mrs. Wills’ move to the United States and the emotions she experienced throughout that journey. I categorized my questions into three themes: Migration, Integration, and Membership. After finding a quiet room, I was ready for the call.
Migration
In 1997, the Wills family relocated to America. At 32 years old, Joanne brought her two kids, Joseph who was 11, and Callum who was around 4 years old, to the United States to stay close to her husband and the father of her children. David Wills, her husband, was offered a job opportunity in America. David brought a new set of skills that were not yet perfected in the U.S. He could work with a computer system that many U.S. citizens were not familiar with. This tracks the theory of migration following the flow from an abundance of labor to labor shortage areas.
David heard about this job through a few friends from England who moved to the US. His friends emphasized how nice Massanutten is, which is a ski resort within proximity to Harrisonburg. Friends, with similar origins, inspiring someone to move to another country is referred to as chain migration. Chain migration is a common form of migration as it makes for an easier transition process. Having social support can make the transition process less intimidating because you have someone to talk to, share similar experiences with, and connect through similar backgrounds. Moving to a new country can feel very lonesome, especially if you are moving to a country with a new country or language.
Social Support
Fortunately, for the Wills, English is their first language, so that was not a main concern when traveling to America. But, having friends who are from England, in the US, allows them to have a deeper connection based on shared culture and experience of moving from England to Massanutten. Another positive of having friends that share the same experiences with you is that they could give you advice on your travel details and integrating into society once you have settled in. Joanne made note of advice she received from her English friends who moved to America. She said, “Like, sending the kids to school, I didn’t think I would be able to send them to school on a work visa, but, um, we were allowed to put them into school, things like that” (Joanne). Joannes’s biggest worry was switching her children to an American school. With the help of her friends, that process was made easy.
Social support is a prominent factor that dictates one’s experience when moving into a new country. Having previously made ties makes it easier but making new friends is a large part of integrating into the United States. Speaking a different language was not a barrier the Wills had to face when it came to making new friends. However, the location in which they moved made it difficult to make long-lasting friends. Moving into a ski resort where most people take a vacation has its joys, however, with people moving in and out all the time, it was hard to meet any local American friends. As a result, the Wills stayed close to the English who had traveled to America for the same work. They would often host each other and that would be their community. Luckily for the boys, many other foreign employees brought their families as well. The American friends that the Wills made were also through David’s work.
Applying for Visas
Originally, Mr. Wills applied for a 3-month work visa, and “eventually it kept getting extended and extended” (Joanne). This led Mrs. Wills to obtain a spousal visa so that she could join her husband and her kids on the venture to the United States. Joanne specifies she “wasn’t allowed to work”. A spousal visa entails the right to move with a spouse to the location of their work. For those who would like to work on a spousal visa, they must apply for an Employment Authorization Document. The Wills family left the legality issues to the agents they employed. She said that in the late 90s, it was quick and easy to obtain a spousal visa.
After the job kept extending, the Wills applied for green cards which was a lengthier process. Joanne had said that a lot of the work was done by her agent but they were given advice as to what they should do. First, David had to work in the United States for at least six years with a work visa before he could apply. To apply, he needed to have an employer sponsor him, to put in a good word. The employer would be a reference to prove that the worker would be a quality citizen of the United States of America. David said that they “had to prove that they needed your skills and they couldn’t recruit the locals” (David). The process in which they were able to prove this was by advertising the job in the New York Times and after some time, they received no applicants with the same skillset as David. Joanne said it took a year or two for them to obtain the green card. According to Dave, they were able to take six months off of the process because they were able to process their documents at the American Embassy in London. They believe this had to do with how popular the London embassy was versus the embassy in Washington D.C. This makes sense as many immigrants do not have the privilege to go back to their home country to file their papers. So many have to file in the US which gets overcrowded with applications.
Membership
When I asked what their motivations were to stay in the United States of America, Joanne mentioned the kids. She said that the boys had grown up in America and they had received most of their education in the US. If they had moved back to England and reenrolled in the schools, Cal and Joe would be behind due to the different paces of the American and English school systems. If this were not the case, Joanne said they would have likely moved back to England because that’s where their family resides. Joanne feels more connected to England because that was where she was born and where she lived in the same town all her life. When Joanne comes back to England she says, “it still feels like home when I’m here” (Joanne). When asked where she feels like she most belongs, she said that she does not have any houses in England anymore. Since America is where all her things are, that is where her home is.
