Category Immigration Issues

Yoana

“You wake up in the morning, and you feel no rush to do anything. You sit down, have a cigarette with your coffee and enjoy the sound of birds. Eat a small breakfast and then take your time getting ready…. Continue Reading →

Juana

As we sit in the professor lounge at the NYU School of Dentistry, I think back at everything Juana had to do to get here. She was able to come to a new country with no money, learn the language,… Continue Reading →

Eve

Eve (left) is the youngest of five children born to a farmer and a fisherman who lived in a village in Hainan, one of China’s 34 provinces. Her family of 7 lived in extreme poverty for all of her childhood… Continue Reading →

Gerald

This past semester, in an attempt to narrow down my future career options, I volunteered at a hospital, expecting an experience that would be clinical, in more than one definition of the word. To my surprise, the medical professionals I… Continue Reading →

Rosa

The vast array of resources and stimuli that are present in New York City result in the experience found here by an immigrant is varied down to the individual. The perfect example of this is Rosa, who, despite going through… Continue Reading →

Daveen

The Life of An American People of New York City May 18, 2018 Final Draft   BYLINE: Gazi Ohi   LENGTH: 1555 A Street in Bayridge Many a time, much of the immigrant story consists of newly bred, fresh-off-the-boat types… Continue Reading →

Abdul

The most life-changing moment of Abdul’s life was the day he got accepted for the Pakistan Presidential Scholarship to study in the United States. Abdul had grown up in a remote village in the mountains of Northern Pakistan where “there… Continue Reading →

Daniela

“Go back to your country.” “This is America. Speak English.” These are the words millions of immigrants are slandered by from white nationalists and the alt-right. While anti-immigrant rhetoric has existed long before Donald Trump rose to the presidency, it… Continue Reading →

Zinat

It was 7 AM in the early morning, an hour before Zinat Sultana had to drive to work. She put on a professional blouse and a pair of business pants. “I never wear salwar kameez to school like I used… Continue Reading →

Mariel

Mariel from Ilo-Ilo, Philippines Abigail Calumpit MHC Seminar 150: People of New York City “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York! In roughly twenty minutes, we will begin our descent to John F. Kennedy International Airport. The local time is… Continue Reading →

Sid

Sid From Cinder Blocks to Picket Fences: The Immigrant Journey of a Rural Paperboy Abigail Calumpit MHC Seminar 150: People of New York City At the break of dawn, a little boy woke up and cautiously tiptoed through a sea… Continue Reading →

Attiya

Attiya was 16 years old when she boarded the plane to America. It was a ten hour flight followed by another three hour drive from the airport until she reached where she would be staying in Philadelphia. Although she was… Continue Reading →

Sid

Sid From Cinder Blocks to Picket Fences: The Immigrant Journey of a Rural Paperboy Abigail Calumpit MHC Seminar 150: People of New York City At the break of dawn, a little boy woke up and cautiously tiptoed through a sea… Continue Reading →

Shamsun

Early on a Thursday morning, Shamsun wakes up in her Brooklyn apartment. She has a busy day ahead of her, starting with getting her younger daughter ready for school. Her other daughter is already awake and studying for her period… Continue Reading →

Gleb

Gleb is an immigrant few would think of as an immigrant at first glance. For one, he is caucasian, blending in with the typical Anglo-Saxon American most people imagine Americans being. For another, he immigrated as a child, not an… Continue Reading →

Manuela

Manuela blends into her college campus; a normal student leading me to a popular coffee shop in the area. She began to tell me her story as she comfortably situated herself with her hot chocolate. She was born in Envigado,… Continue Reading →

Eunjoo

On an uptown six train sits a fair-skinned girl with a bob cut. She’s tightly packed between a man in a suit and a grumpy-looking woman with a death-grip on her purse. Coffee stains make patterns on the subway floor,… Continue Reading →

Daniela

Hugging her two boys on the back of a bus laid Daniela, as she stared out the window and digested her last few moments in her home country of Kosovo. In Kosovo she would leave not only the frightening memories… Continue Reading →

Mariel

Mariel from Ilo-Ilo, Philippines Abigail Calumpit MHC Seminar 150: People of New York City “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York! In roughly twenty minutes, we will begin our descent to John F. Kennedy International Airport. The local time is… Continue Reading →

