Being And Unbeing an Immigrant Meena Das

All the work visa immigration-related development in recent months of the United States has repeatedly indicated that USCIS can arbitrarily deny or put the H1 application on hold. Moreover, all nuances of H1 transfer, spouse work visa, etc. make it even trickier for someone planning their life based on this ticket. Listen to how I moved through the everything-is-always-in-the-air phase of my life and some takeaways from this immigrant life.

One of the most common questions in the immigrant community - are you on H1? Whether it’s the recent May 2020 work visa ban or any unconfirmed news on H1, everything around this makes every immigrant feel uncomfortable. Listen to how I coped with this process of almost getting-then waiting-more waiting-and then being denied phases.

Rejections are always hard. And, as an immigrant, they can be harder. Whether you question your communication, immigrant status, or general background – there is an inherent bias in recruitment and fighting it is tiring. Listen to my journey of self-questioning “why me” to how I learned to derive power out of these automatic thank you for applying emails.

As an immigrant, I am very conscious of my communication – whether it’s the choice of words, accent, or pronunciations. Listen to this episode on all the times when I had tried to over-work to compensate for “better communication” or when I finally learned to embrace my communication style just as much as any other component that makes me, ME.

As an immigrant or not, have you wondered what does home mean to you? As an immigrant, this question is always in my mind somewhere, subconsciously. Listen to this episode close to my heart that shares my ways of finding answers to this question. Maybe you and I have some common approach to the way we look at "the home"? Or perhaps you could share your thoughts so I could expand my own outlook?

How many times have you heard this question? I have listened to at least a gazillion times and have my facepalm moments when I answered it. Listen to how I have devised a smart way to respond to this question without debating whether I am sharing too little or too much.