Ariana's Story

I was born in Bangkok. My mother and father met in Thailand as my mother worked in refugee resettlement. My father’s family fled the cultural revolution in China and remembers eating plain rice porridge while smelling an old fish that hung in the middle of the table for flavor. Now, with a college education, I feel a responsibility to the world and a debt to pay back the privilege and resources involved in living in America.

Liz's Story

My great grandmother emigrated from Norway with just a suitcase and settled down in a steel town in Ohio. When my grandmother, her daughter, got married to a wealthy man in 1938, he located and purchased an antique Norwegian wedding trunk to give to her to replace what would have come from Norway. It is a beautiful, heavy painted wooden chest that sits in our living room.

Milky Way's Story

My grandmother and her children (my birth mother) all escaped Vietnam In 1980 after the Vietnam War. We were extremely lucky to have sponsorship from a distant relative in the United States. It is a sad reality that sponsorship from a family member increases your chances of living in the US. My parents spent a year at a refugee camp in Malaysia before immigrating to the US. My family were “Boat People” where my family escaped southern Vietnam on a tiny boat in the dead of night. During the journey, the boat got raided by pirates who took my grandmothers wedding ring. Once my family got close to the refugee camp in Malaysia, they were almost turned away. But my grandfather, who fought for the south Vietnamese military along with the Americans, swam ashore showing the refugee camp administrators his military jacket and told them he was a high ranking official. The administrators at the refugee camp let the boat ashore knowing that they would be persecuted in Vietnam especially because my grandfather was fighting for democracy in the south. It was not a easy journey and the year in the refugee camp did not come without strife, and I am very fortunate to have the privilege of a master’s level education. This is a real the story that shapes my identity today.


Alejandro's Story

I moved here with my family in the year 2000 from Venezuela to flee the newly elected Chavez regime that began the Boliverian Revolution. Finding a stable life in the United States has allowed us to live in peace. The situation in Venezuela has only gotten worse every single year since then, causing millions of Venezuelans to flee their homes to find better lives across countless countries in the Americas.


Rebecca's Story

Both of my parents are from the southern part of South Korea. Both of my parents came to the states when my dad was trying to go to graduate school and get his PHD in Oregon State University. After he finished his studies and had me and my brother, our family moved to New Jersey and then eventually to Massachusetts so that he could practice his studies in Boston. Ever since we are the only relatives in our family that have live in the United States and I’m so grateful everyday that we have a place here in the states to call home.

Marina's Story

I was born in Tokyo, Japan. I lived there for 8 years. I was born on November 3, 2009. My mom’s side is Japanese, but moved here when she was young, and my dad’s side are Korean, but he was born in the USA. We all live in Brookline,Massachusetts. I like the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m 10. I love dogs but I don’t own one.

Elena's Story

My father was born in southern China and my mother was born near Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong. My father immigrated to the US when he was 11 years old with his mother and a younger brother. His father, my grandfather, came to the US and somehow joined the US military. We’re not sure how exactly he made his way to the US. My mother came to the US when my father went to Hong Kong to “find a wife” and they met and married within 3 weeks...or at least that’s how the story goes. Me, my siblings, and cousins are mostly first generation born in the US, have all attended college and earned terminal degrees in graduate school and work professionally to contribute to our communities across the United States and in Hong Kong. My grandmother worked in the sweatshops in Boston’s Chinatown and never had the opportunity (or perhaps not even allowed) to learn more fluent English as she was busy raising 5 children as a young widow. I’m grateful that my grandparents took the risk to arrive in Boston as immigrants so they and the rest of my family may have better lives and to add to the richness of the US.

Leila's Story

I’m 11 years old and basically entirely Eastern Europen my Great Grandparents moved here from Lithuania🇱🇹 And my other grand parents came here from Russia 🇷🇺 though I’m not just that I’m many things like Polish and German and lots of other eastern block country’s that’s my story -Leila

Richard's Story

My great grand parents all came from Eastern Europe. Mainly Russia, but included would be Poland or maybe Germany depending on which fifty year swing of occupation. Interestingly they were in the butcher trade. My father’s side were kosher butchers with places in the Bronx and running the kosher butchers union. On my mother’s side my great grandfather was a slaughter where the UN stands now. Those who came through Ellis Island are recognized by plaques there. What a journey they took to live a better safer and free life

Evan's Story

My nonna Assunta immigrated to the US in 1954. She came over from Montefalcione, Italy when she was 24. There was little opportunity in the small town she lived in after WWII. She came over by boat on the Andrea Doria. She came to Boston, where she still lives.

