The Belgian cabinet maker

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The document sitting on her computer desktop is a constant reminder to Christiane Rey that she has yet to fill out the form that would lead towards her U.S. citizenship. It reminds her of the things she had to give up when she moved from Verviers, Belgium, and it reminds her of the indignation she felt when dealing with the American embassy.

Rey’s passion is cabinet making. During her last year of law school in Belgium, she discovered she had a gift for furniture making. After completing her law degree, she enrolled in cabinet making school and found a partner and workshop to pursue her newfound love. “I had machinery in Belgium which didn’t belong to me. I was just incredibly lucky to meet this person who had this workshop and was not using it and was happy to let me use it and was very well equipped,” she explains.

A short time later, Rey was reunited with an old love. She had done an exchange program in Naperville, IL after high school. During her year in the United States, she met and dated the brother of her host sister. Dennis was not a very good writer, according to Rey, and the two lost touch when she returned to Belgium. Eight years later, after she completed law school and began cabinet making, Rey heard from Dennis—he was going to visit Belgium.

Upon reuniting, the two reignited their romance, dated, married, and lived in Verviers for the next six years. Several things happened at that point that led the couple to consider moving to the United States. Dennis began to feel the urge to live near family again and the couple’s landlord wanted to rent their apartment out to different tenants. At the same time, the owner of the furniture workshop Rey shared with her friend wanted to take their space back. “All those things were coming to an end and so it seemed like it made sense to come,” recalls Rey of the decision to move to Chicago.

Immigrating to the United States would cost Rey her passion, though. The machinery she used in Belgium was borrowed, and it was too expensive to buy new machinery in the States. Rey also felt that she should try something else to adapt to the new culture.

“It’s a very solitary occupation—you work in your workshop and see your client every three weeks or whatever, and I saw that was not a good job for me, moving to a place where I didn’t know anybody. I thought I needed something normal.”

Christiane became a French teacher instead. When asked whether she will ever fully return to cabinet making, Christiane smiles and says that she has the itch to get back into it.

Before coming to the United States, Rey also wondered how the move would affect her citizenship status. She contacted the American Embassy in Belgium to inquire if she would automatically become an American citizen since she was married to one. To her surprise, the Embassy employee responded to her question, “Are you kidding, everybody would want to get married to Americans if it was that easy to become American! The whole world would want to become American!”

Shocked, she responded, “Okay…but, you know what, I don’t want that. I just wanted to make sure I was not going to become one.”

Rey had not intended to become a citizen and was annoyed that anyone would she did. She loved her home and hopes to remain connected to her community there. She wishes more of her friends and family would come visit the United States.

After several decades of living in the U.S. Christiane admits, “I’m still not American, which is really a shame.”

She has yet to fill out the paperwork that sits on her computer.