EOY TIB Interview

00:03 Hello, my name is chest. I am 16 years old. Today is the 18th of May, and I am speaking with Mrs. Meeta Madan who is my mother. We are recording this in Flower Mountain, Texas. Okay, so to start off, this interview is about immigration. So can you just talk to me about your experiences as an immigrant? How, how are you an immigrant and your journey through it?

00:32 How am I an immigrant and my journey? Basically, I came here for work sometime in 2002. I believe the first time that I came in here was then it was just for work. Come earn some money, go back to India. That was the plan. And here I am now. Indian American.

01:01 Yeah. Okay, so how have your experiences as an immigrant changed the way you view the world around you?

01:06 How has it changed the way I view the world around me? I think I've so I think back in India you're very spoiled. You have people for a lot of jobs. So I've begun to value that system a lot more. Dignity of labor definitely is a lot more here than, you know, being thankful to what we can do, being thankful to no job is small and you can really or a decent living. I think that's been my biggest lesson that I've learned and of course, yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned.

02:01 So looking back, how would your life be different if you had not had the opportunity as an immigrant, how would it be different?

02:09 I think I'd be living with my family and my loved ones. I would have probably not, I don't know, maybe I wouldn't have become a true world citizen. Maybe I would have just stayed very to my own roots and my stuff. But just coming in here, I've, I've really learned a lot. The kind of people I interact with from so many corners of the world and getting to know them has changed a lot of perspective that you only read in history books or you only read about people. Instead of having that secondhand knowledge, you're actually learning from people themselves. Yeah. And I think that's, that's my biggest thing, like truly learning about the world first hand experience has been what I would have think I wouldn't have had if I was there.

03:20 Yeah. So obviously life in India is very different from life in America. The culture, the people you're surrounded with, the way you live your life. So how have you tried to keep your culture and way of life in this foreign nation? Have you seen others around you do the same?

03:38 So, yeah, definitely, it's different. We, I think we've adopted, we've Adopted Thanksgiving, we've adopted Christmas. So definitely a lot more than what we would have done there. But just teaching, teaching kids the culture that we come from, you know, for them to be appreciating the space, spiritual and the festivals that we have in India and keeping up the culture is part and parcel of growing up. So just visiting the temples, having some friends that are, you know, share the same culture heritage like you, teaching them about your food habits, doing a mix and match of food has been a big part in our house especially, you know, just I think that's how you keep your culture alive. And you also adopt to the new culture that the country that you've adopted, you also adopt their own culture. So we've become a very fusion cultural family is what I feel.

04:54 So can you describe the scene of Indian immigration to America as someone who's gone through experience? So how is it viewed in Indian society and how is it done? Like, is it a big thing? Is it viewed, Is that a goal that a lot of people have? What, how do you go through it? What are the options? What are the opportunities and doors that need to be opened that going through that?

05:22 I think it's a very mixed bag of people that are in India, right? And some people, yes, they do grow up with a dream to come to a developed nation. They do dream to come to America for a better life. India, India has got a very different class system, right? And very different, different parts of India have very different thoughts, right? So it's not that everybody dreams of coming here, but yes, there are people who also dream of coming here. The biggest one that now people follow is of course to an education in India. Regardless whether you're thinking of coming to the US or you're not thinking of coming to the US Somehow education does play a big part in Indian families, right? You are. Every kid is taught the importance of education. And it so happens that computers or technical industry has just opened the doors for more and more people to come here. For me personally, just I was, I don't think growing up, I dreamt of coming to America. To be very honest, it so happened that I landed in a job in a technical company. I had to come in here for my work purpose. So for me personally, the immigration was very easy. The company lawyers took care of everything. All the visa stuff went through very easily. And you know, my husband, he came in here through his company transfer. So we didn't have to really go through those immigration grinds that we hear from people like waiting for the green cards and waiting for their citizenship. Fortunately for us, and thankfully we are blessed that we didn't have to go through that. But a lot of people, especially the people who don't have an educational background, I hear, find it very difficult to come here. There are, they do go through a different grind, which I'm not very aware of.

07:39 So how are immigrants to you perceived in society and how has that impacted you and your life?

07:49 I think I've been very fortunate to be accepted in the companies that we have worked for. I'm fortunate that, you know, we, we live in a society where diversity and equality is all coming into. Inclusivity is all coming into the picture. So I haven't faced, I, I wouldn't say that I feel like an immigrant. It's, it's very rare that sometimes that you just feel out of place maybe, but it's very rare. Like, for example, if you want to talk about cricket, you're not going to find a lot of people who are going to be talking about cricket just because you know about it. So I think I need the question again.

08:41 Yeah. So, for example, I have seen people who find it difficult to relate to the broader society. They're not able to connect with certain things that have been a core ideal to many American childhoods. That Indian people don't go through the same thing. They have different cultures, different ideals, whether it's eating different food at a party or feeling secluded, maybe discriminated against. How have you felt the impacts of that?

