Why "Sentimental"
(and why this website)

People migrate - and immigrate - for all sorts of reasons: some leave their home countries and their place of birth out of a sense of adventure. They want to live, know the world, explore. Others leave because of a different kind of necessity: maybe political, or economic, or to reunite with members of their family. But no matter what the reason for the uprooting, all of these people are sentimental refugees. For they are all, in effect, seeking to find a feeling, a sentiment. Be it that of freedom of expression, of freedom from material needs, of adventure, or of finding the love of their life.

Do you have a story to share? Or maybe simply a thought? Email us. We will post it and share it with others. Somebody might find himself or herself inspired, or encouraged, or amused, or excited by it. You will have changed that life for the better. Also, please email all your suggestions. This site is driven by its readers.

Email: editor@sentimentalrefugee.com

And because this is what people say about us:

>> Thank Heaven someone has finally delved into this area! I experienced disjunctions growing up an a child of a Scottish English speaking immigrant and thought it was just US who were personally weird until I spent a year as a student in London and realized that it was all CULTURAL. This plus some anthropology studies did make me much more sensitive to the problems of cultural integration.  But so many are clueless!  And with the the mass of immigration we have experienced in Los Angeles, in particular, in the last 20 or so years, such cultural sophistication is VITAL.  

Sometimes I wish they held "Hello, welcome to America - here we do it THIS way" classes to orientate newcomers to our unspoken folkways: the way we drive, stand in lines, communicate, the way we show politeness and respect, and so on. No, we are NOT the SAME as Oaxaca, or Moscow or Yerevan. This is the way we are here and now. You have come to live with us and be part of us and welcome - but please know that we do prefer things to be this way....Otherwise, you might be happier at home....

And all of this is not even considering how bewildering it all must be to someone whose idea of the USA comes from the movies or TV...

So your site really definitely addresses things that need be be addressed!  Good luck to you!

All best,
Pamela M.

FEATURED BOOK:

Disappearance of the Outside: A Manifesto for Escape

by Andrei Codrescu
Taking into account his own exile from Stalinist Romania, as well as the plights of such greats as Garcia Marquez, Breton, Dada, Kundera, and Milosz, Codrescu issues a call for those living in a free society to reach beyond a benign reality founded in technology and commercialism by tapping into their imaginations and striving for a better, evolutionary existence.

Sonia Choquette. (first generation born in the USA)
"The first thing to say about the experience of an immigrant is that people are like a tree whose roots have been cut off. Fortunately the human spirit is regenerative but only if you acknowledge that you have suffered a major psychic wound, even if you move under the best of conditions. So you can build new roots." Read more...