Immigration Reaction

First-Generation Student’s View on Immigration Affected by His Parents Journey
By Jack Edison

BOSTON –– Khalil Hussein, a medical student in a seven-year program at Boston University, enjoys rooting for his hometown Miami Dolphins, eating hot dogs and playing Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 game console. His parents’ unconventional journey to America allowed him to live a typical young American-male life.

Twenty-one year-old Hussein is the son of a Lebanese doctor, Atif Hussein, and a Filipino nurse, Dina Tariman. Tariman left the Philippines in 1982 to take a job as a nurse in Beirut. “If you are willing to work in a war zone, they pay you a premium,” explained Hussein. His mother did not know Arabic culture or language.

His parents met through “forced socialization” because of the violence surrounding the medical facilities and their living quarters. “My dad often encountered gunmen on the road and had to bribe them,” pointed out Hussein.

The violence increased in 1984 and his parents, despite their passion for Beirut, opted to immigrate to America to raise a family. Through his connections at the American University in Beirut Medical School, Atif Hussein entered the University of Miami Medical School.

“The dean of the American University of Beirut Medical School had to sign a form saying that my dad wasn't a terrorist, and if my dad committed terrorist acts that he would take responsibility as a co-conspirator,” revealed Khalil.

The University of Miami did not pay for his father’s fellowship. “They know they have a lot of authority because a foreigner can’t come to the U.S. unless they have a job lined up,” said Khalil.

His parents began a family once his father began getting paid by the university. They moved out of their one-bedroom apartment and into a house. Khalil was born in 1988, while his sister Karen and brother Kamal were born in 1986 and 1991.

“When deciding what to name us, when deciding what religion we would be, when deciding what language it would be, it was all decided by the fact that this is a predominately Christian country,” explained Hussein. Hussein and his siblings have English middle names in case their Arabic ones become disadvantageous to their career.

Hussein’s English proficiency also concerned his father. “My dad preferred I was 100 percent proficient at English rather than 90 percent proficient at English and then 50 percent proficient at Arabic,” said Hussein, since his tests would be in English.

Although Hussein grew up immersed in American culture, his parents’ journey to the U.S. helped shape his views on immigration.

“Ironically, legal immigrants are some of the most anti-illegal immigration people,” chuckled Hussein. His father passed many tests to practice medicine in the U.S., including biochemistry, American history, and an English proficiency exam that expected foreigners to know English slang.

Illegal immigrants bypass these tests that hardworking foreigners must take in order to work and live in the U.S. “It is really not fair to anyone, especially legal immigrants, but it is the fault of the system. You give people an incentive to come here but you don't give them a legal way to do it,” according to Hussein.

“The current policy of, ‘If you make it to the U.S., you are ok,’ is ridiculous,” said Hussein. “It is like building a bank filled with gold and putting a safe door but telling people that if they manage to get through the safe all the gold is theirs.”

American immigration policy is still one of the easiest in the Western world despite having a long immigration process. “American immigration laws are more chaotic than they should be and less fair than they should be, but they are better than the vast majorities of countries,” admitted Hussein.