Practical advice for migrants and their children on keeping your identity, earning respect and choosing your own path.
Most advice for new migrants is about logistics: visas, jobs, housing, schools. That advice matters, but it leaves out a harder question. How do you build a life in a new country without losing who you are? The pressure to fit in quickly is real, and it often pushes people to drop the very things that would help them succeed. I believe the values migrants bring with them are the foundation of success here. These three principles show how to use them.
1. Keep Your Origins Close
Why it matters
Your origins shape how you work, how you treat people and how you make decisions. When migrants try to become someone else to fit in, they lose that foundation and gain very little in return. Belonging to two places at once is not a problem to fix. For many migrants, and especially for their children, it is simply what home looks like.
How to apply it
- Keep your first language alive at home, even if the rest of your day happens in English.
- Tell your children the stories of where your family comes from. Places they have never seen can still feel like theirs.
- Stay connected to your own community while you build new networks, rather than choosing one over the other.
- Be yourself at work. You don't need to hide your accent or your name to be taken seriously.
2. Treat People the Way They Treat You
Why it matters
In a new country, you are building trust with people who don't know your background, and they are doing the same with you. A simple, fair rule makes that easier. Offer respect and kindness first, return what you receive, and treat everyone as equals no matter where they come from. The same rule also gives you the right to set a boundary when someone does not show you respect.
How to apply it
- Be the person who helps the next newcomer. One small kindness can stay with someone for the rest of their life.
- When someone disrespects you, say so calmly and clearly. You can hold your ground without returning the insult.
- Judge people by how they behave towards you, not by their background, their title or where they live.
3. Follow Your Dream, Even If It Isn't the Expected One
Why it matters
Many migrant families have a short list of approved careers. In my own culture, parents often want their children to be a doctor or an engineer, and choosing anything else can make you the black sheep of the family. Expectations shift with each generation. Farmers' children often choose not to farm, and children of migrants often take paths their parents never imagined. A dream you choose yourself is the one you will keep working at when things get hard.
How to apply it
- Decide what you actually want, and write it down. Clarity early makes later decisions easier.
- Talk openly with your family about your plans. Their support matters more when they understand the reason behind your choice.
- Commit for the long term. Dreams that last are usually the ones you stay with for years, not months.
This topic was discussed in Episode 15 of My Migrant Soul with Dr Joe Garra, a GP in Werribee for 38 years and the son of Italian migrants. When I asked him what advice he would give migrants, he shared these three principles.
On origins, he said: "Your origins moulds who you are, so always be true to yourself, don't be someone you're not." Joe was born in Australia, yet every time he visits his father's village in Sicily, he feels he belongs there too.
The second principle came from his father, Vito, who lived by a simple rule: "I don't care who's next door, if they're nice to me, I'm nice to them as a human being." Joe shares how Vito stood up to a co-worker who whistled at him, and how a nun's kindness on his first day of school, when he couldn't speak English, stayed with him all his life.
On dreams, his advice was: "If you have a dream, you could do it, just follow your dream." Joe decided in Grade 3 that he wanted to be a doctor and never wavered.
Listen to the full episode to hear Joe's story in his own words.
If this resonated with you, share it with someone who needs the reminder: You can have a house but family is the home.
About Dr Joe Garra
Dr Joe Garra has been a GP in Werribee for more than 38 years, and over 25 of those years he delivered thousands of babies in the local community.
Both of his parents were migrants. His father was a humble farmer from Vizzini, Sicily, who came to Werribee in 1951. His mother was in effect a refugee from war-torn Istria, then part of Italy. After her father was executed by Tito's Yugoslav communists, her family moved to Trieste in 1946, and she later came to Footscray. Joe's parents met in a Footscray deli where his father worked a second, part-time job. They married and settled in North Altona, and Joe was born at Williamstown Hospital. He started school without speaking a word of English.
Joe has been politically active since the 2017 youth jail protest and is a candidate for The West Party in the November state election. He has been back to the Garra family's original home in Sicily three times and feels a deep connection to it.
About Imran Abul Kashem
Imran Abul Kashem is the founder of Westend Business Hub, Westend Photography, Westend Digital, Westend Podcast, and Wyndham Entrepreneur Connect. An award-winning photographer and serial entrepreneur, Imran brings ideas to life at the intersection of creativity and business. As an author, investor, business advocate, and cultural ambassador, he is passionate about building platforms that empower communities and spark meaningful conversations.
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