09:13 I felt the impacts of that. Maybe not understanding football has been the biggest impact, but honestly, I think the world is becoming such a, you know, thanks to the social media, thanks to so much of stuff that the world is becoming more and more smaller and people are learning about cultures and things like that. Right. So I haven't really faced that. Yeah, initially, like food is, I think is a bigger one, especially when, and this is long time back, I think things are changing now. If you go and tell somebody you're a vegetarian and then they'll be like, you eat fish. Right. Those were those kind of questions that we were asked. So I really don't know anything else that I have felt like discriminated or, or anything of that nature. I do think that a little bit from a work perspective, I do feel like, you know, the story building aspect or the selling aspect doesn't come that easily to most of them. But those things are also changing now. You know, things are changing where the Indians were considered to be more in the technical forefront. It's changing and we're Seeing more and more CIOs, CEOs, taking up that roles too. So I do feel like things are changing for good. Yeah. And those world is coming smaller. Discrimination is getting less and less is what I feel like.

10:54 So what led you and millions of other Indians to become an immigrant in the first place?

11:00 Mine was by chance, millions of others. Like I told you, we come from a very different culture, society, classes. Back in India, a lot of people, it's about having a better life. Things affording a home here seems like an easier dream than in India with the population, with the amount of, you know, the amount of inflation in India is. It's. It just feels like probably us can give them a better life than what they can with the same amount of hard work that they put there. I feel like the competition there is a lot more just because of the population over there.

11:50 Yeah. So what role has your immigration played in the larger trend of shifting society? You know, seeing the number of immigrants come into, you know, countries like the U.S. whether it's the outsourcing of jobs to India or the immigration to the U.S. how have you played your role in these broader societal trends?

12:18 I am in the outsourcing business. So what. Can you give me a question more clearly?

12:32 Yeah. So what global societal trends have you been a part of as an immigrant? So, for example, there have been numerous trends in history where you've seen a lot of especially Asian immigrants come in for labor opportunities, whether it's the Chinese immigrants working on the continental railroads or Indian immigrants working in the Caribbean, to implantations as indentured laborers. So how has your immigration played a role in perhaps a new global trend that's happening right now? Answer the question. Be like more opportunities. Okay, moving on to the next question. What opportunities have been enabled to you as an immigrant? Please tell me. You can answer this.

13:37 Opportunities have been enabled for me as an immigrant. I don't. I do think just because I was an immigrant, I got some opportunities. Right.

13:47 Your ability to come into a new atmosphere in America rather than India, whether it's in terms of meeting new people, experiencing new lifestyles, broader connections, of course, obviously better jobs or whatnot, you know.

14:04 Okay. That way, like, personally, for me, yes. I think it's about really, like I said earlier also, right. I said it's like you get a global view of people, you meet people and you. Different cultures that you come in. I do feel like over here, I do feel like it's every. Like everybody I've met seems to be an immigrant. To be honest, like, I Feel like this, this whole place is like filled with immigrants. Like I'm working with people who have been generations come from Germany or for generations have come from the Middle east and things of that. Right. Just opening their culture, seeing how their kids have evolved, seeing how they've adopted to this society from China. I truly feel like I do get the first hand experience of all different cultures right here.

15:10 So what is your view on immigration? What factors past surprise and may have affected these views? Immigrations or immigrants, whatever.

15:22 I think to me, honestly, with the world opening up, right, I think we need to think cross borders. We need to not truly think of immigrants or immigrations. We just need to think of people are like adopting homes and foster homes. To me it's just about coming from India to here and this is now my adopted land. So I think that's view instead of just thinking of myself as an immigrant, right. And I teach something to my adopted land and my adopted land teaches me some things.

16:01 So what specific events may have impacted the way you as an immigrant are perceived in society? I know there's been a lot of different things, laws, past events that have happened that have put immigrants in the spotlight. So how do you think those events may have impacted the way you're seeing it?

16:19 I truly think I got it easy because of my predecessors who have done so much of work before me, right. I didn't have to face any discrimination because of all the laws that were present. I didn't have to face anything. I wasn't standing out because I had so many people, people who had already moved before me. So I do think that I should thank all a lot of people in the past for me not standing out as an immigrant now.

16:59 So okay, just for specific examples, when Trump passed his laws against immigration against various different countries or, I don't know, events such as that. How do you think society's way of viewing immigrants was affected by that? And maybe not necessarily for you personally, but immigrants as a whole.

17:25 I think when things like that happen, right. It's little unfortunate because like I said earlier also there are, there are people like us who feel like this is their adopted home and this is the place that they call their home. Now when such things happen, it just makes you feel like was your decision, right? Are you always going to be, even though you are adopted, are you still going to be part of that family? Right. Those questions and those doubts are never good for anybody. So I do think that while we all have to protect our people, the adopted family is also the people of the land. Right. So these things just cause unnecessary troubles is what I feel.

18:24 I see. So what role has immigration played in your life and those around you, in the lives of those around you?

18:33 A huge thing. My family is now here. My kids. My kids celebrate Thanksgiving a lot more than they celebrate Diwali, so that's definitely a big thing. To them, this is their home. To me, it's my adopted home, but to them, this is their home. And probably going and visiting family back in India is more like, okay, this is. This is not the place we call home. So that. That's. That's a big difference. Right. To them, this is their home. This is their nation. This is their country.

19:10 I see. So what would you want me or others around you to take away from your experiences as an immigrant?

19:22 I think opening up to different cultures, different people, different experiences, adopting things, making the world a better place to live, with everybody having a place to call their home home is what I would say has to be.

19:51 Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's all I got for you. Thank you.