The Border Paradox: Why We Are Enemies at Home, but Brothers Abroad
By Muhammad Abrar

Abrar Saeed

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1 hour ago

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I have witnessed a strange yet undeniable truth in my life.
When people from rival nations live within their own borders, an invisible wall often stands between them. They carry historical grudges, exchange blame, and inherit animosities that predate them. Borders, languages, and politics become barriers too heavy to cross. The media reinforces an endless narrative of “us versus them,” and without realizing it, we accept it as reality.
But then, something remarkable happens.
The moment these same people step onto the soil of a third country—driven by work, survival, or destiny itself—everything begins to change.
In this foreign land, in Pardes, the definitions of friend and enemy quietly dissolve. I have seen people who might never tolerate each other back home share their deepest sorrows here. I have seen them sit at the same Dastarkhwan, breaking bread together. I have watched them transform into brothers through shared smiles, exhaustion, and hope.
In the life of an expatriate, nationality, language, and politics are left behind at the immigration counter. What moves forward is something far more powerful: humanity.
When you work shoulder-to-shoulder under a burning sun or sit together after a day of relentless labor, you don’t see a flag on another person’s face. You see a human being struggling to provide for his family—just like you.
This realization forces an uncomfortable question: perhaps the problem is not the people themselves. Perhaps it is the land beneath our feet that conditions us to see one another as enemies.
Expatriate life teaches a lesson our textbooks often fail to convey: humans were not created to fight; they were created to coexist.
Sometimes, it takes leaving home to realize that the “enemy” was only a brother you hadn’t met yet.