The Self-Sufficient Global Citizen

A Guide for Responsible Families and Communities

Atta Arghandiwal

• Publisher: attamoves
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9780997887037
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Personal Success
• Index: Social Sciences

A guidebook for responsible refugees and migrants to be self-sufficient global citizens starting fresh in the western world.

self-sufficiency in one easy-to-use guidebook

This comprehensive book is a lifetime roadmap for responsible families and communities worldwide. With this easy-to-follow guide, you will:

• discover proven tips, strategies, and motivational personal lessons from the birth of a child to retirement and beyond;
• gather hundreds of valuable resources for use anywhere around the world;
• obtain handy, time-saving worksheets and checklists;
• find easy-to-understand explanations of unfamiliar terms;
• gain valuable advice from “Atta’s Lessons,” so you can avoid making his mistakes.

CHAPTER ONE: HUMANITY IS ON THE MOVE

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE HEADED AND WHY?

I remember holding my breath, afraid the Russian soldiers walking past the shadow in which I was trying to hide myself would smell my fear. I was on my way to Kabul’s international airport through back streets and rugged roads, eluding the Russian troops that had invaded my beautiful country, Afghanistan. I was escaping, afraid for my life. I’d secretly gotten a plane ticket and was desperate to get on that plane, a memory that has never left me, even after thirty-seven years. I’ve learned that life’s successes, and failures with their misfortunes and tragedies bring about transformation that can either be positive or negative. Truth, honesty, and integrity, at times elusive, will always guide us toward the right path, even when we may be feeling uprooted and powerless.

Imagine you and your family are living quietly and going about your life. However, suddenly, through no fault of your own, the situation changes. Your country, like mine was, is invaded, or a civil war breaks out, or a big tsunami hits your region. Or a new government or a large group of terrorists or religious demagogues decide that your ethnic or religious group or even social class presents a problem that can only be cured through the destruction of all individuals and groups and even dwellings in that social class. Or a hurricane or other natural disaster destroys your whole way of life.

In my case, Russians had invaded my beautiful country of Afghanistan. Fearing for my life, I escaped in the dark of night, leaving behind my family, friends, and colleagues for guaranteed uncertainty.

You are now on your way out, maybe running for your life! I’ll never forget that feeling of being on the run. Cross a border, board an unsafe boat, or, if you can, buy a plane ticket, and off you go. Think about simply moving across unfamiliar places, cities, and countries, maybe not even knowing the languages. I was fortunate to have learned English from Peace Corps volunteers during my high school days in Kabul.

Leaving home is no longer about moving across short distances in search of food, gas for your car, or fare for a bus or taxi. Rather, it is life on the move, maybe carrying all you can of your worldly possessions, for an uncertain future. Now imagine doing that over hundreds and thousands of miles, with people actively trying to find you, prosecute you, search you, incarcerate you, and even take your life. Also, flights may not exist if and when you get to the airport, or the shortest way to a new country may be impossible. You are suddenly a migrant refugee! You are forced to flee across international borders with fear for your life. But simply wanting to move to a different country does not make you a refugee. Instead, having your whole life depend on getting away is what makes you a refugee.

Sadly, your home could have been in any number of places in the world. Forced movements of human beings are nothing new. From the Jews’ escape from slavery in Egypt through the parting of the Red Sea to Muhammad’s followers finding safety in Ethiopia, all have been seeking to escape persecution! The potato famine in the 1800s brought the Irish to America and other shores. The desertification of Africa left Africans adrift in search of arable land and water. Millions were taken by force from their families and lands to serve the profitable slave trade, still existent today in some places. Modern-day slavery exists through the horrendous numbers of women, boys, and girls stolen from their families or the streets by sex traffickers today.

Native Americans are considered to be non-immigrants, even though they are said to have crossed the land bridge connecting Asia and North America thousands of years ago. But in recent history, we are all immigrants, though our ancestors may have immigrated two hundred and fifty years ago, fifty years ago, or just a few months ago. In America, immigration began when the Mayflower arrived with roughly a hundred Pilgrims in 1620. Millions of Europeans migrated here in the centuries that have followed, seeking freedom from starvation and persecution, and a better life.