Challenges
Joanne had mentioned that they had moved to Holland for a year. To compare her experience integrating into Holland versus America, Holland is more like England because it is in Europe. Even though they spoke a different language, their way of living was more similar to their life in England. Mrs. Wills was able to travel anywhere on her bike like going shopping, visiting her friends, and just being outside. Whereas in America, you need a car to travel anywhere because everything is spread out and cars are normalized as the main way of transportation. Joanne was able to use public transportation to travel far distances and she says having a car was one of the biggest drawbacks of living in America.
Joanne made note that crossing the border was the hardest part because they had to go through interrogations every time. I wished I had asked about what the questioning process looked like when she crossed the border. I want to know what types of questions they asked and what documents she had to prepare for them to be cleared. Joanne had said they needed “to make sure all your visas were correct and everything before you go back into the country.” I had assumed she meant that all the information needed to be up to date but I wanted to ask how often she would need to update her visa and what information she would have to change often.
The Wills family had some adjustments to make when they moved to America. Moving from a walkable city with nightlife like New York City to a ski resort where you need your car to get anywhere was a big adjustment for the family. Joanne said she had no problems getting around but it was a change that she had to get used to. Another challenge was the difference in schooling. Although applying to get into the school was easy, the age difference from when kindergarten started was a big struggle that the kids had to live with. In England, Kindergarten starts at age 4 whereas in the U.S., kindergarten starts at the age of 5 to 6. Cal was enrolled in first grade as a 4-year-old, grouped with 7-year-olds. That would be a hard adjustment for any child to make.
Another big challenge was the change in healthcare systems. The Wills family was used to free healthcare so moving to the US, it was hard for them to understand insurance policies and what they cover. When they were in the United States of America, David broke his arm and it was difficult for the Wills to understand what they were paying for and how to do it. To this day, Joanne says she is “still very wary of insurances and things like that because they don’t seem like they cover anything” (Joanne). After living in the U.S. for some time, Mrs. Wills received her nursing degree in the U.S. as she wanted to continue her work as a nurse. The differences in her role as a nurse in England versus the U.S. were quite interesting. In England, she said they were focused on maintaining the health of society by having scheduled checkups every year. In contrast, America prioritized helping the sick and you would use the healthcare system if there was something wrong. Another difference was the procedures a nurse had to follow. In America, as a nurse, you were to record every label of all the devices and services you provided so that the customer was properly billed. Joanne said, “I found the charge system hard to, you know, where you had to grab labels off everything you use. So if I was doing an IV and it took me three times to stick someone, I had to put three labels on, so they got charged for my inability to stick” (Joanne). Joanne says that she did not feel that the system was very fair and that the process was hard to adjust to.
Working as a nurse, people remembered Mrs. Wills because of her accent and they thought of her as a novelty. Not only did people mishear her because of the way she pronounced certain words differently, but Joanne found that sometimes people wouldn’t even attempt to listen because they were just so shocked to hear something different. To combat this miscommunication, Joanne had to think differently to adjust the way she spoke to her patients. She used tactics like repeating herself multiple times or even thinking to herself, “how would they say it?”. She said she would even try to go into “charade mode” where she had to act out what she was trying to convey to other people.
Integration
To overcome these hardships, the Wills took to other comforts that reminded them of their home in England. Joanne missed food like tins of English beans, coffee, and tea. For the first 10 years of her living in America, she would bring food across the border to have a part of her home with her in the United States. She stopped bringing them over after a while because customs did not like people bringing food over and it was too heavy and expensive to do it every time. Fortunately, Amazon has been a big help in bringing a part of England to America for the Wills. Now they do not have to go through the trouble of being questioned by customs and can order on their phone whenever they are missing that part of their culture. Joanne also used music as a reminder of home. In her 30s, the nightlife was a big part of her. She loved to go out and dance, so bringing some of that English dance music that she was familiar with was comforting.
Joanne often made comments about not having an “interesting” story to share. I reassured her by pointing out that when interviewing her, I was not looking for an “interesting” story full of hardships and discrimination. All experiences of the immigration process to the United States are important as it shows the variety of people who want to cross the border and the different experiences each of them have. It brings me joy that some people do have an easier time moving into the United States and integrating into society. Mrs. Wills’s experience shows the privilege that some experience when they are white presenting and speaking English. Although she had some difficulty communicating with her accent, the majority of the time she had a fine experience connecting with American citizens. Joanne is very thankful for the lovely experience she has had moving from England to America. She recognizes her fortune and she wouldn’t change a thing about her and her family’s journey.
Wills Interview
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
So, if you could please state your name and where you moved from.
Joanne Wills
I’m Joanne Wills and I moved from, um, Warrington in the northwest of England.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Alright, and when did you move?
