The stress of being an immigrant in today’s world.🤍

Being an immigrant means to be in-between worlds, in a place where the struggle to let go meets the need to fit in - and between them, you face a transition that can last years.

The challenge of trying to adapt to another culture, language, social norms, people, is one of the most life-altering stressors, asking for resources that only with time and patience you discover in yourself.

The adaptation to a new environment takes resilience, tolerance, and flexibility.

It is a test of endurance, maturity, courage, and intelligence.

The hopes for thriving in a new country are oftentimes replaced by the effort to survive, while everything familiar shifts at once.

Being alien in a new world can feel like being strange, out of place, not quite fitting the environment. Always seen as the different one - and difference is often feared.

More than any other time, now, being from a different country is not welcomed by everyone. It is more often seen as something potentially threatening.

And yet, behind every accent, every pause, every moment of searching for the right word, there is a human nervous system trying to stay safe.

Immigration is not just a logistical change.

It is an emotional, psychological, and bodily transition.

It means losing the familiar without having fully gained the new.

It means grieving a life that no longer exists while being expected to adapt, to function, to be grateful.

It means carrying values, habits, and ways of being that once made sense - and slowly realizing they don’t always translate here.

An immigrant learns to watch carefully.

To listen deeply.

To scan the room for cues - how people speak, how they connect, what is acceptable, what is not.

They learn to hold back parts of themselves until they know it is safe to show them.

This constant self-monitoring is exhausting.

Many immigrants live with a quiet loneliness that is hard to name.

They may be surrounded by people, yet feel unseen.

They may speak fluently, yet struggle to be understood beyond words.

They may appear functional, capable, even successful, while carrying an ongoing sense of dislocation inside.

There is also the pressure to prove worth.

To justify one’s presence.

To be good, useful, non-threatening.

To not complain.

To not take up too much space.

To be grateful - even when the cost is high.

I know this from the inside.

I am an immigrant in a new country. I made this change at midlife, when identity is already formed and certainties feel earned. This transition did not happen quickly. It took years - and it is still a work in progress.

In my life, I challenged myself through many experiences to grow, but adapting to a new country and culture as an immigrant was, by far, the most challenging one. It tested my ability to adapt and adjust, my resilience, my confidence, my capacity to make decisions, my patience, determination, flexibility, and trust.

There were many moments of doubt. Moments of unsafety, worry, and fear. Moments when everything I thought I knew about myself felt shaken - my confidence, my sense of competence, my belonging.

I work with other people who are immigrants, and I recognize the same struggles in them. I also see the strength they develop by living through them. The sense of not belonging, of being different, the uncertainty, loneliness, and insecurity burden every one of them - including me.

And yet, the sense of becoming is also there.

So is resilience.

So is transformation.

Deeply woven into the experience of every brave person who has walked this path.

What often goes unnoticed is the courage it takes to rebuild identity from the ground up.

To trust oneself again when confidence has been shaken by language barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and subtle - or not so subtle - rejection.

Immigrants don’t only need opportunity.

They need safety.

They need patience.

They need space to make mistakes without shame.

They need to be met with curiosity instead of suspicion, with humanity instead of labels.

Because beneath the effort to adapt, to fit in, to survive, there is a longing shared by all of us:

To belong.

To be respected.

To feel at home - not just legally, but emotionally and in the body.

If you have never lived between worlds, you may not see the invisible labor it takes to stand there.

But if you slow down enough to look, you might recognize something deeply human:

A person doing their best to carry their life forward with dignity, hope, and quiet strength.

May we meet immigrants with curiosity instead of fear.

May we remember that adaptation takes time, and belonging cannot be rushed.

May we offer patience where there is struggle, respect where there is difference, and humanity where there is vulnerability.

And may every person who lives between worlds feel, slowly and in their own way, that there is space for them here.

With care and respect,

Aniela🤍