Sari's Story

My father, Adam, was from Warsaw, Poland. My mother, Claire was from Mizoch, Ukraine, formerly Poland. Both my parents are Holocaust survivors. My dad’s entire immediate family and much of his extended family was murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. My mother’s father was betrayed by someone in their town and killed but my mom and her mother escaped. My father came here as a teenager, an orphan, and partly taught himself English , he already knew at least four languages, by reading Call of the Wild, his favorite book which he had read over and over in Poland. My mother lived in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany for 3 years with her mother, who remarried, and her new sister. Then they came to the US. My parents met in NYC. They were fixed up on a blind date. America has been so good to us. My family lived the American dream. My father never got to finish high school but he built a small manufacturing business in NJ that employed about 80 people and he often hired immigrants. Even from Poland. He wrote and published a memoir. He was a leader in our community. My mother went back to grad school in her 40s and became a social worker and therapist. She is also a leader in our community. She’s an artist as well and started showing her work in a NY gallery when she was in her 70s. I’m a writer and museum professional. My brother is an artist. The current US policies on refugees and immigrants breaks my heart. Enrages me. America was a haven for my family and it should continue to be one.

Flavia's Story

I became a U.S. citizen on 12.19.19, a day after President Trump has been impeached. Being from Italy, a privileged immigrant who comfortably flew over from Europe, I did not feel the urge to become a U.S. citizen until several months ago. Since my first arrival in the U.S. in 2012, sheltered by my sense of freedom and personal successes, there was no pressure to obtain a fourth citizenship. However, with the years, since 2016, the raging anti immigrant and xenophobic policies, overt hate and threats to democracy and liberty, have began corroding my false sense of security. No one is immune from threats, nothing should be taken for granted. Now I have a voice.

Natalie's Story

I was born in London, grew up in Singapore but my background is half Irish, half Chinese. People often think I’m American because I have an American accent, but I’m not, yet sometimes I can’t identify as Chinese because I don’t speak mandarin or Cantonese, and in Ireland I look like an outsider. I’m left feeling without a community or a home to identify with.

Ben's Story

I’m a democratic American and I’m only 11. Most of my family moved from Germany to here. I think immigration should be aloud and trump should be kicked out of office. My great great uncle was in WW2 and was the first one to be shot on a plane. That happened by the japans base being right over a hill of the Americans. He was test driving his plane, then he got shot at. He thought it was a target practice but it was actually the Japan nazi. His plane went down and the back half blew of. He and 2 other people on his plane were still alive. He somehow managed to land his plane back at the air base and tell the Americans that the Japan nazis were about a mile away from their base. Later he ended up in D-day were he survived but his memory’s were all bloody from all the people dying. Now he is 99 living in New Hampshire. I have never seen him but I know he is a hero

Dylan's Story

I’m a American 11 year old boy where my moms family immigrated from Italy to America because it was not safe it was along time ago and my dad was the first to immigrate to America from holland. I think people should be aloud to immigrate from places legally but I think it’s not fair that people are not ableist immigrate from other places. I feel some people aren’t Abel to leave because it’s to scary. I glad it was safe back the when the migrated because if my family in Italy hadn’t migrated sooner they might face a lot harder problems. I am very proud of my family for immigrateIng earlier so other generations didn’t have to. The accomplishment they made have been able to make my family a lot more privileged because some places you can’t go there’s people dying left and right from gun shots.

Emma's Story

My great grandfather was going to immigrate from Sicily to the states to start a family, but he fell ill before he had the chance to board the ship. My great grandmother was then forced to board the ship in order to start a new life and carry on the family line in the United States. Every Christmas we make raviolis from scratch with her recipe when we can. I’m not quite connected to Sicilian culture, which I sort of regret. The one thing we did inherit was the food.

Konstantinos's Story

I immigrated from Greece where I was born.For the first years of my life I lived in Greece. Then I went to Rome where I lived for 1 year then South Africa and then America. I have lived here for 2 years already and I am looking forward to whatever is next in my story!!!!!!

Judy's Story

My family moved here from mainland China. My father grew up in a small village where he had to go find fresh water for his family. He started working when he was nine and eventually decided to flee to Taiwan in order to have a better life. My father came here with nothing. He was the first from his area to immigrate to Boston and established himself a name in Chinatown. He started a community that fostered a sense of belonging. Growing up in a suburban town north of Boston, I didn’t realize how much he had sacrificed for my family. Working long hours in order make ends meet, starting a restaurant when the economy was down and watching it fail. It was all because he believed that the United States was a place for dreamers and where you can do anything if you work hard enough for it. He’s the epitome of the American dream.