Joanne Wills
Oh jeez, I knew you were gonna ask that one. David?
David Wills
Yeah?
Joanne Wills
When did we go to America?
David Wills
When?
Joanne Wills
Yeah.
David Wills
Uh, the first time was 1997.
Joanne Wills
1997 he said.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
How old were you?
Joanne Wills
I was about 32.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Okay, did you come with your family, or, like, who did you come with?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, Joe was about eleven, my oldest son, and Cal was about four or five.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, alright. What motivated you to move to the U. S.?
Joanne Wills
Well, um, it was work. My husband got a job. He could work with a computer system at the time that was new to America.
Um, so, he said, quite a few English were over there at the moment. And one of his friends called and said, “Hey, you want to come out here? It’s quite nice”. They’re talking about the ski resort and Massanutten, things like that. He said, do you want to come? You know, just a three month job. So we went out for that.
I didn’t really go out in the beginning. I went, I just went out for the school holidays when the kids were out of school.
Then eventually it kept getting extended and extended, the job. So in the end, they ended up moving out as well, and I went out on a spouse, a spousal visa. Dave had a work visa, I was on a spousal one, so I wasn’t allowed to work.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
hmm. Um, and so you came straight to Harrisonburg?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, well, Massanutten and all our friends were living in Massanutten , and so we just ended up living where all the others do, you know?
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm. And, uh, those friends, were they just, like, from work, or how did you-
Joanne Wills
Yeah, because with, uh, Dave was, like, a contractor anyway, so he’d met different guys as he was contracting as his job.
Like, we lived in Holland, and a few places. Um, so we met these guys, and they all talked together, and, yeah. Yeah, and that’s, that’s just how it was, yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah. Um, so how did you get here, like, transportation wise?
Joanne Wills
Oh, we just flew. Yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And, uh
Joanne Wills
We got in the car.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah. Did you have any help with that, or was it all through his work, or
Joanne Wills
All through his work. I mean, they helped with getting visas and things like that. Your agents, your agents helped you get your visas and all the, uh, legal side of things. Um, yeah. Um, the agent helps you with all that. It’s only as time went on and we put in for the green card that we had to do work.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah. How long did it take to, uh, obtain the work visa and your spousal visa?
Joanne Wills
The work visa was pretty quick back then. Uh, and the spousal visa was easy. It was all quite easy to do, for the visas. Uh, it’s just a bit tricky. Every time you travel, you got interrogated as to why you were going in to America. So every time we went back to England, you had to make sure all your visas were correct and everything before you go back into the country.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And uh, when you applied for the green card, how long did that work or how long did that take? And how did that process?
Joanne Wills
That took quite a while. That was like, um, Dave had to advertise his job. Make sure no other Americans could do it, and really, you should pull up a chair, Dave. Yeah, we had to have a visa first.
David Wills
Yeah, we had to have a visa, yeah, which is saying how long did it take to get green carded, but you had to advertise your job in the New York Times, we had to hire a lawyer to do everything. Yeah, I think you had to work for six years with a visa, didn’t you, before you could apply.
Joanne Wills
Dave knows more of it than me, so he said he had to work for six years with a visa before he could apply for the green card.
David Wills
I mean, you had to have an employers sponsor. They had to prove that, they needed your skills and they couldn’t recruit the locals.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
It’s a little hard to make out.
David Wills
Okay. Hi.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Hi, Nice to meet you.
Joanne Wills
Gabby from the rink.
David Wills
Hi Gabby, I’m Dave. And yeah, they had, they had to kind of prove to the authorities that they couldn’t get your skillset, uh, you know, locally.
Uh, which meant that they, they had to advertise the job and show that they didn’t have the, the, the right applicants. So I know applicants of the particular skills they want. And then you could go ahead and, and,
Joanne Wills
uh, get the green card
David Wills
Was that, do you have to do that? Was that just for the green card?
Joanne Wills
I think so, yeah, I think so.
David Wills
Yeah, and then we had to have to get a lawyer, didn’t we? And he had to do a lot of paperwork.
Joanne Wills
It was quite a long, a long process. Took a while,
Joanne Wills
yeah, it took a while.
Joanne Wills
A year or two, do you think?
David Wills
I think he probably did, and then, because in the end we had to, we had to, we, we cut it short a little bit because we went to the American Embassy in London.
Yeah, we flew back to do it. To do the processing, because we cut about six months off the process. How
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
did you do that? You cut off? Six months you said?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, by traveling to our embassy over here.
