My name is Sarah Robison and I'm a 2009 graduate
of the College of Liberal Arts. I double
majored in Anthropology and Political
science. I now work as an attorney at
Karam Law which is a small
immigration law firm in Bloomington. It was kinda happy coincidence that I got
into the Anthropology major. I came to college, I
didn't really know what I wanted to do.
For one of my freshman classes I took the
introduction to anthropology course
I really liked it, I had no exposure
to anthropology prior to coming to college.
I thought it maybe had to do with the show "Bones".
Took this class
and I thought wow this is really
interesting and so the next semester I
sign up for more classes. As I progressed
through my freshman year,
I kind of started to know more that I wanted to go in the direction of law,
more in the direction of immigration. And that was a really good fit for my interests.
At any given time I have about fifty to
a hundred
active cases. It's hard to have a set
list of things to do because
everything changes daily. Writing a brief,
responding to requests for more evidence
for the government for
VISA applications I have already been
submitted. Meeting with clients getting
clients document lists for things they
need to gather
preparing for interviews at US
Citizenship and Immigration Services
last week I was trying to figure out if
someone who is married in Iraq
and then moved to Uzbekistan could
be legally divorced
in Yemen and then remarry in the
United States. Y'know it's not the kind of
thing that you get to deal with
in most professions every day. As an
immigration attorney I work with
individuals
all over the world. One day I'll be on
the phone with someone in New York
and then the next day I'll be on the
phone with someone in India. Most of my client
correspondence is done over the Internet
I
use a lot of email Skype and FaceTime in
internet video chat services are really
also playing a big
big part. Without email and without  internet I
don't really think my job would be
possible.
Something that got me my job and helps me to
be successful in my job is
strong writing skills. In the anthropology
classes I took you had to write
many ethnography and papers and that
sort of thing, which I didn't like at the
time
but now I'm so glad that I did because
when I got to law school i had practice
writing
you know long papers and doing research
and
writing in an academic way. The ethnography
skills I developed a while
taking anthropology courses and completely
my major
are so invaluable to what I do today.
Being able to observe people and how
they interact with each other and how
their culture function
is really critical to being success as
an immigration attorney and being able to
interact with people from across the
world and
and observing get to the bottom of
their problems. You know someone might
tell you one thing
but they don't always tell the truth so
being able to make the observations and
look at details and question
find the answers are all really helpful.
I love working with the people that I
do and I think they're great,
but sometimes different cultures don't
necessarily operate on the same time
table as
me might be accustomed to you and
having that empathy and understanding
and ability to recognize that is a huge
you have to remember that this is their
life and when they're coming to you this
is probably the most important thing
that's going on in their life right now
and it's extremely important to them. For
some people it's the difference between
being here and going back to a country
where they might be persecuted and
tortured.
The difference between being separated
from their husband for 10 years. Keeping
those things in mind and having the empathy
and ability to
set aside any annoyance or irritation
you might feel
and just being able to empathize with
the fact that this is so important to
them and something that they've really
need to have resolved and they are coming to you to
do that. It's hard being able to find out
how to deliver bad news to people in
a way that
shows you have empathy and shows that
you can relate to them
and also gives them hope for the future
rather than making their lives more
difficult
I love being able to change people's
lives
the feeling of knowing that you've made a
positive impact in someone's life is so
rewarding whether that be giving someone
opportunity to come to the US
and begin employment and a career that
enables them to sustain their family.
Preventing someone from being deported
or removed from the US to a country where
they might
be physically threatened or
preventing people from being separated
from their children and their loved one
knowing that you have a direct impact
and it's a result
of your work is just such a cool feeling
and so rewarding.
