Diaspora is a term that is usually related to the migration of the Israelis to countries outside of Palestine. But what I’m referring to is the general concept of a group of people, that aren’t necessarily Israelis, leaving their countries to settle in a different place making them expats instead of locals. This migration could result from different reasons, whether it’s for better security, better labor, better lifestyle, or even just for the sake of leaving their own countries. The main reason why my family decided to leave their homeland (Egypt) and settle in the UAE was because they had this idea that raising their children in Egypt would not be safe and would not offer them the best education and lifestyle. This rationalization convinced my relatives to do the same thing, so my father’s brother and his wife and my mother’s sister and her husband decided to follow them. Today, I am sad to say that this was a failed diaspora; none of their intended goals were achieved, at least not the way my parents expected it to be.
Through out my education years, my family and I have come to realize that there really isn’t anything special about the education in the UAE; sure they might have fancy names and are mostly American public schools, but the bottom line is their not that good. It turns out that education in Egypt is actually considered to be better and much more accredited than here. I’ve noticed that my cousins in Egypt that are of the same age as I am, are actually much more knowledgeable than me in mostly everything.
As for my lifestyle, I’m close to loosing my Egyptian culture due to the diversity of the cultures around me. One would think that the United Arab Emirates has an Arabic culture; on the contrary, it’s actually as westernized as any other western country. So now I’m not just losing my Egyptian culture, but I’m also losing my Arabic culture, instead, I lean towards being an American than being an Arab.
These websites are related to my diaspora because of the following:
I was glad to find a website that is created by a stranger that is in the same family tree as I am. Sara Ghorab is a Poet and a Philosopher, and in her website she talks about all the living issues of Egypt and the Egyptian people.
A perfect website to stay in touch with my Egyptian side. It a website designed in a teenage friendly way by young adults. It talks about everything that is related to Egypt, whether its news, sports, films, books, etc., all in Arabic. When I visit this website, I feel like I’m an Egyptian again.
An online community made for expats all around the world. It doesn’t matter whether the user is an Egyptian expat, Indian expat, Filipino expat, etc. the number one purpose for this website to connect all expats together around the world.