David Wills
Yeah, rather than waiting for it to get processed, say for example in Washington D. C. or somewhere, there was a, for some reason which I can’t remember, we could do it at the embassy in London.
Joanne Wills
Maybe not as many. Yeah, maybe they weren’t processing as many. Yeah, we don’t really know why. I think we just took the recommendations of the lawyer.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Uh huh. Um, and, uh, so how was your experience settling into Harrisonburg?
Joanne Wills
Well, we thought it was quite nice, you know, with the, uh, just like you say, we moved up to Massanutten.
so it was, that was, that was really nice. It had ski slopes and things that we don’t get in England. Um, So we could ski and then we could golf. It was, it had everything. It was lovely. Yeah. So it’s like being on your holidays, especially for me because I wasn’t allowed to work. So
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And were people very welcoming?
Joanne Wills
Oh, yeah. Yeah. They were very nice.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, good. Yeah. Um, did you guys have any support? Uh, like with family here or-
Joanne Wills
We were on our own, but like our friends were here with work, or Dave’s friends were here with work. So there was a bit of English there that could advise us on what to do and how to do it.
Like, sending the kids to school, I didn’t think I would be able to send them to school on a work visa, but, um, we were allowed to put them into school, things like that.
so, it was all pretty, um, they made it all pretty easy really, but it was because of the people that had been through it before, you know, so they, there was English here already that just told us what to do and we just did it, you know.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, do you have any examples of like what advice they gave?
Joanne Wills
It’s mainly the school system. That was my biggest worry was switching the kids into school. I didn’t want to bring them over and then them not be able to go to school.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
How did that, how did that process like look?
Joanne Wills
Well all we had to do was get down to the school and apply and it was so easy.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh good.
Joanne Wills
It was so easy, yeah. So easy. The only, I mean, in England we start school at like age four, so that was a bit different. So, yeah, I put Callum at the age of four into first grade and I, I shouldn’t have done that. That was, cause there was seven year olds in this class and things like that. So it was like, I made a mistake there, but I just, in England, kindergarten is like play school where you go to play.
So I didn’t want to put him in kindergarten because he knew his ABCs and all that already.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah,
Joanne Wills
But that was hard for Callum because all the kids were a lot older than
and more mature, more developed.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Um, uh, what other like challenges did you face other than getting the kids into school.
Joanne Wills
We speak the same language, but obviously, yeah, we, especially back then, because, uh, Massanutten wasn’t as cosmopolitan as it is now.
So we were a complete novelty. So even just going to Food Lion was a bit of a challenge, even speaking the same language, because we have different accents from different letters. A lot of the time, people are just staring at you. Just wonder where you dropped from.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, really? Wow.
Joanne Wills
Nowadays, I mean, Harrisonburg is quite big now in comparison.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, yeah.
Joanne Wills
And like the nightlife as well, you know, we were used to just being able to walk everywhere, you know, bars and clubs and stuff like that. Where, um, but you couldn’t really do that for Massanutten, you know? Yeah. You had to go everywhere in a car. Mm
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
hmm. Um, where specifically did you move to? Was it like a, a rural area?
Joanne Wills
It was Massanutten which is the four season holiday resort.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, so you moved right into that resort.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, we went right into the resort and lived on the resort. So it was like being on vacation all the time. Here’s my mum. Hello! My mum, Kayla.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Hello! My name is Gabriella.
Kayla Wills
Hello! we drink tea in England.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh! What a lovely time.
Joanne Wills
We’re drinking a cup of tea.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, lovely.
Joanne Wills
Yeah. Um, yeah, so it was very different, you know, the actual pace of life and, you know, everyone’s on holiday, in Massanutten . So, that was quite nice, but, um, and like Dave, but we just had one car as well at the time. We just had a rental car. I used to run Dave to work in the morning and then I’d have the car and then I’d go and pick him up.
But that was quite easy because there was only one stoplight from Massanutten to work.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
So it was all really nice and nice pace of life, really. We just found it a bit, a bit quieter early, a bit slower than what we were used to. Like I say, Harrisonburg has really sped up since then. You know its not much there, when we moved there.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And um, with moving into the resort, with people coming on a vacation, like, was it hard to make friends with people that are not involved with your work?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, no, we all stuck together. The English all stuck together, and the Americans that worked at the same plant, on the same job. Um, we just tended all to gather in each other’s houses and entertain that way.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm-hmm. And the people from that work, uh, did they also bring their families over?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, most of them did. Um, some didn’t, but then they would come for long stays.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm-hmm
Joanne Wills
Didn’t bring them. Yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Did they plan on moving to the United States or they just wanted to get their work visa.
