Never looked back

 This is a story for thousands of families in developing countries for last three generations.

Let’s start with my grand father. After partition of indo Pak subcontinent, he migrated with a family  and three younger brothers from Indian punjab to Pakistan in 1947. Lost all of his land and house. Started a life in Sargodha by purchasing a house. Where all younger brothers got married and three families were living together with their kids for next 50 years to come. 

Unfortunately he left this world after a few years of migration leaving my father and two uncles orphans in their childhood. My grandmother raised my two uncles and father. Got them secondary education and all of them started government jobs. 

My father left his hometown and joined army when he was just 18 years old and he never got the chance in his life to live in his hometown ever again due to his job. My grandmother passed away while he was away for service.

He spent all of his life savings on getting a good education for me and my siblings. He worked in different parts of the country and retired near the capital of Pakistan after 32 years of service including a few years of service in KSA. 

We were still in school when he got retired. He continued supporting us, we graduated from college and managed to get the higher education. Both me and my brother became engineers. I was the first one in the family to become a graduate engineer and he was very proud of this achievement. 

After our graduation, the economy of Pakistan was very unstable and many graduates were trying to get out of the country for higher education to improve their economic situation. 

After a lot of efforts and almost no resources, I managed to get admission in Sweden and my brother managed to get a job in Oil and gas sector in Qatar. He supported my education. The initial plan was to complete the education and go back to Pakistan and work there.

While I was still studying my father passed away in a road accident. And it put the responsibility of the family on myself and my brother. Therefore the plan changed and I planned to stay in Sweden and work and support the family. 

Now it has been 17 years since I have left Pakistan. Became a Swedish citizen after working for many years and now living and working in UAE. 

The next generation is born and raised abroad and they have no idea about how life is in back home. They have started life in different circumstances. As it seems today, they will spend the rest of their life in another part of the world. 

Life has happened. Each generation has lived a better life than the previous ones. And now on daily basis I meet people with similar stories. Parents are a blessing and they always want the very best for the next generation.

Our reasons for moving and never looking back was a better life. It is happening all over the world. Sometimes due to regional conflicts. Sometimes for a better education and sometimes for work or business. 

I wonder what kind of life people will be living all over the world in next 20-30 years. Is migration a new normal. Will the income  inequality and lack of access to basic living conditions drive further movements?