I recently took a cab ride in Washington, DC. My cab driver was from Kenya and I had quite an interesting conversation with him. Though I am from an area in the country where agriculture is dependant on the immigrant community, I haven’t had the opportunity to hear many personal stories.
The driver came to the United States 10 years ago seeking a better life for his family, as most immigrants do. He told me that he went to university in Kenya and after his graduation spent six years working and supporting the education of his two younger sisters. Then he moved to the United States where he would earn more money, enough to sustain his wife and two children as well as send a substantial amount of money to his aging parents in Kenya.
He told me that his work schedule consists of starting his day at 3pm driving cab until about 1 in the morning. He then returns home, sleeps for 4 hours before starting his job in a store that lasts until 1 in the afternoon. At that point he returns home for lunch before going back to the cab driving job. He works seven day s a week. He sees his family only a few hours a day, yet, he says his life is so much better here than it was in Kenya “More opportunity and a better life for my children.”
Though it seems that America is not all it is cracked up to be. He believes that Americans do not have strong family values. He moved home after college, something that is not so rare here in America, however, how many American kids spend every cent of earnings from their first post-college jobs paying for their siblings to attend school? And he does not understand the separation between adult children and their parents. In Kenya, children care for their parents, “We owe them for raising us, it is our duty to care for them after we grow up,” He sends money home to his mother and father, hoping that as they grow older they won’t have to work as much.
Immigration is one of the most polarizing political issues of this decade. Some people want to put walls on our borders. Others want to send everyone who wasn’t born here “back to where they came from.” But look at what we’d be missing- we can benefit from the values and ideas those from other countries bring with them. Wouldn’t it be great if more people were like this immigrant family.
Maybe everyone needs to spend a little time talking to a cab driver from Kenya.