Joanne Wills
No, so no, I don’t think any of us really planned it.
None of us planned on staying. It’s just how it evolved with the job keep getting extended. Uh, it just evolved that way. It got to a point for us because we were always planning on going back or coming back here to England. Um, but it just got so the kids have been in school so long in America that we couldn’t go back because it would really mess up their education.
Systems are so different.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
So, I know some people did come back, and they did okay anyway, but we didn’t do that. We didn’t end up coming back, you know.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, um, other than the kids, what were other motivations for you to stay in the United States?
Joanne Wills
Um, well, the weather’s nice, it’s nice r than England. It’s a nice place, we settled in and everything, but I think we could have come back.
If it wasn’t for the kids, we might well have come back. We probably would have come back.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
If it wasn’t for the kids, yeah. Because, you know, like, our families are here. We don’t have family in America.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
Our families are here.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And you were born in England as well, right? Yeah,
Joanne Wills
Yeah, and lived in the same town all my life.
Oh yeah. Yeah. and then we started traveling with his work.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm-hmm
Joanne Wills
So, no, this was, this is, this is, and it still feels like home when I’m here.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
This is home, so I suppose America is home as well.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Okay. So where do you feel like you reside in most? Like, where do you feel like you most belong?
Joanne Wills
Well, I think I, I, I’ve got, I don’t have anything here anymore.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
In England.
Joanne Wills
Yeah. I don’t have any houses here or anything like that. Um. I’ve got more things in America. So, so home is America. That’s where we’ve made our lives.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
If I came back here, I’d be starting all over again.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Right. Yeah. Um, what else did you like about moving from the United, or from the UK to the United States?
Joanne Wills
It’s just new, new experiences. All, everything’s nice. Everything’s, you know, I like to travel. I like to see new things. But I mean, we never really, you know, we’ve not been, we’ve not done a load of things in America yet because of working, so. Once we retire, we’re about to go and explore more.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And, uh, you said that you went to Holland, where, did you live there for a short time?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, we lived in Holland for a year, yeah, a year or so. That was with work, just with work.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And how was that experience?
Joanne Wills
It was nice, Holland was nice, uh, yeah, it was nice.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Was it easy to integrate into Holland for that year?
Joanne Wills
They speak a different language, but it was more like England because it’s Europe, it’s more, more like England. Um, Yeah, I suppose Holland was easier than America, really. But, um,
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Why was that?
Joanne Wills
Just because the Europeans and they live like we live, you know, over here. We, I mean, Harriosnburg has got ten more, more like, more, um. Well, I suppose it’s the busyness, you know, living like in Holland, I could go on my bike and I could go shopping on my bike. I could do everything on my bike. In England, I can go on my bike anywhere and go shopping, do everything or walk. You can walk everywhere or get a bus, public transport. Whereas in America, you’ve got to have a car to do anything. That’s that’s what was the biggest drawback about America is, you know, when you used to be a walker and being outside and doing things.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah
Joanne Wills
it’s a bit rubbish having to jump in a car, to do everything, it gets tiresome.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, I get that.
Joanne Wills
But, yeah , but we’re used to it now, you know. If you look downtown Harrisonburg now, you can do everything downtown Harrisonburg now.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
That’s true.
Joanne Wills
But, you know, it wasn’t like that back then. It was, there was nothing in downtown.
Downtown was dead.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh yeah?
Joanne Wills
Everything happened at the mall. But, you know, now that. Downtown is lovely in Harrisonburg.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm. And, uh, so skiing and going to the mall, like, how did you occupy your time?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, well, I got really fit because it’s a four season resort and I wasn’t allowed to work. So I just was going to the gym and golfing and skiing.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Wow, that sounds amazing. That’s nice.
Joanne Wills
That’s all I did all day was skiing. Yeah, so I got really, uh, in good shape.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, that’s awesome. I love that.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Um, what, um, do you dislike about the U. S.?
Joanne Wills
I mean , it’s the same anywhere, isn’t it? Like, I don’t like the politics, obviously.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
Um, yeah.
There’s pros and cons to everything. I don’t know what I dislike. It’s just, you know, I suppose I don’t like going to the city, but then I do like going to the cities as well. So I do like everything in moderation. So there’s nothing that really stands out that I dislike about the US. Oh, they don’t have like English beans.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
English what?
