Immigrant Connect Staff | Immigrant Connect

[Click on the photos to read our personal narratives]

Jack Doppelt, Founder and Publisher>>>>

JACK DOPPELT: False papers mean not wanting to say you’re illegal

Current Writers>>>>

Former Writers>>>>

Svati returns the favor years later

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

The life of a refugee is nothing like my life

A snip, snip, here and some family history there

I realize what it means to choose citizenship – US or Korean

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

Savta shows me that tradition doesn’t stagnate

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

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

Inspiration for death can be a Chamorro woman’s expression of life fully lived

JOSIAH BONIFANT: My mom and I rebelled and took our political cues elsewhere

WILSON CHAPMAN

CAYLA CLEMENTS: The GroupMe message startled me and got us talking

CAI CRAMER: My great-grandfather etched his legacy from a figure skater’s blade

VICTORIA LEE

CHLOE LOMBARD: So This Is Christmas

LAUREN MAMMINI: I’m taking the slow, steady road to discovering my Mexican heritage

CLARE PROCTOR: How do I tell Hayat’s story when I’ve been exposed to nothing like it?

SOPHIA SCHOTT: I learn the hard way what summers mean to friendships

SIAN SHIN: My mother is an artist

OWEN STIDMAN: He’s the last person I’d expect to carry a burden of “bad Asian”

JIMIN YOOK: Envision this shortcut to the American Dream: Find a girl with citizenship, and marry her

MICHAEL ZHOU: The tale of two parties comes down to the ease of faking it

JUSTIN AGRELO: The line between point A and point B for we Chicago high school kids is a straight line with freedom on neither end.

AQILAH ALLAUDEEN: It was my grandma’s diagnosis, but she couldn’t understand it and I couldn’t explain it.

MIRIAM ANNENBERG: My license seals my story

DANA BROZOST-KELLEHER: Lilia’s support system makes it all possible

BECKY DERNBACH: My friend Abdi can do anything; as a Somali refugee, he’s had to

CLARISSA DONNELLY-DEROVEN: Read her story-It’s uncanny how identical our ball and stick letters look in ESL classes

CAMILLE ERICKSON: I learn to listen through thick water across distance and difference

ASHLEY HACKETT: Over our first dinner, we touch the surface, probably hold back, and want more

MARY HALL: What will become of my multicultural-ness after I marry an American?

ANNMARIE HILTON: Read her story-Back when I was blind to my Belgian blood

RITA OCEGUERA: In the words of my mother

JAVANNA PLUMMER: Zambia is 8,000 miles away but feels the same as America to Nama

KATIE RICE: Venezuelans like Maria are caught in no identity land

ANKUR SINGH: I had a front row seat for the green card dance twice

JAMIE SPAIN: Boil Jorge down to George and he becomes American before your eyes

DANIEL VIEGAS: The spirit of Ubuntu welcomes me to the Italian bocce club of Bedfordview

KEISHA YOUNG: A human connection is just the right antidote for immigrants and lost students