Arrival VR: Daniel Shares His Immigration Story

Brookline Interactive Group (BIG) and its project, the Public VR Lab, are proud to present the latest interview from Arrival VR. This co-created immersive storytelling project is the first national virtual reality (VR) filmmaking collaborative project curating immigration stories of Americans from pre-1620 through 2018 and incorporating them into a visual XR/VR timeline. The Brookline Community Foundation has awarded a generous grant to BIG to support their efforts to record immigration stories from the Brookline community to contribute to this project.

Members of the public are invited to participate in this project and share their family's immigration stories at BIG's studio in Brookline. We'll be holding the next interviews on November 19. To learn more, please visit http://immigrationvr.com.
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Can you start by introducing yourself, and telling us where you migrated from?

“I'm Daniel Jamous. I came here to the US [for] the first time in 1991, to do a postdoc at MIT. So, I got a PhD in France in oceanography and at first I came here for a stay of about two years to continue to do research in oceanography...while I was there, I met towards the end of my stay my future wife.

“At the end of my postdoc my visa had expired, so I had to go back to France and for about two years we had a long-distance relationship. We were trying to figure out where we were going, and after a while we decided we were going to get married. At the time my wife had a professional situation that was more stable than mine, so we agreed that I would come back here. I came back in ‘96 under a fiancé visa, then we we got married, and I've been here ever since.”

As time has passed, how does your experience of living in the U.S. compare with your expectations prior to moving here?

“When I first moved here… I think I was just very excited about living in a new country, speaking a different language, learning about a new culture. I mean, of course I knew a lot about the U.S. because of movies… Even in my field at the time, in research, I was interacting with a lot of American colleagues. So of course I had already been exposed to American culture.

“What was interesting is when I came, after a few months I realized that maybe America is not exactly like the way you see it in the movies. You know, the movies give you only a sort of filtered view… I realized, okay, it's a more complex country than maybe I thought it was.”

What were some of the more difficult parts of coming to a new country? Was it a difficult transition?

“When I came here at the beginning… I had studied English in school, but I hadn't sort of been in a fully-immersive experience speaking English, or another foreign language for that matter. [I] remember at the beginning, that was difficult, that was really tiring. I was exhausted at the end of the day. I could get by with one-on-one conversations, but often I would find myself with [a] group of people and they were speaking really fast and I was trying to understand and catch up... That was difficult, and I remember I was really tired in the evenings, but then after a few months I started to to get a little more comfortable.

“I would pick up expressions here and there from what people were saying and repeat them, and realized that people understood what I was saying - so then I became more confident, and then it was okay. But definitely, I think at the beginning though, that was probably the most challenging part.”

Where did you find strength in the difficult times? Were there any special friends you made, or any connections that helped you get through the hard times?

“I was doing this postdoc at MIT, but it was not really such a positive experience for me, probably because… I didn't really want to continue doing research, whether it was here in the U.S or in France... So that was difficult for me, at the time. But where I found strength is that I really met a lot of good friends around that time.

“So I was living at the time in Cambridge, in Central Square, and I had a few friends from MIT. I had American friends that I had met in France before who were here, and also people in the neighborhood that I met, and I remember that was really giving me strength… The group of friends that I developed when I was here, it was really important for me.”

Do you have any cultural traditions from your home country that you still practice today? Do you still speak your first language at home?

“So at home, I speak French with my boys - I have two boys. I speak French with them all the time, and they either answer in English or in French, so their French is pretty good…

“In terms of traditions that we brought from home… Being from France, food is a big deal, so I think early on we sort of took the habit of going out to restaurants, and trying to cook nice meals at home.”

Can you talk a little about your naturalization ceremony?

“So I became an American citizen in 2014. I remember I started the application process in 2013, and I remember at the time... I had been in the US for almost almost [15] years.

“I thought, you know, yeah - I want to become an American citizen. I want to be able to vote in elections, and I want to do it while Obama was president; I remember that was really clear. So I said, okay, let's do it now, because it was already his second term, so I didn't really know what's going to happen next...

“It was not too complicated, the process, it took several months - but I remember I was very moved by the naturalization ceremony. It took place in Lowell, and it was really nice. There were a few hundred of us representing, I don't know, maybe 40 countries and the judge who ran the ceremony was very good. I thought he gave a very moving speech, and I was really pleasantly surprised. I thought it was very meaningful...

"The judge talked about all the contributions that immigrants have made to the country - [he] himself I think was probably a second generation immigrant. So it was great, and I remember that day it really actually confirmed that I did the right thing. It made me really proud, actually, to do it. So it was a great experience.”

In what ways do you think migration has made you a stronger person, or changed you?

“So I think, you know, when you end up living in a foreign country - whether it's by choice or by necessity - I think it's always an enriching experience. Even though it might be very challenging at the beginning, because you're not familiar with the culture… there are many things that you don't understand. But I think after a while, if you're able to sort of overcome some of these challenges, you end up a richer person because you can understand several cultures. And I think it gives you, maybe, a better sense of the complexities of life, because you have been exposed to several cultures and you're able to navigate in both cultures.”

“One thing for me that I didn't expect... So, when I became an American citizen, somehow it made me feel more confident to give my opinion in front of other Americans. Since I became American, I've felt more motivated to actually get involved… And doing things, you know, whether it's at the school here, in discussion with friends, giving my opinion about what's going on with politics or things like that.

“So if someone is contemplating becoming a citizen, I would encourage them to do it. And even if you're not happy with the current political system, you know, it's still a good thing to do I think, because then you’re engaged, you’re in it. And then maybe by being in it, you can figure out ways to sort of manage the things that are challenging.”

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About Arrival VR
Led by Brookline Interactive Group, and its project the Public VR Lab, Arrival VR is a nationwide collaborative curating immigration stories of Americans from pre-1620 through 2018 in a visual XR timeline. The project has fifteen partners across the United States, and will be shared online, in virtual reality, at film festivals and at arts and cultural organizations nationwide with a curriculum for engaging community dialogue about immigration. The project ponders a shared experience and visual timeline of the commonalities and complexities of American immigration throughout history using XR as a platform for a field-building strategy for emerging media.

About the Public VR Lab
The Public VR Lab is growing a field for Community XR that promotes accessibility, digital inclusion, and diversity. The Lab is disrupting traditional media communications in community-based civic media, journalism and arts, cultural and educational organizations by providing XR Toolkits, equipment, training, cohorts, artists residencies, fellowships and content in the public interest. The Lab is a project of Brookline Interactive Group, a next generation public access community media arts center. www.publicvrlab.com