Nairobi, Sept. 8 -- Many Kenyans seeking greener pastures abroad imagine that you leave the country, and in a few weeks or months, you start earning good money or stumble upon your dream job.

On the contrary, some have to take whatever work is available, retrain themselves and wait years for the opportunity they actually wanted.Stephen Ario is one such Kenyan whose dream took a detour.

He left Kenya in 2020 as a respected librarian and lecturer and never expected to end up as a manual worker earning Sh1,099 an hour, hiding from immigration officers in a stranger's basement and living with fear of being deported.

In the US, he has worked five jobs in five years, from a manual worker on a food-production line to a quality-control worker,...