Identity
Leaving your homeland isn’t just a change of address; a shift in identity, culture, rythm and perspective. Before moving to Australia I used to think identity remains fixed — being rooted in birthplace, language and tradition. But migration taught me that identity is layered as skin. Migration is not just stepping from one country to other but, it is stepping into a complex web with our own identity and reshaping yourself.
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Back as a Pakistani I was a linguist, a teacher, a muslim and a content writer. My degrees and my experience meant to be something in the society to enjoy my personal and professional growth. But here, just a newcomer, a question mark with no certain answer of who I am? The crisis of identity comes with migration. Now i can actually experience the idea of Edward Said about the tension between belonging and exclusion; how being a part of East make us as “other’’. The job applications that never got a response, the polite smile that didn’t reach the eyes; it’s only that i am new but the truth is i am unproven. Jhumpa Lahiri beautifully prersented this in her novel “The Namesake” where Gogol struggles with his name, his heritage, his identity in America. I am just like him assimilated, striving for future, surviving for present and longing for past.
Having a fluid identity ; sometimes I feel invisible other moment I feel like a bridge connecting 1st world with 3rd world, language, culture and faith. It reminds me of Bhabha’s idea of “Third Space”. According to this identity is not fixed but as something constantly negotiated between cultures. A true idea to feel migration ; I’m not Pakistani or Australian, I’m both or neither. Just stuck between migrant’s state of being, the space of hybridity and the constant becoming.
Migration not only cracked my sense of self, but also expanded it. Teaching me identity is not a destination; it’s a journey. Identity is layered just like skin which is hidden, visible, sensitive, protective and sensitive. It is hidden with past, culture, language and trauma but, visible with race, age, gender and scars. Identity is a trip to possibilities.
