Adapting to Survival in a Foreign Country
HAVANA TIMES – We immigrants are united by a kind of common bond, born out of our awareness of the other’s griefs: “I suffer, I miss, I have to limit myself, I have 1,000 jobs to do… So I can understand how you feel.”
When two immigrants converse, they often ask each other what they used to do in their home countries. I’ve run into some who lived, “from whatever I could find,” or “one day here and another there,” because, at least in Cuba, job stability and the career you’ve built are less and less relevant every day.
I’ve also met people who are very well educated, with interesting careers or skills, but who now have to work at whatever they find to survive.
When I came to Brazil, I worked stocking the shelves in a supermarket. I met a Venezuelan there who had been a telecommunications engineer, a branch of study that here offers very good salary perspectives. But he didn’t bring his diploma, and even if he had, he would have had to have its equivalency validated in order to be contracted.
Another limitation here for many is the language. In my case, for example, I’m a writer and journalist in Spanish, but wouldn’t be able to do that here, because my Portuguese still isn’t good enough.
I have a Cuban friend who graduated as an accountant there and managed to focus and validate his credentials quickly here, while he simultaneously studied and worked as a supermarket cashier.
In my current job, I work with a Venezuelan who was an airplane mechanic in his country. When I heard that, I had to marvel.
My wife cleans the floors in a Church, although in Cuba she was a narrator and a social communications specialist, who began a Master’s in that field but never finished it, discouraged by the poor salaries that all professionals earn in Cuba.
Here, professionals live very well, although there are fewer graduates. This isn’t a society that graduates people in bulk [like in Cuba] but later can’t offer them a job on their level or pay them the salary they deserve.
A well-positioned lawyer here can earn tens of thousands of reales [thousands of US $] a month. There are many careers that pay very well, but you have to pay to study them and they’re quite expensive.
I’d already commented in past posts that Brazil offers a lot of courses and opportunities to rise that are free and help a lot, all depending on the interests of each person.
The jobs that pay little, like stocking shelves, washing cars, housecleaning, care for old people, etc. are principally carried out by immigrants.
Some native Brazilians who don’t have any defined career often prefer to live by inventing some gig, or drugs, or stealing, or welfare, rather than work at jobs that take up a lot of time, are excessively stressful, and pay little.
A common feature among immigrants is the determination to grow. We’re aware that we came to work, but only to be able to have our own business in the future. With that in mind, we work double and put away money.
It doesn’t matter if we aspire to follow our former professions or to grow in new areas. We seek professional success and economic stability, because we left so many things behind to get them.