Meet Eleonore, an immigrant with an interesting story. She had many challenges and exciting times. She had a great life in France, but it was hard for her to get a job, so she decided to make a life changing decision. Now presenting “This Is My Place.”
“This Is My Place”
(Part of the 5B Series “Immigrant Voices”)
Yuki Matsuoka
Siyo: Today in America, many people have bad thoughts about immigrants only because it was said that they are bad for our country on TV by someone like President Donald Trump. What anti-immigrants don’t know is what immigrants, illegal or not, have gone through to feel like they are at home. All immigrants have an interesting story. Sometimes it might be funny, or exciting, or sad, but it is important to know what immigrants have gone through before disliking or having bad thoughts about them. Eleonore, a legal immigrant who has lived in America for years, came here from France. She had many challenges and had a rough beginning, but after years of living in America, she finally feels like she is at home. Here is Yuki Matsuoka with Eleanor’s story.
Yuki: Thank you Siyo. Every immigrant has a reason to be here in America. Most of the time they come for more money or they are running away from a war. For Eleonore, she came here for more opportunities.
Eleonore: I, first it was chance, a teacher in my university told me there was a job as a teaching assistant in France in Ohio in a college, and ok, I, I was good enough at English and I love to teach so I said all right and I came. And then after two years I changed college, I came to teach at um..in NJ and met my future husband.”
Yuki: A surprise was waiting for Eleonore when she arrived in America. She said it was one of the most challenging things she has been through as an immigrant.
Eleonore: “When I landed in Ohio, a teacher came to pick me up, a teacher of the university where I was going to teach French, and he was very nice to me and he brought me to my dorm and LEFT ME. He didn’t bring me to his house, and in the dorm there was no bed sheet on the bed, there was nothing, expect the mattress, the metal bed and the desk and a chair, and I did not know where to go to get all these things. I had no idea what to do. I did not even have a bath towel with me and this teacher had no clue and I had never been on my own ever before, so it was such a shock.”
Yuki: Eleonore faced many other struggles with other things.
Eleonore: “English wasn’t too much of a problem, although it was so irritating not to find the words right away for everything, so frustrating, and ah…People were welcoming in America. And my challenges were…to find what I needed. I had no idea which store to go to for what. I knew nothing of what was in America. Ah… the food a little bit, it was very new, especially the cooked dishes, so different and….Well I think that was, that was my two biggest challenges.”
Yuki: For Eleonore, she missed many things from her life in France.
Eleonore: “Oh, loved ones, always loved ones, but I also missed a lot the lifestyle in France. It was less stressful and I, I liked a lot things I was used to and I had to find knew habits here, new things I liked that I could enjoy as much. And it took me many years.
Yuki: Eleonore missed her family and friends. She had homesickness, but she found a way to overcome.
Eleonore: My mom’s phone calls every day at the beginning were helping a lot, then it was once a week and it was enough.
Yuki: Although she had many challenges and struggles, there are always good experiences living in America
Eleonore: My best experience was to all of a sudden have a job in a college and I never had a job before in my life and it was made so easy here, everything seemed easy for work, while in France it looked so difficult to me. And another great thing was to learn driving. I learned driving here and I was terribly scared in France and here not at all, because cars are automatic here so I felt great.
Yuki: After many good experiences in America, Eleonore still had disadvantage as an immigrant because immigrants do not know many things about America and have to worry about more things than Americans.
Eleonore: “Oh the disadvantage is mostly to not know, to be lost, to feel lost, you, you don’t know where to go for what and, and you don’t know really how people will behave with you, you don’t know what you are allowed to ask, not to ask, so yeah the biggest disadvantage is to not know…the country you are in, to not know the habits and the language is also new and scary but…for me, for French, and I had studied English a lot, it was ok.”
Yuki: Eleonore had a few people who made a positive difference in her life in America. She needed them to help her feel like she was at home.
Eleonore: “Oh yes, of course. First of all, Americans are very friendly. They don’t judge you, you know, they…you ask something, they answer nicely. They try to help you. Who else…my teachers were very nice, the students, I loved my students in college, they were so friendly and uh…what else I had an uncle in Dallas and I went to see him for Christmas, for my first Christmas and that really, wow.. I was so happy, I had a home to go to. I also had wonderful host parents at my college, an American family who, who came to guide me about many things and I could go, they would come to pick me up and bring me to their house for all the American festivals, like Thanksgiving. I never knew what it was. Halloween, they taught me everything, and they were so, so kind.
Yuki: After years of living in America, and with all the people Eleonore received help from, she is starting to feel less like an immigrant, and is feeling more and more comfortable here.
Eleonore: No… well yes, yes I still feel like an Immigrant, but on the other hand I also feel this is my place, so I am in my country as an immigrant and I like it. It’s positive and nowadays it is not like in the times of war jack, now days I can find everything I need, especially in Scarsdale, it’s full of French bakeries and Dechico, where they bake chickens like they do in France, where I find French cheeses and uh so any French people if I want to hear French and yea I, I feel like it’s my home now.
Siyo: Eleonore and other immigrants have experienced difficult times, but there are always good sides of being an immigrant. No matter if people like Donald Trump say immigrants are bad for our country, America is a country that immigrants love.