Kay Xander Mellish’s TEDx Talk “The Privileged Immigrant” looks at highly-educated immigrants who choose to relocate for professional or personal reasons.
What responsibilities do these privileged immigrants have to the places where they’ve chosen to live?
In the talk, which was delivered April 14, 2018 at TEDx Odense, Kay suggests that immigrants with options need to research the basic values of the place where they intend to move in order to make sure that their own values are in line with the people who already live there.
The Privileged Immigrant and basic values
Only if these basic values – which in Denmark, for example, include a contempt for status and an emphasis on equality at all costs – are a match can the immigrant be confident of “fitting in” and building a life in the new community.
Trivial values, like clothing or food preferences, are less important. But if a newcomer by choice has contempt for the local basic values, he or she is likely to be unhappy and even become a chronic complainer.
Bitter, complaining immigrants – particularly privileged immigrants – can poison the waters for future newcomers. And those future newcomers might really need the hospitality.
The video of the TEDx talk is not yet online, but you can read a transcript of the speech on Medium.com.
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