How does this virus affect intercultural relationships?
The COVID-19 virus affects all of us – and after almost one year the effects become more and more visible.
For us as intercultural couple the virus brings some additional challenges. I do not want to complain or ask for pity. But maybe there are some of you out there having similar experiences or facing the same challenges?
First challenge for us is that we cannot easily travel to my wife’s family (in the Philippines) and visit them. We already cancelled the trip we planned for 2020 and now we are not sure if and how we can visit our family in 2021.
The second challenge is the constant worrying about my in-laws in the Philippines. The health care there is much below the standard here in Germany. Besides that, are my in-laws only covered with a very basic public health insurance. So getting medical help for them is also a financial issue.
If and when immunization against COVID-19 will be available for them is also totally open – this is especially hard for my lovely mother-in-law who will turn 83 years this month. She is suffering from pneumonia and often needs oxygen.
Of course none of us has any guarantee to stay healthy – but the changes to get proper treatment in Germany are much higher than in the Philippines. And in case something happens (which I do not hope) to my mom-in-law, my wife might not be able to easily visit her.
The third challenge is that our family in the Philippines used to have their income mostly from tourism and catering. Both did not bring much cash in the past 12 months. But unlike Germany, the government in the Philippines does not support their people financially in the current crisis. I am aware that there are also many economic challenges in Germany and other Western countries – but that is whining at a high level compared with many countries in the world.
As an intercultural couple these challenges are much more of our daily life and emotional situation than just hearing this in the news and relating to people we do not know well.
On the positive side, I am thankful for modern communication and the possibility to have video calls with the family in the Philippines.