Becoming American: Why Immigration Is Good for Our Nation's Future (28 page)

19

How Did She Get Here: Otessa Ghadar

M
y oldest daughter, Otessa Marie Ghadar, was born in 1982, just outside of Washington, D.C. She was the only grandchild for my parents, and for more than thirteen years, she was our only child, until her younger twin siblings were born.

She was a bright and sociable child who excelled at almost everything she put her hand to. We were fortunate to live in the nation’s capital because we had access to the best schools, and she grew up there, surrounded by the children of diplomats and political leaders from around the world.

It was during this time that I read an article that outlined the academic rigors and achievements of children in China. I made her read the article and tried to impress upon her that these were children she would eventually be competing against for opportunities. So, at ten years old, she interned during the summer at my company, Intrados, where in addition to being our “copy girl,” she had to learn Lotus 1-2-3.

It wasn’t until I took a position at Penn State University, nestled in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, that she seemed to struggle. There, with a name like “Otessa Ghadar,” she first stood out for more than her accomplishments. Her seventh-grade year in public school presented one particularly difficult adjustment, and it soon became clear that she needed to be in a more cosmopolitan setting. It was decided that Choate Rosemary Hall would be the best solution, and so she went to boarding school until high school graduation.

She went on to study at Columbia University in its School of Engineering and Applied Science, one of approximately only three hundred other students admitted, and she took up majors in theoretical physics and mathematics. She managed to excel, and her aptitude in the applied sciences was readily apparent. We were all very proud of her achievements and felt confident in the security of her future job prospects.

It wasn’t until the end of her sophomore year that she told us she was switching over to Columbia’s School of Arts to major in film studies. This news felt like something akin to watching someone go through a midlife crisis, seeing him or her act out on unfulfilled fancies to his or her ultimate demise and ruination.

While I had strayed from the original path my parents had set before me of becoming a medical doctor, I still stayed on an academic path that held the promise of opportunity, if I continued to work hard. I had no idea how she expected to succeed in a career in the film industry. In an arena where talent and hard work guarantee nothing, I was terrified for her future options.

However, she was adamant in her choice. While she was exceptional in physics and mathematics, she assured me that pursuing this path would never make her happy. So, at the age of nineteen, her bright engineering career veered off its well-intentioned course.

She did indeed thrive in her film studies and even went on to get her master’s degree in this area. She was finally in her element. It was here that she started to write about Lis and me having to flee Iran during the revolution. She says she was drawn to it, as even though our story had some foreign elements, it was still a quintessentially American narrative about the fruits of risk taking and hard work. Writing about your parents, however, is a tricky topic, and so during this time, she turned to writing small vignettes about her memories of coming of age and of self-discovery in 1990s Washington, D.C.

These turned into her MFA thesis for graduate school and a web series starting in 2007 called “Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden.” She is a pioneer of the web series format, and the show is now going into its seventh season, with viewership in over 140 countries around the world. She has received many accolades and honors for her work, including being a three-time LA Web Fest Winner, a Telly Award Winner, named Filmmaker of the Month by the D.C. Government Office of Film, and a Webby Official Honoree.

While initially her change in focus seemed “weird,” as she calls it, she was able to see the potential of an entire new industry. She says,

I saw it first and took a chance—and ended up being right. I have become (while not a big money-maker), a captain of industry in my field, a renowned authority, and a prestigious top name in this cool and cutting-edge growth industry. My path and passion were directly influenced by the bold and admirable choice I saw [my dad] and mommy make with both The Computer Store and Intrados. And incidentally, my “arts” field of new media is so firmly entrenched in technology, that I make constant use of my math and science training. New Media is truly a marriage of art and technology. So as much as my path seemed to diverge back in college, if we scratch the surface, we find indeed that it is not so very different after all.

It has been interesting, and at times surprising, to me to watch her progression growing up as a second-generation immigrant. While every parent sees a bit of themselves in their children, upon reflection, there are some unique characteristics I can only attribute to that common immigrant-pioneering ethos.

In 2009, Otessa started 20/20 Productions, a “new media” company, where she continues to serve and to define the industry. The advent of this field can be traced back to the democratization of information that allowed people to take advantage of the Internet to produce a grassroots globalization, centered on people rather than on the flow of capital. New media allows for users to establish relationships and to experience a sense of belonging that transcends traditional temporal and spatial boundaries. It changes continuously because it is constantly modified and redefined by the interaction between users, emerging technologies, and cultural changes. We only need to look to the Middle East to see how new media has been used as a tool for sweeping change.

Otessa recently added academic author to her list of credits, with her publication of the first-ever new media textbook for twenty-first-century students, titled
The Wild West of Film
. The irony of the title, considering our immigrant path, is not lost on me. With the publication of
The Wild West of Film
, new media will finally have a book about its field. As Otessa says,

There is not one yet. No one has done it! I am the first! And I am the first to fill a great need. Again, this can-do attitude and sense that if something does not exist, you yourself should go out and do it (and not just complain about the lack). . . . This is something I credit to the immigrant initiative and mind-set, and I credit [my dad] in particular. If ever something did not exist or was lacking, [my dad] always said to me: “Well, then why don’t you do it? Don’t wait for someone else. If there’s a need or a hole, get cracking on fixing or filling it.”

