Immigrants: finding a multicultural identity

Language is both part of identity and also an easy means for others to treat an immigrant as an outsider: "You don't belong here''. Film director Melanie Pereira talks about the impact on her and her friends of speaking Luzembourgish with an accent, and how in London one of them felt more comfortable despite Luxembourg being more multicultural.

People whose parents immigrated from a variety of countries, both European and African, talk with each other through the medium of this film, facilitated by a filmmaker with a similar experience. The current generation are centre stage, but they acknowledge the debt they have to their parents who often suffered discrimination in silence. Making the film was an intense process of personal development for Melanie, a kind of cultural therapy, which reveals the power of cinema. She speaks about the power that nostalgic images have for immigrants, how the country of origin is an imaginary anchor which will hold the past life protected until we can return.

But when we do return, if it's to a village we may find that it has been industrialized or abandoned, where is our heart to find rest? For the children they have the new future to enjoy and pass on to their children in turn, but there is an abyss separating them from their parents' sacrifices. This is the 'vida humana'.

This interview was first published in The Prisma Multicultural Newspaper and can be read in full with links and images here:

https://theprisma.co.uk/2023/11/20/immigrants-finding-a-multicultural-identity/