Joanne Wills
Beans like in chocolate and things, but you can get them now with Amazon. You can get anything you want. I used to carry. When I first went over, I used to carry food back and forth, like tins of beans and tea and coffee and, but now I can just get it all on Amazon anyway, so.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, I don’t miss anything really anymore.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Do you find yourself, um, comforted by the English food and do you try to keep that in your life?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, yeah, but over time now, as, as we spend, spend so long in America, the food has become less important. It’s when you first go out, you miss it. You miss the taste of home.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, yeah.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, but, um, yeah, that, that, that fades over time.
I, probably after about ten years, I stopped carrying food with me.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm. Were there-
Joanne Wills
Yeah, because it’s really heavy.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, yeah.
Joanne Wills
And the customs officers don’t like it.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, it’s expensive to take it around.
Joanne Wills
Yeah,
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Do you have any other comforts, uh, that you brought to the U. S.?
Joanne Wills
I used to like our music better, because I didn’t really like country music back then.
So I’d buy music in Europe and bring it over. More of the dance music and stuff, because I was only 30, 33 at the time or something, you know. I was still heavily into dancing and going out.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
That sounds fun.
Joanne Wills
But then, like, at the time, Harrisonburg just had a couple of, well, you wouldn’t call them nightclubs, but clubs.
Um, but they were just like country bars, you know?
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, they were, everybody wore cowboy hats and stuff. It was, you know, even, um, what’s it called now? Ruby’s and, uh, that, that used to be a bar back then, but it was very, very cowboy ish, like,
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Are there any notable adjustments that you had to make in your move here?
Or biggest challenges?
Joanne Wills
Well, medical, the medical was the biggest challenge.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh yeah.
Joanne Wills
Because we’re used to free healthcare.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm.
Joanne Wills
So that was a big challenge. Even though we had insurance, we were shocked that when you have insurance, you still get charged, you know, that was, that was a shock to us.
Um, and my husband broke his arm and that was like, um, when he got it fixed, it, the doctor charged more than the insurance thought. So we were going to be stuck with the difference and, and I couldn’t understand that. I just thought how? Uh, are, are we supposed to get three quotes and submit the quotes or,
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, so that was that. And, and still is very, um, I’m still very wary of insurances and things like that because they don’t seem like they cover anything.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Right.
Joanne Wills
Yeah. Unless you really sick , which you don’t wanna be anyways, but
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
mm-hmm
Joanne Wills
So, yeah. That, that is the worst thing in America is your healthcare system.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Right. I completely agree, and I’m going into healthcare, so.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, well I, I, I was, I nursed in both the systems. I nursed in England and I nursed in America. Because when they did get me work permits, I went and did my degree again in nursing in America. So I, I nursed in America, and even working in it, I prefer this system, yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, uh, the English system.
Joanne Wills
yeah, definitely.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
What, what’s the difference between the two working in those kinds of environments?
Joanne Wills
In England, we promote more healthness. You don’t, you don’t get sick and then go for help. Over here, they, they call you and say, it’s time for this check, it’s time for that check, it’s time for the other check.
They keep on top of you to bring you in to keep you healthy, rather than wanting you sick to see you worn. Um, yeah. Like, my parents, you know, they’ve had new knees, cataracts, everything gone, and it’s, there’s no bill anywhere, nobody, there’s no stress about it in that respect.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
The only stress is the getting better thing.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm.
Joanne Wills
Um. Yeah, there’s no stress with money or how you’re gonna pay for it or, you know, I’m trying to fit it into one year rather than the next year because you’ve got, yeah, there’s no things like that.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, that would be nice
Joanne Wills
so that’s the worst thing in America, is your healthcare system.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm. Um, so you got your degree in both England and also in the U. S.?
Joanne Wills
Mm. Yeah, because, because I’ve been out of school or, you know, I’ve been out of work since I had Callum. So by then I’d been out of work by the time we got the green cards. It was like, Ten years had not worked. So I didn’t feel comfortable. So I said, well, I’ll go and do my degree in America. Because I would have had to do some kind of course to transfer it over anyway. So, I just thought, well, I’ll go, I’ll go and do it. The whole thing. Um, yeah, and I enjoyed college in America. That was good. Um, but, yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
How was your experience in college different in England and the U.S?
Joanne Wills
I was a mature student, so I was more keen to learn.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Okay, in the U.S?
Joanne Wills
Yeah. I was better at learning in the U.S.
yeah. Well, because yeah, when I, when I did it first time round, I was only young. I was 18 or something. I was, so, yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
And you went for nursing?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I worked, uh, on kids in both, both. here and there. I worked with kids in England and I worked with kids in America, pediatrics and, yeah. So they were similar, similar, you know, but, um, but different.
