Kareem Khogali’s Story Abdelkareem Khogali is originally from the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt where he lived with his mother and younger sister until 2017. He grew up in an apartment residing in a compound with a tightknit community and went to school with the same children all throughout elementary and high school. It would have been ... Read More »
Rosalinda Cabrera (name changed), my mother who is 34 years old, immigrated from Michoacan, Mexico to Santa Rosa as a child. She later immigrated back to Mexico and immigrated to Los Angeles in 2005 when she was 17 years-old where she later moved to the Bay Area. For over 10 years, she ... Read More »
Editor’s Note: Many African-Americans trace their roots back to slavery, but often the specific family’s early history in America as well as their country of origin has been erased. The story of these families are an integral part of the American story and slavery was a form of forced immigration. We pick up the family story as far back ... Read More »
When Susan (name changed) was a child, she grew up in a small suburban town in South Korea. She lived a fairly normal childhood one could expect of the suburbs in any nation during the late 70s and early 80s, walking to school and playing in the streets until sundown. It was a close ... Read More »
As we sat comfortably across each other, I noticed Dee (name changed) looking nervous but excited to answer all my questions. I told her that it was okay to talk to me in Arabic as I wanted her to feel relaxed and free to say whatever without the constraints of English. I began by ... Read More »
Editor’s note: Click to read more about the Assyrian Diaspora and resettlement in countries like Iraq. Click here to watch another Assyrian-Iraqi whose family also immigrated to the US – tell her story. Why did you or your family move TO America? a. We moved to America because of the better opportunities for us, and the substantially better education system. ... Read More »
When you look back on your younger self, living in Iran, what compelled you to come to America? As a kid, before the revolution, most people had hopes of going to America to go to school, and eventually, come back to Iran to establish their life/career. The general feeling was that an ... Read More »
I was in a caravan with my wife along with 70 people. Everyone came from different places. I came from a small ranch named San Miguel Michoacan. I was 21 when I decided to leave in order to give my family and my wife the best by giving them a good education. I was ... Read More »
It was 1 am, April 1989 when my father landed in Detroit. Born in a small Indian village about an hour from the coast, the first thing that stood out was the weather–it was bitterly cold. Luckily, it wasn’t too long before a friend of a friend, also an immigrant from the ... Read More »
The person I am today is very different from who I was when I was growing up. I remember the day my mother told me we were moving to California. I was only eight years old so I did not fully understand what that meant, but I remember feeling my heart racing and a smile forming on my face when ... Read More »