As Otessa has exemplified, the next generation works hard but goes its own way into new fields and interests. This is also reminiscent of the first generation of immigrants. The can-do spirit and drive to complete hard work does remain with at least the next generation.

The Viewpoint of an Immigrant’s Spouse

Lis de Tuerk Ghadar has a unique perspective on immigration, not only as a native-born American married to an Iranian immigrant, but also because she became an immigrant to Iran for a period of time. She is also the mother of second-generation immigrant children, Otessa, Anna, and John, born into a mix of family cultures.

Of her own experience of emigrating to Iran before the revolution, she describes a time of incredible family closeness and support, respectful curiosity on the part of strangers, and an enriching dichotomy of cultural traditions existing alongside Western ideals. Her exposure to a culture that at that time celebrated a broader spectrum of viewpoints than that to which she had been accustomed was eye-opening and unexpected.

Looking back on her time in Iran and then her eventual return to the United States in 1979, she recognizes that no matter how much exposure one has, or acclimating one does, one can never eradicate one’s culture. She saw this with herself in Iran, when she would be reminded to respect certain cultural differences and act accordingly, and she saw this with her husband, Fariborz, upon his final immigration back to the United States.

Some of the particular challenges one faces in an intercultural marriage are that it is not easy to view the other person’s different perspective as cultural, rather than just a difference of opinion. Eventually accepting this she believes has led her to become more understanding of others, while her experience of living in another culture has ultimately made her a better person overall.

She has no regrets about choosing to take on some significant life issues, but she is instead optimistic that this force of curiosity and acceptance that she sees in their grown children will echo and ripple out to others. She firmly believes that it will be easier for her children by the time they are her age because of the exposure they have had growing up as participants in these two cultures. It would seem that curiosity, respect, openness, and acceptance will be part of the very powerful legacy that this intercultural family will leave behind.

20

Old Country Is Old

J
ust as the decision to immigrate involves a cost-benefit analysis for the individual immigrant, the experiences of the countries involved can similarly be captured as a calculation of risk to reward. There are three parties involved in every act of international migration: the migrant himself, his country of origin, and his country of destination. Each of these parties has its own distinct and often conflicting interests in the process. What is good for the immigrant may not be good for his home or host country; the home and host countries gain and lose in different ways.

Is emigration good for the immigrant’s country of origin? The answer lies in an analysis of who the immigrant is, where he goes, and what he does there.

BENEFITS

Immigration can serve an important safety-valve function for a “sending” country by relieving that country of some of its inhabitants, thus reducing the pressure on resources, particularly in densely populated and impoverished regions.

Immigration of certain demographic groups in society can relieve pressure on labor markets and ease intergenerational tensions. Countries with large youth/working-age populations experience downward pressure on wages, especially among unskilled laborers, if labor supply significantly exceeds demand. Unemployed youth populations are politically destabilizing as well, and their home countries often welcome their migration.

Immigrants perhaps benefit their home countries most when they send home a portion of their wages to family and friends or make investments in their countries of origin. By some estimates, remittances comprise double the amount of foreign aid that developing countries receive and up to 30 percent of some poor countries’ total GDP. Remittances that are made through formal banking channels from immigrants living in developed countries back to their developing homelands have, by some estimates, quadrupled over the last two decades, from $60 billion in 1990 to $240 billion in 2007. Other estimates put the current figure closer to $318 billion or nearly $1 billion per day. Millions more in remittances are made through informal channels.

Both the countries of origin and the destination generally encourage remittances. Destination countries benefit from fees on banking transactions incurred in sending the money home. It has also been shown that remittances nurture ties between immigrants and their home communities that serve as a “safety net.” When immigrants fall on hard times in their host countries, they are often able to depend on relatives and connections back home instead of becoming reliant on public welfare.

Immigrants living in the United States send the most money back home, with $42 billion leaving the country in 2006, of which $25 billion of it went to Mexico (formal banking channels only).

Remittances can be so significant that origin countries encourage migration. The
Times of India
reports that twenty million Indians working and living abroad have made India the largest single recipient of remittance flows; India receives $27 billion remitted from various countries, which comprises one-tenth of total global remittances.

It has been found that the poorer the immigrant, the more likely he is to send remittances. The majority of remittances to developing countries come in small increments from unskilled laborers. Remittances are less volatile than foreign aid or investment and tend to actually increase during times of global economic hardship.

When large immigrant communities form in wealthy and influential nations, they form a powerful diaspora, which can advocate for the interests of their countries of origin in the host country and in the international community.

Benefits negotiated by and made possible through this diaspora can include investment, aid, preferential trade policies, and even political pressure for reform in the home country. For instance, the Chinese diaspora in the West has spearheaded business deals and agitated for Communist Party reforms in China. Perhaps the most prominent example is the Jewish immigrants in the United States through their lobbying efforts, which result in substantial influence on U.S. policy. In addition, American Jews provide Israel financial support through investments from both the government and private companies.