Living in uncertain times

 

Less than three years ago, I contacted a couple of expat friends to see if she would like to meet me in London in a few months’ time – they were in Europe and I was in Texas. Within days, plans had been made and flights had been booked. It seemed our only worry was finding a suitably luxurious place to stay on a less than 5 star budget.

Fast forward to a few months ago and when I asked a similar question, the answer came back to say that it was tricky to commit when you don’t know whether your husband will have a job by then. Over the last year, this kind of conversations has become the norm for many expat as global recession, the price of oil and political change and uncertainty have led to job loss for many. Even more are living with ongoing anxiety about their future employment.

The anxiety is exhausting. For expats, it’s not just a job loss and all the psychological, emotional and financial upheaval that accompanies it. It’s knowing that you have to leave the country you’re living in to go ‘back’ to a country that no longer feels like home. Or that you’re going to have to go back to a country where you don’t actually own a home and may have poor job prospects.  It’s waking up to find that you no longer have a visa that allows you to work or even to volunteer. It’s a limited amount of time to get out of the country.

Last year, we sat down and worked out our exit strategy. We know what we’re going to do and how we’ll do it. It helped us enormously to have a plan. We started being more careful about our spending and worked on building on our savings. And as we made our plans, it started to look as if maybe the price of oil was recovering and the worst of the downturn might be over.

But now there is a new uncertainty. Whether you love him or hate him (and there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground) President Trump is changing the status quo here in the United States.  As I write, the Executive Order which affects citizens of seven countries from entering the US and which places a temporary stop on admitting refugees to the country is caught in legal limbo.

Now you could argue that it doesn’t affect me but rational or otherwise, the anxiety is back.  Entering the United States as a white, well-educated professional from a Christian country with a legitimate visa is scary enough when immigration isn’t under huge public scrutiny.

Last week the former Prime Minister of Norway was detained on arrival in the US because three years ago he’d been to Iran for a human rights conference. My travel history includes a trip to Jordan – I swam in the Dead Sea, was awed by Petra at night in candlelight and marveled at the beauty of Wadi Rum. Will I get stopped coming back in to the US the next time I leave?

Yesterday, I listened to Muslim women born and raised in the US being interviewed by BBC’s Woman’s Hour, talking about their fear and uncertainty in Trump’s America. The interviews were recorded before the recent travel ban. Two weeks ago, my husband was walking in to meet me in our local suburban grocery store and caught the end of a heated argument between a Texan and a woman wearing a burka. He was shouting at her that she didn’t belong here and she should go back to where she came from.  Again you can say

that this is nothing to do with me but as an expat, I’ve been blessed with many Muslim friends so yes, it’s personal for me.

And it’s not just about religion. In this month’s Houstonia, local immigration lawyers speak to uncertainty among their clients – and this was before the now famous Executive Order.

Again, you can say that these changes don’t affect me directly. But they do affect many of my expat friends and many of my husband’s colleagues. There is talk of further changes to immigration policy that could affect us directly. Most of all, there is a general feeling that maybe, if America doesn’t want these immigrants, it really doesn’t want any of us…..The pace of change is fast and unpredictable and the mood of the country is incredibly divided.

So today, the country beneath our feet feels that little bit less stable and our future in a community that we’ve come to love feels just a little bit less predictable……