Ramandeep Kaur

October 30, 2015

Period: 09

My Immigration Story

Ramandeep Kaur, Period: 09,

11/3/15

Ramandeep Kaur
October 30, 2015
Period: 09

Questions Before I Began My Research

{Answered as I wrote my paper and
researched}
What were the obstacles that many people there go through versus
today?
Was there any specific area my family immigrated to?
Which factor triggered this immigration?
Where are most of my ancestry found? Why?
Is there any intervening obstacles that they stumbled upon?
Did any family members move in seek of asylum?
What were some of the push and pull factors?

Ramandeep Kaur
October 30, 2015
Period: 09

My Immigration Story
My immigration story started with my great grandpa and developed from there. My great
grandpa lived in India, and at that time India was going through one of its hardest times. India
didnt have many job options available, and their economy was thriving. My great grandpa was
having many problems such as finding a job in India (the source country), so he decided moving
somewhere else would be the best option. He had been working as a farmer all his life, since he
was a little kid. It was a decade ago, 1848 when he decided it would be in his best interest if he
moved to Africa which would be the destination country. The journey wasnt as easy as he
thought it would be. He decided to sail there and had to face many intervening obstacles, for
example the weather got really bad to where he almost got caught in a storm. At that time slavery
was still going on, and he knew that would be a big obstacle once he got to Africa. When he got
there he easily got a job, but he had to keep a gun with him all the time, for safety purposes. Life
there wasnt as great as he thought it would have been. It has been told that he mostly slept on
hard floors, and had to work in weather which reached over one-hundred degrees. He then came
back to India even though he had got a good enough job, as a farmer, in Africa. He decided to
then go to England, which is now home to mostly Indians, because it provides many job options.
This was an example of international migration, because he had to cross state borders and stayed
in the Destination country for a minimum time (10 years).This shows that a main pull factor that
has played a key role to immigration is job options. This wouldnt be part of an interregional
migration, because he did migrate regionally. This also shows that the push factor for India back
then was the fact that job options werent available, on the other hand that was the pull factor for
many other countries such as England etc. In fact, because he was a young traveler rather than
actually moving with big families, which is believed to be a smarter approach to Ravensteins

Ramandeep Kaur
October 30, 2015
Period: 09

Laws of Migration. He lived there for ten years and then decided to move back to India. Being
part of my dads family, he became the first person to become an immigrant.
After my great great grandpa, no one really traveled anywhere. The economy was getting
better from a stage 1 to a stage 2 and now India was going into stage 3. Also there was more
urbanization that was happening, which means the population is going from rural to more urban
areas. In 1980 my Uncle from my moms side decided to travel to Qatar, Afghanistan for job
options. He mainly went there as a guest worker and then later got a permanent VISA for a year.
He found the love of his life there, so he decided to move to Chicago and marry her there. Not
long after that, my Uncle from my dads side (Onkar Singh) wanted to get a job as a sailor. He
was the guy that traveled the most and had to face the most hardships. He never moved anywhere
permanently, because his job required him to move to various places which you can also call step
migration. This is a perfect example of voluntary migration, because he relocated to various
places for job opportunities, but had to settle there as well. He first traveled to Iraq, where there
had recently been a war. He still tells us today, about how people in the streets were died, people
needed a shelter over their heads, and many crying because their loved ones were no more. He
then moved onto Greece, where he has said there were many disasters in the seas that he had to
face. He said his ship was going to fall overboard and he was going to die, due to the
horrifying storm that swept the country, but thankfully the crew conquered it. He finally went to
Thailand, which was a steady journey. Finally, he came back to India and got married.
Finally before leading up to my dad and mom coming overseas to Houston, TX, my aunt
(Resham Gauhina) traveled to England. She says she mainly migrated there, because she wanted
her kids, which are my cousins, to get the right education they need in life. The reason being is

Ramandeep Kaur
October 30, 2015
Period: 09

not because India doesnt have education but its because she needed them to have that
motivation in life to where they want to succeed. If they were to stay in the source country that
wouldnt be happening, because as we know India doesnt encourage, mainly women, to go get a
high education especially back then. Also a lot of my ancestry comes from England, because
England ruled India for one-hundred years, so she knew many people due to the connections that
England had with India. This shows how this wouldnt be an example of Ravensteins Laws of
Migration, which states that a majority of migrants move a short distance, because he did not
travel a short distance. Staying there for many years with her kids and husband she decided to
finally come to Houston, Texas. Here she opened a restaurant known as today by Raja Sweets.
That was the pull factor that drove my dad, mom, uncle, and aunt to come to Houston, Texas.
Even though the immigration of my grandpa, Uncle, and Aunt leading up to my parents were
really important, this was not part of a major migration stream to the United States.