Critical Thinking Assignment – We are all immigrants

Humans have been moving to locations outside their birthplace since the beginning of humanity. Tracing back the origin of humanity reveals the astonishing fact that all humans originated in Africa, then migrated across the world, meaning at the core of humanity we are all descendants of immigration, and thus no person is a native of the place they call home.
(Hamid, 2019) critically points out that to be defined as a human being means to move forward across land, mountains and oceans. The word ‘immigrant’ is derived from the Latin term meaning ‘wonderer’. Civilization as we know it can be linked to the human nature of wondering and exploring. Great nations across the world formed as a result of immigrants from various walks of life. We have been moving across wide lands and limitless boarders even before the luxury of all the kinds of modern transportation we have access to today. In the words of (A-Nighaoi, 2019) “Borders do not limit us because in reality we all immigrated from some place, inside our blood runs the history of humanity. We might be anyone and our ancestors might be descendants from any part of the world. Therefore, we do not belong to one place, we belong to everywhere”. We all descended from somewhere so therefore we are all immigrants.
The term immigrant has been misused throughout the decades and given a negative association. In nowadays most people perceive immigrants as poor people, who are usually black. They believe that these people are after their land and resources, they are then vilified, rejected, and excluded (Adjai & Gabriella, 2013). People tend to forget that immigration is not exclusive only to impoverished people. Regardless of our socio-economic status, we are all immigrants.

Once you step out of the boarders of the country you live in then you are an immigrant. Whether you are going to seek employment, traveling, fleeing poverty, escaping war or simply exploring, you are an immigrant. Based on that reasoning it can be proposed that at one stage or another , everyone is bound to be immigrate in their life p. As (A-Nighaoi, 2019) states that people could relocate from their birthland in pursuit of better living conditions or running from an oppression. However, despite the reasons, immigration is not a crime nor mean a person is in a country illegally, everyone is an inhabitant in the planet earth and every place in the world is home. She further argues that no one should ever feel uprooted in cases where they move to other places, immigrants are people who willingly or obligated to move from their country of birth in search of safety or opportunities. When you look at an immigrant, you see a reflection, as one day you could be in their shoes.
Even in our country of South Africa which is rich in culture and diversity, a large portion the four major ethnic groups that are present (Nguni, Sotho, Shangaan-Tsonga and Venda) originated from other parts of the African continent. In fact the commonly used Bantu language originated in West Africa, which in the present day is along the border of Nigeria and Cameroon (SAHO, 2011). (Tiakoff et al., 2007) inform us that the first people to inhabit the Southern of Africa are the Khoi-Khoi and the San, these groups were displaced or in other cases became part of migrating Africans (Bantus), this was during the Bantu expansion from Western and Central Africa. This points out the fact that almost all the current ethnic groups of Southern Africa are immigrants. This trend of immigration is not only common to South Africa but to other countries as well, which allows us to deduce that we are all immigrants.