I found the charge system hard to, you know, where you had to grab labels off everything you use. So if I was doing an IV and it took me three times to stick someone, I had to put three labels on, so
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
oh yeah?
Joanne Wills
they got, they got charged for my inability to stick or
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
mm-hmm
Joanne Wills
You know, so things like that. I just thought, I don’t know, I just didn’t find it very fair.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, I didn’t know that,
Joanne Wills
but, so somebody’s gotta pay for it.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh yeah. That, I guess so. You’re right. But I did not know that. That’s interesting.
Joanne Wills
Yeah. You just, yeah. And well probably not like that anymore ’cause I’ve not worked in America since we bought the skating rink.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm-hmm
Joanne Wills
Um. So, but at the time, that’s how we used to do it.
You, everything you, you touch, you pull the sticker off it and you stuck it on your uniform. And then when you sat down with that patient, you stuck all the stickers on their file there. But it’s maybe not like that now. Maybe you just scan things and I don’t know. I don’t know how they do it now.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Um, other than like tracking what you have to do, uh, In your work, what else was different about your procedures as a nurse?
Joanne Wills
Yeah we, uh, we could do more over in America as a nurse than you can do in England. In England, we needed more doctors of authorization and things, but that’s probably changed as well, you know, so they’ve been a good 10 years that I have not worked. So it, I could have changed, but that’s, that was different for me.
Because IVs I couldn’t do in England. I wasn’t allowed to do them because I was only a nurse, but you had to get a doctor to do an IV, but that’s probably changed. That’s probably changed over here as well. I don’t really know now what they do here.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mhmm.
Joanne Wills
it’s been that long.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Do you feel you were treated differently at all in the U.S.?
Joanne Wills
Not as a, no, I think, I think if anything they liked me because I was a novelty, because I’ve got this accent, and no, people were lovely to me, and uh, yeah, and the patients seemed to like me because I talk like I do, and it’s, I was a novelty, I suppose. Everybody remembered you.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh yeah.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, so everybody can describe you because you’ve got the accent.
Mm
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
hmm.
Joanne Wills
But, um, yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
So the accent kind of helps them also
Joanne Wills
It helps them identify me.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
And remember me. I stand out more because I’ve got an accent.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Did, did you think that, like, like you were saying in the Food Lion , people had a hard time understanding you, did you find that was the case in your work?
Joanne Wills
They could do, they could do, because, you know, sometimes they’re just so shocked to hear something different that they don’t even listen to what you’re saying is, it seems to me to be, because, you know, I’ll say water. But they’ll say water. And I think they sound really similar.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
I think so too.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, but they would, I would have to say it five times.
Have water? And then I’d have to like think, well, how do they say it? Sometimes you’d have to like really think how they’d say it. I mean, as a nurse, I met, you know, other nationalities as well that obviously had it a lot harder than me because of the way they spoke and we had to do things through interpreters.
And, uh, so, you know, I had it easy compared to a lot of them. I spoke the same, we live similar. Yeah. You know, I met a woman who was from a tribe somewhere. I don’t know. South America somewhere. And even the interpreter couldn’t interpret. He said, that’s a tribal language. I don’t have a clue.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Really? Okay.
Joanne Wills
So there was no way of communicating with that lady, you know?
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
So yeah, how isolating would that be?
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Right? But, uh, you did have some challenges. Were, were you, uh, did you find yourself doing skills like code switching to help people understand? I know that you said that you repeated what you said, but
Joanne Wills
Yeah, or I try, I try and think of a different way of wording things.
Mm-hmm . If a new, someone was struggling with me. Uh, with my accent, I try and think of a different way of wording it or, or going to charade mode.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm.
Joanne Wills
And start picking up things and showing them.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
But most people were, were lovely and, and I’ve only ever had one person say, why don’t you, why have you not tried to talk American?
And it’s not that I’m not trying to talk American, you know, it’s, I, I, I can’t just do it. I can’t talk American. And it’s. I would, I would be doing it wrong. And it, cause I sometimes can’t think what would an American say, you know, I thought, and sometimes try and think, well, how would they say it? And I’ll go into a year old English or something.
I’ll be picking, picking the wrong things. So, so you, it’s not a conscious thing because I’ve not had to learn a new language, it’s still the same language. Um, It’s hard to think, well, is that, like, schedule is schedule and things like that is, you know, just simple little words and you don’t, I don’t really understand that which is the English way of saying it and what.
It’s only when I come home and my family say, well, you say that wrong. What are you doing here? Why are you saying it like that? So they think I sound American. Yeah, I understand that nobody else does.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, um. Wow. Uh, do you have anything like, uh, that you would want to change about your journey entering America?
