learning to watch them go

Migration stats for Armenia claim about 20,000 people leaving for work or .2% of their population moving permanently away - emigrating from this landlocked Caucas state, with both numbers set at annual. For a country claiming a pop of 3.25 million, these numbers are substantial. So there are at least 26,500 families and countless friends saying their goodbyes to someone every year. That's some emotion generating action. From such heart-wrenching numbers one can assume that Armenians are a practiced bunch, experts if you will, at the fine art of bidding adieu. Having now experienced my fourth see-ya-someday to a recently acquired family member/roommate [in my 11 months] in the midst of the aforementioned numbers, i can say that this particular action creates a type of feeling of belonging in Hayastan.

Coming from the States where welcome banners are a plenty [no thanks to any crazed tea party members - capitalization purposefully dismissed], so it at least feels like a rarity to say goodbye, depending on the lifestyle of course. Funerals are also excluded from this conversation. I'm talking about a person moving Outside the United States. To me, this is quite likely the reason people are so astonished with the Fulbright Scholar, Peace Corps Volunteer, and the like. "You're leaving?!" i-n-t-e-r-r-o-b-a-n-g

The "land of immigrants" mantra readjusts itself in the American head when one realizes they are in a country that its people are trying to exeunt stage-West.There are of course many countries that have this characteristic, but there is a different sort of click in the brain when you've spoken to your, i dunno, 20th 20-something that tells you of their plan to head out. For the older adults: You love your country and you watch the youth queue up to leave - mind rattle.

The Armenian Ministry of Diaspora led by the fine Hranush Hakobyan created, in conjunction with the International Labor Organization, a Handbook for Armenians Abroad. This 81-page booklet is a How-to for getting back to the motherland. I'm quite curious as to the methods of distribution as official numbers on emigration are never accurate and coffee shops in Little Armenia, Los Angeles hardly seem like good location candidates - though i'm no marketeer.

The book's appendices include a litany of official holidays, consular institutions hosted in other countries, consulates within Armenia, a copy of the questionnaire for citizenship acquisition, the legal order on what an applicant must complete for the status, a test for interested parties to practice, and so on. They want their people back, thus this helping hand that serves at least English-speaking folk [the version i was given by a friend]. But the trickle out continues at the mentioned rate. Maybe this leak will be fixed in 2 or 3 years [the estimated time given on when the borders will open up by a Turkish friend -no political or social scientist].

Of course, those who have left my small corner never intended on staying - loss nonetheless. As social work Processing isn't as hip as yoga...yet..., there is a type of resin that stays inside after every wrench of the familiar. Fast and intense friendships that come with short international assignments are a necessary type of evil, to help one make it through the change in culture, but what if you're not the one leaving...ever?

I remember having often said that i'm "just tired of traveling", in a sense saying "goodbye," but as it stands now, around every corner there is another loved one to send a packin'. They leave because they must, just as any Armenian seeking work and opportunity elsewhere. It gives great pause to try and imagine this type of goodbye resin on a scale big enough to fit an entire country. Armenian migration numbers indicate that, in essence, the country is in a constant state of "goodbye wave." heavy. Yeah, so logically, dissection of what is forming within me at each farewell toast should give meaning to this outsider on what it is to be a 21st century Armenian Living in Armenia [distinction quite necessary for those who don't know] - let's see if they reference such cultural revelations on the citizenship questionnaire when it's my turn.

Viva!