Humans are social animals. We all carry a desire to belong to a community. Be it in our homes or the larger setting of a workplace, we want meaningful connections based on mutual respect and concern.
Immigrant workers often struggle with the idea of belonging and making their place in a foreign country. It can not only impact the professional growth of a perfectly capable person, but also cause a decline in mental well-being. The feeling of exclusion isolates a person as they do not get the same opportunities and breakthroughs in their career.
Workplace inclusion advocate and Employee Resource Groups (ERG) expert, Lola Adeyemo is helping people not only find their place in the corporate world but also truly embrace it and their own identities in foreign settings. In her acclaimed TEDx talk in 2022, Lola tells the immigrant workforce that belonging is not about fitting in.
Born and raised in Nigeria, West Africa, Lola made her way into the University of Houston, Clear Lake, Texas, for her Graduate degree. Although she was aware of the perception of Africa internationally, she did not truly understand it until she reached the U.S. and experienced it for herself.
In the talk, she shared an incident where the shop assistant couldn’t help her find powdered milk because she couldn’t understand her accent, even though she has been speaking English her whole life. This made her realize that immigrants are different and consequently treated differently – “I am not from here, I speak with an accent that makes me different, I am different,” she recalls her thought process at the time.
Struggling with this seemingly insurmountable difference, Lola eventually found a small community of students from multicultural backgrounds in her university. Graduation and then corporate America posed its own set of problems. It became so much more difficult because she didn’t find her community this time and she had to make a way to feel like she belonged. She notes, “In the workplace, you are left to navigate by yourself, and an unspoken goal is not belonging, but blending in and fitting in.”
It wasn’t until a global conference that encompassed just a room full of her community, “sea of diverse black professionals,” as she puts it. That made Lola realize she didn’t have to act a certain way or speak slowly so people could understand her.
Lola understood that she could just truly be herself. She finally realized that she could belong in a strange country as well. It didn’t have to be this difficult all the time, and she didn’t have to wear a constant shield. She rightly discovered that instead of masking her unique context to fit in with the local workforce, embracing her identity would unapologetically make her belong anywhere and everywhere.
Her childhood reminded her of the words, “family, fun, celebration, and community” and that is exactly what she built within herself in a foreign country by standing her ground and being true to her identity.
Lola also notes that belonging can take various shapes. She poses a question to her fellow immigrants and the people in general to delineate their specific definition of belonging. She elaborates, “Everyone seeks belonging. True belonging can look different for everyone but we all have a role to play. So, again, I am going to ask you, what does belonging look like for you?”
Lola has accomplished all that she once dreamt of. She has also jumpstarted some practical ventures to make inclusivity and belonging more accessible for immigrants. Lola is truly an inspiration to all the diverse communities fighting for their way into corporate workplaces.
You can listen to Lola’s TEDx talk here. Listen to more of her conversations on her site.