“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 →
In contemporary society, the word immigrant has strayed away from its proper definition. Most people label those who look, speak, and perceive the world differently from the American Anglo-Saxon as immigrants. This has become the cultural norm and has almost… Continue Reading →
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 →
“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 →
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 →
Jean stared nostalgically at the window for a couple of minutes before mustering up the answer “I guess.. New York.. I guess it can be summed up as the land of opportunity and freedom but it is so much more… Continue Reading →
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 →
On a Friday afternoon, a woman lounges around her house in South Ozone Park while watching soap operas on daytime TV. Her name is Shanti and she is mother of two kids. She immigrated here from the country of Trinidad… Continue Reading →
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 →
Ashley* is a strong woman with a soft-spoken voice. She is moral and independent, and she pauses before she responds to you so as to choose her words carefully. Upon interviewing Ashley, it became increasingly apparent that it is her… Continue Reading →
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 →
Hsinlan sits at a table in the quiet main lobby of Oyster Bay High School on a Sunday afternoon. The first-floor main entrance, previously bustling with the activity of parents conversing and children running around, is calm now that the… Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Rajwinder is currently 44 years old, but she was only about 24 when she decided to move from Punjab to New York City. Punjab is a state in Northern India, and, much like the rest of India, it boasts a… Continue Reading →
Karim situates himself in a quiet, air conditioned corner of the Hunter College library where he is currently a freshman. Finally, after years of unpredictable adjustments, he has a stable environment where he can focus on his studies. He begins… Continue Reading →
In Queens, there is a neighborhood consisting of a small ethnic enclave of West Indians, more specifically Indo-Caribbean Guyanese and Trinidadian people. This neighborhood is South Richmond Hill, which also spreads into parts of Ozone Park. Guyana is a country… Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
The alarm screeches and Ishtiaque Mahdi opens his eyes and looks at the clock, 6:00. It was just 3 hours ago that he finally allowed himself to sleep after studying all night for a calculus final. Pulling himself… Continue Reading →
Some people are meant to put everything on the line. They are willing to risk losing what they have or what they’ve created for themselves in order to go somewhere they could have more, create more, and be more. Immigration… Continue Reading →
It is another calm Saturday night and Shakeela follows her nightly routine of reading the Bible and praying. She sits in dismay of having to go to work in the morning, knowing that she will miss church because of it…. Continue Reading →
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 →
“Shanghai, China was a quiet place. It was sometimes too quiet, too boring. Everyone wanted to go away to America, if not, at least to Japan, Australia, Spain or France.” Jane was one of the few people from her neighborhood… Continue Reading →
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 →
As she sat sipping bubble tea on her stoop in Elmhurst, Queens, Chaia welcomed me to join her. She began to tell me all about her experiences moving to New York City from the Philippines, and how the immigration has… Continue Reading →
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 →
Amidst the crowded hall on the seventh floor of Hunter College West, I sat down with a distant acquaintance of mine. Clad in plaid with a beige wrist watch decorating his arm, Mark told me his story of immigrating from… Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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