Rebecca

    As the cars honk and the ambulances screech, Rebecca crawls out of bed and gets herself ready for the day. She remembers when she first arrived in America, she loved all the noise that came from the city…. Continue Reading →

Lev

It’s a quiet afternoon in the Macaulay Honors lounge of the Hunter College library. Students are gathered in groups studying for exams or conversing in the minimalist white and blue room. Down the hall, Lev, the director of Macaulay Honors… Continue Reading →

Joy

BROOKLYN, New York — It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, but inside Didi Fresco Tortilla and Chinese Restaurant, Joy is hard at work. She greets every customer who walks into the small storefront. Joy recognizes many of her return customers, and… Continue Reading →

Grace

BROOKLYN, New York — The sun is just beginning to set in Midwood, and the streets are beginning to grow quiet. Parents are exhausted from a long work week and gather with their children for Sunday dinner before the work… Continue Reading →

Vania

Walking down the street with Vania, she points to her favorite places to eat: Bareburger on 31 Ave, Martha’s Country Bakery (although it has moved to Ditmars Boulevard). She reflects on how her beloved neighborhood in Queens has succumbed to… Continue Reading →

Betty

On a little block in Sunnyside, New York, from the basement of a small row house, an array of noises can be heard: the unfurling of heavy-duty packaging tape, the sharp snip of scissors, and the rumbling of a sewing… Continue Reading →

Liezl

For many immigrants, the promise of opportunity is one of the greatest motives for coming to America, and for some immigrants, they were dragged along in this quest for success as children, which was the case for Liezl, a Filipino… Continue Reading →

Jenny

Sitting in the cafe section of the Barnes and Noble in Union Square, looking around the room was like looking at a microcosm of New York City. The students, the nine-to-fivers, the tourists, the homeless, the young, and the elderly… Continue Reading →

Ilona

1989: Baku, Azerbaijan. Tanks patrol the neighborhood that young Ilona, 20, resides in as a medical student. The streets that were her home and childhood are now overtaken by guards in military uniforms, enforcing their anti-Azerbaijani regime on the citizens… Continue Reading →

Gerald

The conversation lulled. Gerald paused and shifted in his seat, as if he were anticipating another question about his life back home. The battery of his hearing aid had gone out again. I watched curiously as he plucked a tiny metal… Continue Reading →

Filia

A few days into her two preteens’ spring break, Filia sits next to me. Across the street from her house is P.S. 184 Flushing Manor, the elementary school that both of her children went to. Occasionally she returns to the… Continue Reading →

Dominck

For a lot of immigrants coming to the United States of America for the first time, the sight of the Statue of Liberty and the lights of New York is an emotional, joyous occasion, as the prospect of obtaining a… Continue Reading →

Shiuli

Looking into the future with bright eyes, my mother, Shiuli Saha, decided to apply for the Diversity Visa Program. A practicing doctor in her own private clinic, she felt that she had reached the pinnacle of life in Bangladesh yet… Continue Reading →

Jamal

A Favor To Return People of New York City May 18, 2018 Final Draft BYLINE: Gazi Ohi   LENGTH: 1488   One Happy Family New York City has a certain vibe to it. When you hear it, you hear honking… Continue Reading →

Quadeer

Quadeer sat down with a laugh as he grabbed his steaming chai, a traditional Pakistani tea, and took a long sip. He was a tall middle-aged man that spoke with a heavy accent. He chuckled as he reminisced about his… Continue Reading →

Joanna

Dashing across the street, Joanna whipped out her Nixon camera in order to catch the perfect shot of taxis and bustling people or what she called the epitome of New York. Joanna was always like this, one moment she would… Continue Reading →

David

When David Wang first arrived in Flushing, Queens, it was not what he had expected. Back in Shanghai, China, everyone believed that America was a place of opportunity and luxury. His expectation of a city with sparking streets and a… Continue Reading →

Fuen Yen

The day after his eighty-seventh birthday, Fuen Yen is opposite me. His arms are folded over a brightly printed vinyl tablecloth. As the rice cooker lets out the last of its steam, he gets up to scoop two bowls of… Continue Reading →

Catherine

“Same Name, Different Story” Sitting amongst the company of her parents and five siblings, Catherine had basked in the summer sun of her expansive yard in Thessaloniki, Greece. The captain of two hefty vessels, her father had adorned the perimeter… Continue Reading →

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