Leaving motherland? Migrating vs. staying put | Us & Them | DW Documentary

Personally drag did not just change my life it fixed my life it’s not that there’s no future in the Philippines but for me I want to explore and I believe that when I’m exploring I will achieve something that’s what got me thinking about going abroad going abroad I love him so much I

Don’t want to lose my grandson Immigration has seen in our society as a way to escape what they call the hell of Iraq but I and many other young people think this is wrong our energy would then go to another country why would that be Good one day I will convince her to leave the country to achieve what she dreams of and she will acknowledge that I’m right I see myself staying in this country and they have to accept That so we genes are really fighting for something our motivation is to earn something ourselves to support ourselves support ourselves if he goes BR he might not have anyone there for him and something could happen that would take the life out of me if that happens I’ll

Die heard this before we choose where we want to live but our families disagree young and old our realities and dreams can be so different seriously it seems like there’s a huge gap between the generations sometimes we just don’t get each other the question is can we fix it I was raised by my three grandmothers first is my biological grandma she is Aurora Asawa the mother of my dad w AK mag the second one Naman is Si Rosita Arenas and then the third one is early arena for as for the third one she’s the youngest among the siblings the final

One is Mama Mama early I call her mama because when I was a child I thought she was my Mother my dad died when I was 9 years old it happened suddenly he was a diabetic but had medicine to treat it I don’t know about my mom I don’t know much about what she’s been through she didn’t know what to do especially since she wasn’t ready to be a single

Parent we love Adrian so much there is no kind of love that I would not give him it’s like she left to us my grandmother is explained me now that’s going to be okay it’s going to be okay we here and there are three of us

Who can take care of you your three grandmothers are here and then I finally felt calm and comfortable I have no idea how to ride a bike at all I didn’t own a bicycle as a child either so I trained on the grass in abu’s gardens I couldn’t believe it when

I suddenly saw a woman on a bicycle I immediately ran to her because there are only a few women who ride bicycles and I shouted captain captain [Applause] Captain I was surprised that she knew I was a trainer she said because of your sports clothes one day she came to the

Training to teach herself how to ride a bike that was exciting Captain Captain suad is my second mother she’s the mother who taught me to love cycling my real mother’s afraid of Captain SW because she’s very fixated on tradition and many little details she’s afraid of what Captain SW might encourage us to

Do I an accountancy student every time I go to school I have no idea what’s going to happen then I had to stop due to financial crisis due to the pandemic when I stopped studying that was also like a sigh of relief you have to finish your

Studies you don’t want to embarrass your father’s relatives and your cousin I feel like I’ve disappointed my whole family they’re concerned because I wasn’t able to study and they didn’t know when I’d be able to study again I still don’t have any money and Paul isn’t the only one around

A quarter of all Filipinos live below the poverty line although the economy in the Philippines after the corona slump is up and running again there are still too few jobs for the ever growing population millions of Filipinos therefore choose to work abroad however this isn’t about achieving your dream like Paul is

Thinking it’s about taking care of your family because most Filipinos have no pension or Social Security there are many opportunities overseas so much can happen when you leave home I’m looking forward to it that’s why my friends and I always talk about it if I go abroad who will be your best

Friend still you oh noo [Applause] Pala ba Yan I think must I think things for lgbtq people are better abroad they’re getting beat up out there no no but sis as far as the Philippines government goes and all of the narrow-minded people here especially with the generational Gap and

Everything yeah that’s still there it is something that pH more um some Filipinos aren’t ready to talk about now LGBT aren’t that fully accepted yet we still yes exactly I’ve had more arguments with my mother and my family over where and what subject I chose to study than anything

Else they expected me to study medicine like the other girls but I find it boring I enjoy making content for social [Applause] media I really enjoy working in this field so I wanted to study something more along those lines so I chose to study business and from there I chose marketing because it

Helps in regards to content creation I currently work as a receptionist at The Babylon Hotel also I’m a firste student at the American University majoring in business my family was totally against me working and also rejected many other things in my life but in the end there are things they just have to

Accept there are many tabos for women for example going out for fun or shopping except for when a woman goes out with her family she’s not allowed to go out it’s not allowed to meet with the opposite sex they have to be veiled for example I totally reject all of that

I feel that Huda wants to make a radical change for women in our society she wants to bring culture from outside of Iraq to Iraq and she wants to be the reason for this radical change for Iraqi women like who does parents also tell her to leave the country but just not in

Front of the camera the situation for women in Iraq is a disaster many things are forbidden and there isn’t even a law against domestic violence things used to be different in the 196s women were confident well educated had good jobs but living under Saddam s’s dictatorship and through many

