Immigrant Connect

One year ago, the spring of 2020 brought fear, death and grief to hundreds of thousands across the globe. Immigrant Connect documented the hardships and effects of Covid-19 on immigrant communities.

The winds of the spring of 2021 are spreading seeds of relief, anticipation, reckonings and rebirths. An American president with megalomaniacal delusions is gone from power and authority. A new president has used the iconic First Hundred Days in office to try to regain trust and chart a course for the future. A new cadre of students have dedicated themselves to taking the pulse of immigrants, refugees and their communities to report on what they can expect and how they’re faring so far as the Biden administration rolls beyond its First Hundred Days. Here are the questions they raised and the stories they produced to address them:


In the process of doing the series on Biden’s policy changes: What immigrants can expect and how they’re faring so far, we encountered some extraordinary people you should know:

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The student reporters wanted you to know something about themselves and their inspiration for investing in reporting on immigrants unlike themselves. The stories are captured here and on the Immigrant Connect staff page:

 

Spring 2020: The effects of Covid-19 on immigrant communities

The spring of 2020 brought fear, death and grief to hundreds of thousands across the globe. In the few months that my students and I were getting to know immigrants and refugees, more than 400,000 people died of the coronavirus pandemic. More than ¼ of them died in the U.S.

As we were meeting for the first times in early April, we decided to focus our reporting on the pandemic’s effect on different immigrant and refugee communities. So many Good Questions can use exploration, so we set out to answer some of them.

What we came to realize is that one of the potential effects of a global pandemic is to recognize that the experiences of migration and decisions about cross-national travel may pull the U.S., willingly or not, out of its exceptionalist posture and into a more cooperative arena. We shall see.

Here are our stories on how the COVID-19 pandemic has effected different immigrant and refugee communities:

How have Chinese students handled what to do as the spread of COVID-19 limited their options to return to China? By Connie Deng 

Are people turning to traditional Chinese medicine during the coronavirus pandemic? By Lydia Rivers

How have Korean Americans prepared for COVID-19?  By Chloe Jeonghyun Heo

How have Indian grocery stores been impacted by COVID-19? By Rachel Baldauf

How have African refugees coped with COVID-19?  By Michael Fitzpatrick

How did COVID-19 affect Ramadan celebrations in the Arab American community around Dearborn, Michigan? By Bailey Pekar


In the process of doing the series on COVID-19, we encountered a couple of extraordinary people you should know:

Glo Harn Choi: Pathways to citizenship for the undocumented can come slowly,  and surely, with collective action  By Chloe Jeonghyun Heo

Mamadul Hasson: A Rohingya retells his traumatic journeys to freedom that still haunt him  By Jason Harward

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The student reporters wanted you to know something about themselves and their inspiration for investing in reporting on immigrants unlike themselves. The stories are captured here and on the Immigrant Connect staff page:

Svati returns the favor years later By Rachel Baldauf

My mother and I break a Chinese taboo and emerge with unconditional love By Connie Deng

The life of a refugee is nothing like my life By Michael Fitzpatrick

A snip, snip, here and some family history there By Jason Harward

I realize what it means to choose citizenship – US or Korean By Chloe Jeonghyun Heo

Grandfather Gaioni’s love for cooking and food are the ties to Italy that bind By Bailey Pekar

Savta shows me that tradition doesn’t stagnate By Ash Ravid

My mother lived like an Ethiopian princess and left it all behind By Lydia Rivers

Ignorance or innocence? The dragons of South Africa are the real Africa to me By Channing Russell

Instructions for death can be a Chamorro woman’s expression of life fully lived By Imani Sumbi

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Coping with policies and practices seeped into American society and narratives

Our array of stories

In the fall of 2019, months after the attention on separated immigrant children at the border had gravitated to Ukraine and impeachment hearings, we continued to report on the lives of immigrants and refugees in Chicago and beyond who were coping with policies and practices that had seeped into American society and narratives:

The march for DACA embeds memories and commits to change the narrative  By Hannah Gonzalez

Chicago’s Welcoming Ordinance is welcoming…to a point  By Nathan Ansell

New generation of Syrian immigrants find their place in the U.S.  By Sophie Kobylinski

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There were questions seeking answers that we addressed. We posted them in our section Good Question:

What does it take for immigrants to start their own businesses? By Sophie Kobylinski

How has Cuban immigration changed since the cessation of the Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy? By Hannah Gonzalez

Are there differences in cultural identities between Mexicans who came to the US years ago and those who’ve come since the Cold War? By Nathan Ansell

Did former President Obama abandon the Syrian people? If so, when, and how do Syrians here feel about it? By Lucio Vainesman

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Our student reporters wanted you to know something about them and the roots for their investment in reporting on immigrants unlike themselves. The stories are captured here  and on the Immigrant Connect staff page:

I get a hint of my British-Jewish heritage by By Nathan Ansell

My papa may not tell me much about his Argentine youth, but there’s always football  By Lucio Vainesman

Will Iranian roots survive another generation? By Sophie Kobylinski

I’ve got a golden ticket… but I don’t need it  By Hannah Gonzalez

 

 

Let the negotiations begin

Immigrant Connect Chicago is an online network for immigrants, refugees, their families and their communities.

Family

Back Home

Identity

Work, Jobs and Money

The Migration

Culture Shock

Good Question

Fearing the Law

Learning the Language

Problems With Papers

Immigrant Connect Chicago is an online network for immigrants, refugees, their families and their communities.

Family

For this Mexican immigrant, hurtful stereotypes are a motivation to break glass ceilings and scale walls

By Isabelle Kenagy, Medill, Immigrant Connect                                                                                     June 2021 As Socorro Castro steps out of O’Hare International Airport, she can’t help but notice the cold and gloom. The trees are dead....

Back Home

A community leader’s Hong Kong roots propel her into activism and civic engagement

By Jane Greeley, Medill, Immigrant Connect                                                                                                     June 2021 Grace Chan McKibben has vivid memories of her visit to Hong Kong in Feb. 2020 shortly after the CDC announced it...

Identity

Two cultures drive the inspiration of Mexican artist Hector Duarte

By Melina Chalkia, Medill, Immigrant Connect         June 2021                                                              Hector Duarte unlocks the purple, wooden door to his studio — a building covered in a colorful mural, portraying a Mexican immigrant trapped...

Work, Jobs and Money

Two cultures drive the inspiration of Mexican artist Hector Duarte

By Melina Chalkia, Medill, Immigrant Connect         June 2021                                                              Hector Duarte unlocks the purple, wooden door to his studio — a building covered in a colorful mural, portraying a Mexican immigrant trapped...

The Migration

Religion complicates the destiny of this Iraqi refugee

By Victoria Benefield, Medill, Immigrant Connect                                                                           June 2021 Ashor Younan, an Iraqi refugee, was hard at work at Scissor’s Palace, his salon in Evanston, when a new customer walked in. As Younan...

Culture Shock

From one country to another, this Nigerian discovers truths that are as evident as her own hair

By Amirah Ford, Medill, Immigrant Connect        June 2021                                                                                  It’s the last day of school, the final closeout to the year. Amid the hugs goodbye and anticipation for break, a school head...

Good Question

How will Biden’s infrastructure plans affect gentrification in Pilsen?

By Melina Chalkia, Medill, Immigrant Connect              June 2021      After her parents relocated from Mexico to Pilsen in the early 1950s, Victoria Romero found the place she calls home. She feels that the Pilsen community where she's now lived her whole life...

Fearing the Law

Coronavirus leaves immigrants trapped in a byzantine court system

By By Stephen Franklin, Steve Bey, Catherine Kim, Areeba Shah, Shreya Bansal, LaTesha Harris, Wanying Zhao and Kari Lydersen [Story originally published on April 22, 2020, in The Reader. Click here to go to the original story.] In a small courtroom on the third floor...

Learning the Language

This Chinese immigrant dreams of breaking the language barrier and studying literature

By Delia Corridon, Medill, Immigrant Connect                                                                         May 2021 Jialiang “Rocky” Li recalls the first time he felt like an American. It was startling. He was visiting his hometown of Taishan in the southern...

Problems With Papers

How should international students plan for or adapt to policy changes?

By Sarah Meadow, Medill, Immigrant Connect                              June 2021 Bengi Rwabuhemba was a quarter away from finishing her freshman year at Northwestern University. She had finals to finish before returning to her home in Eswatini, formerly known as...