On migrants
On migrants
I just finished watching one of the famous Iñárritu's films. I read the comments and someone wrote: "It's interesting to see Barcelona from the inside, how migrants live and try to survive."
But what if this is not the "inside" of Barcelona? What if this is Barcelona's outside, and all the rich so-called "expats" living in Barcelona are, in fact, that "inside"? Though I can't really say - I lived in Barcelona so briefly and so half-heartedly that I hardly know it. But it got under my skin, yes, so deeply that it still hasn't let me go.
I'm trying to make peace with myself. Recently I saw a video of a girl who talked about how those who come from the West to Asia for "wisdom" contradict themselves, and criticized this approach. And then she started talking about launching an eco-friendly and authentic tour to Colombia at the end of the month. I removed my like from the video.
I remembered when I talked to my neighbor at the Airbnb in Barcelona in El Guinardo. He said that in fact, we are the ones because of whom the prices of apartments in Barcelona have risen over the past decade so that few people can afford to rent an entire apartment. I wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that he did not know where I lived before, that he did not know how poor I grew up, but at that moment I realized that it did not matter at all. It did not matter who I was and where I grew up, what really matters is how I behave now. Yes, I never thought that I would be able to afford to live in Barcelona for a month. And for me it was a huge victory and a huge privilege. But I did what all "expats" do who come to this city.
I hate with all my heart the term "expat" or "relocant" that is used a lot in Armenia now. I and all those who came before me, we are all migrants, and I don't think that I will ever stop being a migrant. I don't think that "migrant" is a bad word, or that it denotes people of a certain social class. I am a migrant, and the whole world is my home.