Spaces and exchanges : gap year

Spaces and exchange refers to the geographical and symbolic areas that all societies occupy and the interactions between men and different societies. In order to illustrate this notion, I choose to talk about immigration and students exchanges. This leads me to wonder if it is always a choice to leave a country to another. So first, I will reflect on the gap year, then, I will address the issue of global migration, and finally I will tackle the idea of political migration.

A gap year is a period of time when students take a break from formal education to travel, volunteer, study or work. While you travel around the world you can meet people and discover new culture. It's a rewarding experience for students because they can learn a foreign language.

To illustrate, this idea I would refer to an article“In Fervent Support of the Gap Year” taken from the New York Times in which the author recounts her experience as a mother whose daughter decided to take a gap year. She thought a gap year was a waste of time but, eventually, she came around and thinks this decision has been very beneficial for her daughter: she became more mature and motivated.

The third document is a podcast “Going where the work is” taken from BBC Learning English.

In this document, two journalists explain why people move around the world to find work. These people are known as global migrants. Millions are international migrants, living in a different country from the one they were born into.Some take work they are overqualified for because it still pays better than what is available at home. This has led to a brain drain from some developing countries.

Finally, I’m going to address the issue of political migration. Indeed, many people are forced to migrate because of political persecution or war. These people are unable to return home because they have well founded fears of being persecuted and are unlikely to receive any protection from their government.

For instance, in the last document, an illegal immigrant, Iqamat decided to leave Afghanistan. After losing his family, he went to England to get a job and start a new life.

To conclude, we can say it can be a choice to leave a country to another:

Greenberg’s daughter chose to leave their home country to study abroad.

In contrast, the global migrants and Iqamat had to leave their country to another due to economic, social or political problems.Therefore, It isn’t necessarily a choice to leave a country.

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