"Finding a Second Home" by Ashley Jo
Everything is pitch black. There is not a single light source in sight, and silence rings through your ears at an uncomfortable frequency. Suddenly, you open your eyes and see yourself in the middle of a bustling road. You hear cars honking all around and drivers yelling at you in a language you do not understand. You notice people walking by are wearing unusual clothing, and different businesses have weird symbols on their signs. Everyone seems to be giving you a weird look as you get more and more lost in the unfamiliar city.
Moving to a new city, state, or country is an undeniably difficult decision to make, especially if it requires you to assimilate yourself into a new culture with a foreign language. However, this careful decision is made by thousands of people each year, particularly those immigrating into the United States. The U.S. harbors about one-fifth (40 million) of the world’s migrants, the most of any country according to a 2020 Pew Research Center study.
Immigration in the United States is not an easy process. At the beginning of American history, multiple acts and laws were passed to limit the flow of immigrants coming into the United States, some targeting specific ethnic groups. However, more recently, the Development Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act was proposed in 2001 to provide legal status for Dreamers. These were young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally through their parents. It was not until 2012 when they were granted temporary protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). In 2017, travel bans were issued against six majority Muslim countries in addition to North Korea and Venezuela. Only one, the travel ban on Chad, was lifted in 2018.
Immigration is not an easy process and has caused many to give up the life they spent so hard building up. One story of this experience comes from Seojin Pyoun, the Korea Liaison for KAYL, who moved to the United States in 2017 from Seongnam, South Korea.
Like most immigrant families, Pyoun and her family decided to move to the United States due to her father’s work. Because she had recently graduated from elementary school, Pyoun had mixed feelings about moving to the States. Although she was aware that she would have to learn a complex language and make new friends, she was excited to have access to a variety of opportunities that her new home would introduce to her.
Her family’s decision to move to Irvine was made with the reassurance of knowing that Irvine has a high Asian population and a stable education system that would make the transition from South Korea to the United States smooth. In an interview with Pyoun, she recalls being “nervous, scared, and anxious on the first day of school because [she] didn’t know anyone but was still excited.” Despite having some difficulty understanding what her classmates and teachers were saying, school became a much more enjoyable place for her after meeting Korean classmates who helped translate English for her. Pyoun still had her fair share of struggles, as she explained the culture shock she experienced when she first moved to the United States:
When I first went to the LAX airport, I saw the buildings and they were so low. And especially in Irvine, there aren’t a lot of tall buildings. Like the maximum is the 4th floor so I was really shocked by that [because] in Korea, I used to live on the 15th floor of an apartment… In Korea, there are many street foods like bungeo-ppang, hotteok, and tteok-bokki but they were missing in Irvine, so I was kind of shocked. And in America, there were a lot of chill places with restaurants, gyms, and other places where you can just be there and study. I didn’t see any of those things in Korea, and I really liked [that the United States had those places].
Despite Pyoun’s efforts to restart her life in the United States, things took a turn in 2020 with the expiration of her visa. “When I first moved to the United States, my parents told me that in four years, we were going to move back to Korea. At the time, I was fine with that, but [now that I’m] a junior, moving to another country during your most important high school year is scary and risky, so I didn’t want to leave the United States. I really wished [that I had] a green card and citizenship because I just wanted to graduate high school and attend an American college.” She even recalls talking to her parents about getting a green card and searching up how to get U.S. citizenship.
In the end, Pyoun did have to leave the United States. She is currently back in South Korea with her family, where she is continuing her studies and hopes to return back to the United States for college.
Thank you to Seojin Pyoun for allowing us to include your story in this article. We hope your story introduced a different perspective on immigration and will encourage readers to look into the thousands of other stories immigrants all over the world have to share.