Unfair borders of knowledge

DAYANA BENAVIDES

Knowledge is universal and should be valued regardless of borders. Changing your place of residence does not dilute knowledge or experience. Being an immigrant involves many challenges, one of which is starting over, because it seems that when you cross the invisible lines that divide countries, your studies are lost in a sea of bureaucratic procedures.

These obstacles make it difficult to find a job, seriously affecting people's pockets, and wiping out the few savings they were able to salvage when fleeing the dictatorship. Lifelong achievements, assets, titles or work experience are forgotten because they cannot be carried in a suitcase. Only clothes and the desire to live in freedom make it to the new destination.

Then begins the endless race to try to continue earning a living in what has been built, but the brand new dictator government from which one flees puts obstacles in the way of paperwork and then, the receiving country demands revalidation exams, fees, legalization, translation of documents, and an endless number of procedures, which are a torture to complete, because the regime makes it impossible or because there is no money to do it, since every coin is spent on food and shelter.

But time gives no respite, the years pass without progress, without being able to use knowledge or the university degree to improve the quality of life, but there are only jobs to survive. Lucky doctors drive Uber, privileged dentists sell products from a catalog, fortunate teachers clean houses, accountants manage to get jobs as clerks in a store and the rest sell empanadas on the streets, take care of cars or whatever comes up.

But all that remains is to surrender to a routine motivated by necessity, with the hope of one day returning to the profession one studied. However, every day that dream dissolves between calloused fingers and increasingly scarce money. It is a waste of experience, skill and knowledge that is diluted by immigration.

It is a pity, and even more so among Latin American brothers, where everyone shares the same language and the same cultural roots. What technological, scientific and cultural advances would be made in countries with numerous natural resources and, above all, immense human capital. We would be the great Latin American common market, the new superpower. But there are many interests determined to promote disunity. What a foolish thing the boundaries of knowledge are!