From There To Here
Mish Kumar-Jonson · 76 min
A queer, non-binary, neurodivergent South Indian migrant and psychotherapist dismantles the myths of migrant gratitude, empathy, and belonging — and argues that joy, not trauma, must be the centre of healing.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Mish Kumar-Jonson has lived across six countries: India, Oman, France, America, New Zealand, and Australia. As a South Indian person, a psychotherapist, and someone who holds multiple marginalised identities as queer, non-binary, and neurodivergent, Mish has learned that migration is not one story but many. In each place, identity shifted. In each place, survival meant code-switching: adjusting language, accent, presence, and authenticity depending on who was in the room and whether it felt safe to be fully seen. That constant calculus of belonging is exhausting. It is also necessary.
In regional Victoria, Mish absorbed racist comments as jokes to keep a job and pay for university. The expectation followed everywhere: migrants must be grateful. Australia need not be grateful in return. But gratitude flows only one way in a colonial hierarchy that few question. Mish pushes back against this myth and names what it costs to always adapt, always perform, always choose attachment over authenticity. Yet there is another way forward. Mish's work centres something most healing frameworks overlook: joy is not a destination after trauma is processed. It is a muscle that must be exercised now, alongside difficulty, because joy is what connects us to each other and to ourselves. It is what keeps us in the fight. In their marriage, all parts of Mish are welcomed and celebrated. At a macro level, home in Australia remains unclear. But Mish's message to migrants navigating belonging is clear: you are not alone, and authentic connection is possible when we stop waiting for perfect understanding and start simply believing each other.
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