Land of Opportunity

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to immediately lift travel bans impacting some countries in the Middle East will create fresh opportunities for Arab families to live, work and study in the United States

The Covid-19 global pandemic has had a massive impact on the aviation, travel and tourism industries and human migration generally. As flights are cancelled, so have been consular appointments throughout the Middle East as families compete to obtain visas to travel abroad.

As doors shut for access to the West, many families question their ability to transverse and roam freely. Aside from government mandated lockdowns, isolation within the confines of apartments, the inability to roam free and take flight has caused families to seriously consider the value of access. Access in the sense of crossing borders with less hindrance, access to greater healthcare should the family see an emergency, or access to future prosperity for later generations - all of which has come under question since the start of the pandemic and the inability to catch that flight abroad.

There are nevertheless some consistencies with Middle East travellers, notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether it is in the face of economic market vulnerability, geopolitical tensions between nation states, or the effects compounded by the pandemic, at some point families do ponder about greater access to the West, namely the United States. The more developed Middle Eastern countries have a high concentration of expats that made bold moves by leaving their motherland in seeking job opportunities for the betterment of themselves and their families. Notwithstanding, there is a looming understanding within expat communities that they cannot stay permanently, whether it be due to local regulations or personal desire. Should they then move back to India or Syria? Would their children flourish in their previous Eastern homeland? If not, where to and how?