Joanne Wills
Oh gosh.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Would you change anything?
Joanne Wills
No, I think we’ve done really well in America, you know, and we’ve had nice lives in America and the boys have been happy there. And we’ve been lucky enough that, you know, we’ve been, um, my husband had a good job. His company had flyers back so he could come back regularly.
So we, we’ve never missed a year coming back to England and now we’ve got older and I’m not working so much. Um, you know, like this year I’ve been back three or four times. Yeah. So I’m lucky I get to travel, but I spoke to other immigrants and they know, that’s what I say. My story’s not really that good because I’m, I’ve had it easier.
It’s easier. I speak the same language. I, um, I have money so I can travel back and to and see my parents. Uh, come back for parties, whatever, gatherings, and so I’ve not really missed out on this life. And also, the biggest, best thing was like, the internet, and once we got like, um, able to talk and video on, on, on the phones cheaply.
In the past, my mum used to have to put massive codes in her phone to call me, and we’d just call on the phone. But once, like, you got all the video chats now, it’s. So I can, I can show what’s going on at my house and show what’s going on at the rink. There’s cameras at the rink and my mum and dad love watching the cameras and seeing everyone at work and it keeps them entertained.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah, I’m sure it is entertaining. Seeing everybody fall all the time, I do love watching it.
Joanne Wills
And if they see Cal sat down, they normally call me.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah that’s good.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, no, they enjoy it, but my mum says, Oh, because my mum’s, like, fingers with technology, so she keeps deleting her, so. Every time they come back, we have to set it up for her again.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah. Well, great thing for technology, right? You can help her from the U. S.
Joanne Wills
But that’s nice because, you know, you can, they can see how things are. Because now, my mom and dad used to come every year to visit as well.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, yeah.
Joanne Wills
Um, so I used to come here, they’d come there.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm
Joanne Wills
hmm. Um, so, um, I mean, my mom says she sees more of me than the kids that live here, really, because. I always pick up my phone and talk with her
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mhmm.
Joanne Wills
and show her things and she can see me from all my cameras.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Oh, yeah. Oh, that’s lovely though.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, yeah. That was the biggest plus in an immigration trail, I think, is being able to keep in touch with your family.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah. And, uh, like before when you did have to pay to, you know, talk on the phone, was that quite difficult for you to adjust to?
Joanne Wills
Yeah, well, you didn’t do it as often.
Yeah, you just didn’t do it as often because it was always a pain. And we didn’t have mobile phones, so my mum had ringed and I wasn’t at home, so I never got the call, you know, she definitely, then I’d call her, she wouldn’t be home. So, whereas now you’ve always got a phone on you, so it’s If ever she calls, I pick up, you know.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Right. And that five hour difference, it’s hard to match the times of your days. Yeah.
Joanne Wills
Yeah. By the time you get a chance again to call, it’s, it’s, it’s past. Yeah. Whereas now it’s, you’ve got your phone on you virtually everywhere you go nowadays. So I usually look at my phone and she called five minutes ago and so then I’ll try her back.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
Yeah. Think about the time difference and call back.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm. The mobile phones are a blessing, for sure.
Joanne Wills
Oh, yeah, yeah, they’ve been a billion to mention.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mm hmm.
Joanne Wills
Yeah, yeah.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Um, well, I think we covered everything. Uh, was there anything that you would like to share that I haven’t asked you?
Joanne Wills
No, I think, like I say, I’ve not had the immigrant experience.
trail like some people have.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah but,
Joanne Wills
Um, yeah, but I’ve had a nice easy life, you know, it’s, everything’s been great. Um, and I’ve came, came from a lovely country and I’ve gone to a lovely country.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Mhmm.
Joanne Wills
and I’m, I’m, it’s not like I can’t go home, like some people, you know. I can come home whenever I want. All in both places, home really.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah.
Joanne Wills
So yeah, no, I’ve had it nice. And it’s nice being able to see the world and live in both places. It’s lovely. It’s, uh, it is nice to have the free travel. And for anyone that can’t do that, can’t go back home, it must be really hard.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Right. Well, I am happy that you had such a great experience coming over.
And there’s nothing that I’m truly looking for in this interview. Like, I just want to hear how everyone, every different person has a different experience, you know, and they all matter.
Joanne Wills
Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Yeah. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I really appreciate it.
Joanne Wills
No problem, all right. See you soon.
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Thank you!
Joanne Wills
Bye!
Gabriella Ajbuszyc
Bye.
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