Welcome to the Land of the Baggages

American Border Agent: Welcome, will you be carrying your own baggages?
Arriving Immigrant: Of course sir, isn’t that obvious?
American Border Agent: Good boy! you’re stamped in. Now, go on…

The immigrant starts wondering why the agent asked him the obvious question. He has to collect his own baggage, that’s common sense. What the immigrant is missing is what the agent really asked. Agent said baggage but he meant entirely something different, something that follows each of us inevitably like a baggage. The contents of the baggages are so attractive that for generations millions have lured into America and still continuing to do so. What could it be? Let’s follow our new immigrant to find out. Let’s call him Mr. Immi.

Immi arrives at his new rental home which he got after signing a contract. Unlike the old home, this new home has hot and cold running water, heat in Winter and AC in Summer, a WiFi network that never sleeps, electricity that never goes out, gas that seems unlimited in supply, trash that removes itself, neighbors who never bother, and a shiny toilet that doesn’t stink. Along the way, Immi also signs two additional contracts: one to get a phone line and another to get a car.

Immi works hard, 12 hours a day 7 days a week, at a meat factory. He comes home tired and exhausted. He deserves a break at home. He orders food with a few clicks on his shiny new iPhone. He consumes that foods while watching Netflix on his giant flat screen television that looks and sounds just like a theater. Although he works harder now than he used to at his home country, his life has gotten better, just as promised by the American Dream which is really “work harder so you can afford to live in a paradise on Earth.” Immi is a living example of that until a disaster strikes him.

Immi becomes sick which gets worse as weeks go by and so, he goes to the hospital. Despite having no health insurance, the hospital treats him. After a few days, the hospital sends him home to recover on his own. He sits on the couch with a moan and turns on the TV, this time the TV says “your subscription is on hold.” A frustrated Immi turns it off and goes out to check the mail. He finds the mailbox overflowing with bills, some of them have “first notice” or “second notice” written in red on them. Among the bills, one from the hospital shows a due amount of several thousands dollar.

Preoccupied with debilitating health, Immi ignores the bills. Given the health conditions, Immi is unable to go back to work and starts collecting food stamps from the state. Weeks go by the iPhone doesn’t ring, Immi wonders why nobody is calling him about the bills. To his surprise, he finds out that the phone has no service.

After a few weeks, nothing in his home that once made it a paradise works. One after another- Light goes off, gas stops flowing in the kitchen, WiFi router blinks an yellow light, the bank guy comes and goes away with his car, and as the final stab in the wound- an eviction notice hangs on his door.

A depressed Immi seeks refuge in a church though he once held unfavorable views towards people from religions other than his own. Surrounded by many others like him in the church, Immi wonders again about the border agent, “will you be carrying your own baggages?” Finally, Immi finds it out the hard way, what the agent really asked, “will you be responsible for your own bills?” and it appears he answered it wrong.

Immi could be really living in a paradise as long as he paid his bills, as the border agent would’ve said ‘carried his own baggages.’ The amenities in America that make life worthy of celebrating on social media are the expensive contents of the baggage.

The situations for Immi-2 could be entirely different, but for our poor fictional Immi, it is what it is. Was it worth it for him to cross the ocean? Only Mr. Immi can answer.