Migrants: Second-Class Citizens?
From Planet 227
by Colin Thomas
Colin Thomas compares and contrasts the experiences and literatures of Welsh emigrants to the US with those of more recent migrants to Wales, hearing contemporary accounts of discrimination and disempowerment as well as liberty and creative fulfilment
‘I am trying to recover the self I lost.’ That is the way in which George Gumisiriza, a recent immigrant from Uganda, described to me the sense of disorientation he feels as he comes to terms with his new life in Newport. It is a feeling that many Welsh emigrants to North America would have shared. They faced the same kind of tension as do recent immigrants to Wales – how to reconcile their need to become good citizens of their new country on the one hand with their wish to hold on to their language, their culture and their values on the other.
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