In general, thousands of similar forced movements have existed throughout ancient and modern history. In countries like Australia, we saw the movement of convicts and indentured servants seeking freedom from another form of slavery. All separated by time and place, refugees and migrants, just like all of us, have the same goals in mind—we are simply trying to find a safe place to live out their lives with their families.

It is, however, important to know our world is beginning to feel the impact of this unprecedented mass movement. Humanity is starting to feel the food insecurities and water shortages—realities millions of innocent people face on a daily basis. Although mass migration is not unknown, it is now becoming normalized, expected yet resented by some. In reality, it is unfortunately a complicated aspect of modern life.

This recent crisis of mass movement due to wars, economic poverty, climate change, overpopulation, and political and social unrest has forced over sixty-five million (9 percent of the world’s population) refugees to seek shelter and opportunities away from their original homes, both inside and outside their countries of birth. As a result, millions of families and their innocent children are left with feelings of worthlessness, of not belonging in this world as human beings.

Most recently, anti-immigrant sentiments and senseless fears of losing jobs to foreigners have arisen. These feelings in host nations are stronger now than they were over thirty years ago when I first left home. They follow in the wake of terrorism. These sentiments dehumanize refugees and migrants as “aliens,” not as human beings who are the victims of war, political posturing, climate change, and natural disasters.

Some people are being forced into unacceptable and inhumane conditions with no real chance to exercise their basic human rights or be part of a shared planet. This wave of human suffering is certainly changing the world while presenting an enormous challenge for us as humans to open our hearts to embrace and welcome everyone. Forced out, not by their own intention, most end up as “aliens,” often perceived as threatening to the rights and economics of the native populations of their host countries. They are now subject to all of life’s potential challenges while also being looked upon as burdens and threats to the local security and endangering its way of life. In reality, forced migrants are simply in search of safety and basic human rights as true victims of common enemies’ atrocities and other political factors.

ATTA’S TAKE ON THE REFUGEE CRISIS

Today’s charged world and the influence of incompetent, corrupt politicians and uninformed citizens—even within settled populations of host countries—try to transfer the “issue of refugees” from universal human rights into that of “homeland security.” Turning the tide while being rough and tough on foreigners in the name of security from potential terrorists is obviously generating more political currency than appealing for benevolence and compassion for people in distress. Regardless of all these challenges, the best way to deal with migrants and refugees is to look at injustices as opportunities and tests for humanity. I believe we have a chance to unlock the potential inside all of us for the better and to move on with a sense of accountability, human dignity, and resilience. As humans, we all naturally play a zero-sum game with ourselves while thinking of the past. Our ultimate goal should be to end wars and pave the way to safety and economic opportunities within conflict zones. Thinking about what happened six months ago takes space and energy that could be redirected elsewhere or to a project in the new chapter of our lives.

REFUGEES, IMMIGRANTS, AND MIGRANTS

The word “refugee” applies to a displaced individual who is forced—due to fear of danger or persecution for reasons of race, nationality, religio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter One: Humanity Is on the Move
• Chapter Two: The Logistics of Migrating
• Chapter Three: Your New Neighborhood
• Chapter Four: Being Organized and Prepared
• Chapter Five: Your New Home—Getting Out and About
• Chapter Six: Education
• Chapter Seven: Health
• Chapter Eight: Finding Employment
• Chapter Nine: Being Employed, Self-Employed, or an Entrepreneur
• Chapter Ten: Finances
• Chapter Eleven: The Big Purchases—A Home and a Car
• Chapter Twelve: Preparing for Your Retirement
• Chapter Thirteen: Insurance
• Chapter Fourteen: Legalities and Citizenship
• Appendix A: Stress Survival Skills for Refugees and Immigrants
• Appendix B: Financial Terms
• Appendix C: Insurance Terms
• About the Author
• Also by Atta Arghandiwal