Immigration In The Film Taxi Dreams - Essay Example

Immigration In The Film Taxi Dreams Immigration is the movement of citizens out of their country either permanently or temporarily into a destination country with the aim of settling there permanently or become naturalized citizens. This is mostly motivated by several factors such as a hope for better employment, achieving higher education or at times civil wars force people to flee their country in search for peace and resettlement. In most cases, immigrants are filled with the hope of a better life when leaving their country but sometimes the conditions in their new resettlement areas force them to find themselves in situations they never expected.

A documentary "film Taxi Dreams" for example explains the fate of five taxi drivers who leave their native countries with the hope of finding a better life in New York, America, only to find themselves in the taxi business. As evident from the documentary, most of the drivers interviewed are separated from their families as they settle in New York. The taxi driving job that they get is insufficient for them to raise enough funds that could enable them to go back home often.Kwame Fosu, who is a teacher from Ghana, for example, has been in New York for fourteen years before the interview out of which he recalls going back home three to four times during his entire stay.

Worse still, his wife became pregnant and delivered while he is still in New York. Due to inability to play the father`s role in the family, his daughter finds it hard to recognize him as a parent when he moves his family to stay with him in U.S.A. Resettlement I a new land means adoption of a new culture and learning a new language. This seems hard for the drivers as they have to force themselves into what they are not used to. Rafik Bakes, a political refugee from Tajikistan, for example, faces the difficulty of adapting to a new culture and at the same time make his family remain in their native culture.

Though he manages to get himself a taxi driving job, he is not familiarized with the new city and, therefore, unable to locate directions given to him by the customer. Even after attending taxi driving mandatory classes for two weeks, the adoption shortcoming forces him to go back to work in a car service. As immigrants, academic qualification offers hope for a better job and hence a reasonable income. These dreams are however shuttered when one enters the target country only to notice that he not only has no chance of working as a professional but also his academic papers are rather invalid there.

Having struggled so much in school with the hope of a better life, this leads to loss of prestige and having no other alternative one is forced to fix himself in any available opportunity that could earn him an income. Three of the five drivers: Omm Dutta Sharma (a lawyer from India), Rizwan Raja(an accountant from) and Kwame Fosu( a teacher from Ghana) all had valid academic qualifications from their native country but the conditions in the new country force them to venture into taxi driving.

Though they wish to earn income so as to support their families, they are not allowed to work in their areas of the profession. Mohamed "Suman” Ahsan and Kwame Fosu had all left their countries with the hope of majoring their education but due to lack of a decent job to support their education, they end up in professions they never wished. This loss of prestige affects the family negatively that even the wife of omm Sharma, who is a nurse feels embarrassed with him to the extent of even not telling her coworkers what her husband does.

Though immigration offers a promise of better life, a prior research on the new area of resettlement is necessary. Managing to migrate legally into another country offers a promise of greener pastures but since this is not guaranteed, it is always advisable to be prepared not only financially but also psychologically so as to manage to cope with the new life (Joanna N.P). Work cited Joanna, Head, dir. Taxi Dreams.  BBC Worldwide, 2000. Film