Wars radical conservative forces have been strengthened which has worsened the situation for Women the funniest thing to me is how my family laughs at me riding my bike and they ask are you a boy now that you’re riding a bike or they’ll claim you will ruin your femininity and so on What I love about cycling is that feeling of Freedom as I move forward when I see birds spreading their wings it makes me wish I had wings too why don’t we humans have wings to fly With I’m afraid of how society looks at Huda I’m also afraid of her being hit by a car because many people don’t obey traffic rules I am afraid of religious Fanatics who forbid her to ride a bicycle for religious reasons I’m afraid that she will be murdered or kidnapped or anything that

Falls under human trafficking I’m really afraid for Huda A friend introduced me this live streaming up they call kumu as the Disneyland of social media at first I just watched it until got my own ideas especially when I saw drag queens performing wow what if what if I try the best thing about kumu because it’s pandemic my life is inside the

House especially inside the room coping mechanism helped me deal with my fears so I would get paranoid I suddenly didn’t feel like I was alone during the personally drag did not just change my life it fixed my Life [Applause] What is a revelation for Paul has a long tradition in the Philippines more than a thousand years ago there were already shamans who practiced gender Crossing when when the Spaniards conquered the country in the 16th century Catholicism came with them and that was the end of it officially anyway and after that for

Centuries gender Crossing was no longer practiced so freely in public today though there are plenty of drag bars in Manila more tolerated than loved but drag shows are becoming more and more popular Dr what is this drag queen you’re talking about is that drugs or something etaru siano

Na viewers please share the live and also double tap the hard button and guys if you have any spare coins ayany na Yan and thank you so Much what a shame I told him I wish he were a real girl if he were a true lady maybe he’d be very pretty people might laugh at him sometimes they also ask is your grandson still gay no I answer he’s working on becoming a man

I don’t even want to hear all that is said about my Grandson what are you thinking for your life it depends if I live stream I can save money and put it aside so just in case I can save that money for my studies take care of your studies because you know I can’t help you I could also get more gigs arrange

If I get discovered you have to take care of me when I get older so take care of yourself now study hard and then you can help your parents your mother it’s not so much for me but mostly for your mother pray that your dream will come true that you can finish your

Studies you they are pressuring me to finish my studies that’s the most important thing for them because they didn’t have the chance to do it themselves we have many dreams for Him okay we put a lot of pressure on him we said sign up we’ll support you even if we don’t have much these grandparents of ours they think they know what’s good for us but of course we reflect on that ourselves and We Know Better what’s good for

Us he can be proud that that he has an education not like those types who just hang out on the Streets we’ve reached a place where our people have lost all hope and are full of fear and anxiety everyone started sending their children away for fear that they’ll be killed here we wanted to spread the Spirit of Hope and developed a special program to embrace young

People like you and also to develop an awareness of How To Succeed in making Iraq attractive to people from elsewhere whenever I’m at work and I see foreigners coming to Iraq I get bicycles for them and for me and we go to alanabi Street and other places the matis monument for

Example it doesn’t matter whether you’re female or male because it’s about your heart and mind and abroad we don’t have to follow other Traditions nor do they have to follow ours but we respect their system and they respect ours we learn from them and they learn from

Us Huda is quite the exception with her to stay in Iraq in recent decades millions of Iraqis have lost all hope and left the country especially the well educated because of War religious persecution and the still ongoing Terror by islamist terrorists the economy is a nightmare and there is no improvement in sight

More than half of Iraqis are under 25 it’s actually not surprising that today many young Iraqis want to leave the country hello hello hell hello to what extent do I feel responsible for what my family and also Captain swad think deep down I feel very responsible

I don’t want to make them sad feelings or break their hearts I try to stick to what they tell me in the end there are many differences between us if we disagree I can only compromise for their sake [Applause] I think this generation is brave even if

They lack obedience to their elders and don’t want to listen to their advice but this generation is well informed technology allows them to experience what is going on around them it is technology that is enabling this generation to be more cultured and informed because of that they see our generation as backwards

I hope that she leaves Iraq and achieves what she desires elsewhere despite her courage I worry about how Society will react to her a young woman in the prime of her life she doesn’t even know the negative sides of this Society you don’t try to make me a copy of you or

Your generation IM Ali says don’t raise your children the way you were raised it’s not possible to make others a copy of you as I accept you you must accept me what about my generation we are more cultured we’re also more educated yeah I appreciate that too but times have

Changed your culture is completely wrong what has changed the morals and the ideas are the same but what changed you as technology our ideas make more sense than yours and you don’t accept that [Applause] here in Iraq opportunities for women are very limited true but all their effort and

Energy would disappear and leave the country how’s that a good thing why shouldn’t they remain in the country maybe we can find a way to evolve here and stay when the engineer the pilot and others are gone who’s left for the country you know that I’ve been active

In this field for a long time I’ve tried to change society and I’ve tried to make the bicycle a means of Transport for women but I didn’t make it we’re still at the same point our society rejects this idea I support Huda in some things even if

