Should you work as a therapist in the United States? (Part 2)

Whenever I hear about people clamoring to migrate to the West, I find myself wondering about what life would have been like if I moved there for good. I still have opportunities to work in a Western country if I really want to. My brothers are in Canada, and they can help with my re-application for a permanent residency. By God’s grace, I even have job offers to work as an occupational therapist (OT) in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Yet here I am in the Philippines! I don’t regret being here because leaving Canada was the right thing to do and my conscience dictates that I stay in my country. Plus, I do have plenty of great work opportunities here. I just wish that things panned out for me differently. 

Why I Wanted to Be an American

My dream was to work in the US when I was a teenager. While money was a factor that I considered, I wanted to be an OT in the US because it seemed like a place that greatly rewarded you for following your own path. It’s quite different from the Philippines, where conformity to outdated ways of thinking and doing is constantly incentivized. No wonder Filipino students score low on creative thinking! 

Filipinos also tend to be more attuned to current needs and to roll with the punches rather than being inclined to explore and prepare for future possibilities. While such practicality and resiliency are commendable, Filipinos take them too far. Instead of innovating to solve the country's woes, we keep on resorting to the same old band-aid solutions like a broken record. This intellectual vacuity is most likely due to our collective temperamental weaknesses as well as our cultic tendencies to reward blind faith. 

That’s why I feel out of place in my own country. I like simulating future scenarios in my mind and dreaming up solutions to problems. Unfortunately, I’m very much a coward when dealing with the present. All the chaos brought about by the lack of critical thinking here in the Philippines is exacerbating my fears. Because of this, I often wish that I was born in the US, where it’s relatively safe to fail because the country allows many different paths to success. At least, for now. 

Goodbye, Land of the Free?

As I navigate the mid-career phase of my life, working in America may seem like the most commonsensical next step given my personality and the state of my finances. For some of you, that may indeed be the best course of action that God wants you to take. But because of the economic instability and the creeping authoritarianism all over the world, the question of whether to move to the US or not is now more complicated.

Unless you’re brainwashed by CNN, it’s obvious that the far-left is tearing apart American society. The US is heading towards a major crisis, maybe even a civil war, with all the sleeper cells in the migrant caravans that are pouring through its borders and the proxy wars that are draining Uncle Sam of resources. The chaos that will be caused by the godless Democrat policies that produced these crises can possibly force Americans across the political spectrum to unite in supporting draconian measures that will curtail liberties for the sake of “national security”. Especially if the likes of Gavin Newsom will win the presidency.

Republicans disdain the left’s wokeism because of how it has restricted individual freedom. Yet those on the right have their own tendencies to push for blasphemy laws in the name of preserving a variant of American Judeo-Christian culture that they want to serve as the bedrock of political stability. I remember a couple of cringey right-wing, supposedly Evangelical, vloggers repudiating missionaries for teaching the Bible to people of different ethnicities. According to those two rightists, all of us should be leaving each ethnic group to their own devices as the isolation will allow them to naturally become better people (an unbiblical teaching). Likewise, no foreigner should interfere with Americans in any way.

What will then happen if Christians from across the world legally migrate to the US and offer different yet equally valid perspectives that their American brethren may not have considered due to the latter’s cultural upbringing? What if they criticize the weaknesses of American society? If the far-right will get their blasphemy laws, those foreign Christians will get thrown in jail and their purchasing power will be restricted through the national digital currency. The same will happen to non-Christian foreigners if they will disagree with Americans despite their efforts to peacefully live out their beliefs. 

Should the aforementioned scenario play out, what you will have is authoritarianism both on the left and on the right. Where freedom is heavily restricted, there is little opportunity to explore different possibilities as they may be perceived as threats to national security. If the US goes down this path, it will no longer be conducive for independence and innovation, which made it the greatest country on earth in the first place. 

What Now, Fellow Therapist?

Should you then migrate to the US? Well, there can be many valid reasons for you to work there as a therapist. Keep in mind though that no country can guarantee security for yourself or for your family no matter how prosperous it may be, especially with all the chaos that’s happening.

For me though, what remains constant in this world is the joy that will come when we transcend our selfish desires. Therefore, instead of making a decision to migrate mainly based on security, try to find the place where you can be most effective in serving God and other people. Maybe that will be in the US, maybe it will be somewhere else. Whatever our decisions will be, let’s strive to always make a major positive impact on the countries where we will live instead of merely usurping their resources.