A new start after 60: I saw children caged on the US-Mexico border – and my life changed completely

When travel resumed after the first pandemic lockdown in 2020, Fiona Burke, who was 60, boarded a plane to Austin, Texas. She was one of the first post-Covid volunteers to arrive at a migrant centre for people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the US-Mexico border. “Stuck at home during lockdown and seeing images of children in cages, I felt compelled to help,” says Burke.

This idea of helping others, she believes, was drilled into her from a young age, growing up in Ireland and attending a Catholic school. “I am not a practising Catholic and have rebelled against the church in many ways but the nuns had a very big influence on me, subliminally. I always wanted to help people and we were fed that message a lot,” she says. This idea informed Burke’s first career as a Montessori teacher before she moved into a finance job later in life.

Travel was always a fascination. “My father was a marine engineer and told tales of his travels all over the world,” she says. However, Burke didn’t always have the time or money to pursue her passions for travel and volunteering. “When I retired and all my children left home, I suddenly had this newfound freedom,” she says.

She and her husband dabbled with the idea of moving abroad once they were both retired. “We thought about buying a house in Spain but didn’t have enough money so we decided to stay in Ireland and help people here instead,” she says. When Covid hit not long after, lots of local volunteering opportunities arose and she started helping out at a direct provision centre for migrants in Dublin. “I had always been liberal in my thoughts but this really showed me how desperate migrants are to get work, get an education and fit in,” she says.

It was this experience that inspired her to head to a migrant centre on the US-Mexico border. Every winter since 2020, she has returned to volunteer at centres on both sides of the border for around four months. “It’s like working in an unfathomably busy bus station, with a never-ending stream of passengers arriving from destinations all over the world,” she says. The work is different from day to day but can include cooking, cleaning, distributing clothes, writing up CVs, administrative tasks or providing emotional support. “You don’t get a job description and you are trained on the job. You just have to get stuck in,” she says.

Burke, now 65, usually hears about volunteering opportunities through word of mouth and pays her own way, staying in cheap student-style accommodation with some meals provided by the migrant centres. The other volunteers are often students but she has been surprised to find many her age, too. “In the US, volunteering at my age is normal. I’ve even met people volunteering in their 80s,” she says.

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She has found her work on the Mexican side of the border to be the most eye-opening. “I witnessed the daily life of many marginalised people and the centre itself was on high alert with both cartel members and those fleeing the cartels accessing the services,” she says. However, as the centre itself was very safe and well run she never felt in peril. “Security and management were constantly on watch at the entry points for potential danger,” she says.

She tends to travel without her husband, which she says can be lonely but she has found that the benefits of volunteering more than outweigh the negatives. “I feel privileged to do it. It is an incredible opportunity to observe life in other places and the people are inspiring. They are battling against the odds but are often the loveliest people you will ever meet,” she says.

When Burke returns home to Shankill, a coastal suburb of Dublin, she always feels as if she has gained a fresh perspective. “Lots of my friends can’t get their heads around my volunteering but I like to feel I am doing something useful and continuing to learn. My biggest lesson has been that where you are born is one of the most defining factors in how your life will play out. I feel huge gratitude to live as a European. Although it’s far from perfect, life here is incredibly easy, which is something I never take for granted any more.”

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