She wants to stay in this country although I’m against it I also share some of her thoughts on changing Society even if the changes are small will I die well then I die go ahead and die I love taking risks in life if it looks dangerous I’ll try it W in 10 years I’ll either still be on kumu doing drag or in 10 years I must star like I said there’s a lot of options I want to be in Drag Race I want to go Club to Club to Club state state to state this is what I want that’s what I

Want for my future in drag I’m going to take it there and I believe I can do it if he’s abroad and can take care of us that’s okay as long as he visits us I’m glad he wants to go abroad he to be successful he should be able to move

Forward in life himself when that day comes we won’t let him regret It I’m glad he is the way he is not like the Others as long as someday he finds a [Laughter] wife I can’t remember cuz I’m [Laughter] old is that possible can I say That I’m lost where do I Start I have to go now okay thank you you’re all crazy

Paul wants to emigrate but should stay, Houda wants to stay but should emigrate. When the older generation believes we’ll only be able to realize our dreams elsewhere, it’s not easy for us to accept their view. An experience shared by Paul in the Philippines and Houda in Iraq.

Paul lives in the Philippines and is non-binary. After dropping out of university, Paul starts earning their first income with online drag performances. But Paul sees no future for themselves in the Philippines. Paul’s dream is to emigrate to the US, forge a career there, earn money and support their family. The grandmothers who raised Paul are worried about this plan and in any case, they don’t really understand their grandchild’s way of life. They fear for Paul’s safety in a foreign world.

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22 comments

  2. Now DW needs to comprehend why Europe is reluctant to welcome these individuals, especially peaceful people from those countries. Are you aware, DW, that these individuals experience discrimination, and yet you advocate for bringing in these peaceful men?

  4. People who comment here talking about religions don't understand that cultural compatibility matters more. Religions don't make people, culture does. SEA people are mostly non-confrontational, except those who are mainland SEAns that have a little bit of temper, but mostly peaceful unless provoked.

  10. We don't have space in the UK. we have the highest tax burden for 70 years and nothing like enough housing and yet we have 1.3m people coming ever year lawfully and tens of thousands unlawfully (740,000 a year net migration – highest in our history ever) and about £1m illegals and it has had massive difficult impact on our society never mind that we take talented people from their own countries in the process too – so lose lose all round. Given climate change the huge issues the US, Europe and the UK currently have we need to close borders and stop taking talents of people from abroad and start encouraging emigration from the UK. Even just the video of all that litter dropped in Syria summed up the issues for me – that I go out every single day here where I live and pick up the rubbish dropped by all the foreigners who think my country is a trash can and cannot be bothered to follow the laws of the UK. When in Rome do as the Romans do

  11. People should be able to free without having to be vailed regardless of where they were born. Women should be FREE! I stand with all choices that any woman makes. Vailed or unveiled. You do you!❤

  12. Buddha and Jesus are cool. Muhammed… not so much. The persistent issue is not cultural. The correlation is Islam. Muslims, integrate or leave.

  15. Filipinos are born and raised to emigrate. Our number one export is people, to slave off in other countries. The Philippines is the largest manpower agency lol. Yan lang talaga silbi ng bansa natin.

  16. The Iraqi cyclist was inspirational; the Filipino drag queen was just weird. This should really have been two different documentaries.

  17. they have no idea how cheap food and housing is in a third world country
    how cheap it is to live close to nature, how little regulation they have to comply with
    I've lived in both many times; upward mobility is MORE widely available with in a upwardly developing country;
    where resources are untapped including housing and market space

  18. My natural liberal inclination is in favour of migration. However, in the case of rights isn't it a conservative force if people are fleeing countries rather than inspiring social change and protest within them? That is to say, we talk about brain drain, but how about social change drain

  19. Most people miss the point when it comes to immigration, most humans would love to remain in their homeland, but if you don't have human rights, labor laws, and rampant thievery from public servants including the top politicians, what would you stay?
    Immigration is a business for every single country, some need cheap labor in order to keep their economies running to provide hefty returns to wealthy investors, some countries rely on money that people send back home, so corrupt politicians that monopolize the industries along with the so call "business people,"can squeeze their citizens financially selling them mediocre services or products.
    The crooked politicians are happy when people leaves knowing they did zero investment, and they will get a rainfall in divisas from abroad.
    Yes, I agree, every single immigrant should adapt to the country they go to, learning the language, respecting their citizens, the laws and the culture.
    Any immigrant that doesn't follow these, should be returned as soon as they commit a crime that is classified a punishable offense and citizenship should be revoked if murder, trafficking, or child abuse has been committed.
    Don't request to be accepted, earn that trust showing respect and commitment.

  20. Emigration to the west is not a human right. If you see big problems in your homecountry, work to bring positive change for your people.

  22. Watching that all the simple things are banned for women is so heartbreaking. This mentality is very dangerous. I hope freedom comes for all Iraqi women.

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