Some thoughts on the process of immigration

Abstract

An Indian man sits quietly in the Heathrow airport terminal. He seems to look at something inside himself and his eyes are empty, inward looking. After a couple of days the terminal staff starts to notice him and ask what is he doing, why does he not go out and leave the terminal like all the other passengers? He answers that he has flown from Bombay to London and is now waiting for his soul to arrive.

I suspect this is true for all immigrants. For some the soul never arrives. In many cases it takes three generations to become a full member of the new society, to be fully born into it. Throughout history human beings have moved from place to place. Very few people in modern times are ab-originals, people who have been there from the beginning. Numerous studies have approached immigration from the viewpoint of politics, culture, religion, sociology, and economics. It has been only recently that the subject of immigration has become the focus of health professionals and psychotherapists. So far surprisingly few psychoanalytical articles have been published about immigration and it's hidden unconscious meanings.