#immigrant-experience

#immigrant-experience

Wang was on the edge of 17 when she arrived at Nashville International Airport with her entire life packed into three suitcases and a carry-on. She had traveled all the way from Zhejiang, China, chasing a dream that would ultimately shape her future: studying music business at Belmont University. Now 26, Wang is an Artist Development Manager at Sony Music Entertainment.

"I grew up in a family that valued hard work and education," she says. "Starting over in a new country reinforced that nothing comes easily, but progress is always possible."

I have always felt that distinctions between people from the same country fade when they come to a new place. What you have in common, as outsiders, is greater than what initially set you apart. What Yogan and Samar recognize in each other early on is a desire to better the conditions of the women they love, their families. They're men in their twenties, just stepping into a new stage of life. They're excited to talk about their wives, their dreams, their clothes!

On a quiet stretch of Park Slope's Fifth Avenue, designer Christine Alcalay 's atelier sits inviting, intimate and unmistakably Brooklyn. Racks of blouses, jackets and vintage-buttoned trousers line the space - proof of what locals already know: the woman behind the clothes runs her business the way she designs, slowly, deliberately and with a soulfulness that can't be mass-produced. But Alcalay's story begins long before her name appeared on a storefront.

Thammavongsa was born in Nong Khai, Thailand, in a Lao refugee camp. The family moved to Toronto when she was one year old. She grew up in a one-room apartment with her parents and brother; when she was fifteen and her parents decided to open their own business, she, her mother, and brother spent months sleeping in the family van to make the transition work.

Then she asked a childhood friend, Ping Chong, to hold onto her records, including the death certificate of her husband, who had died of cancer three years earlier. Chong, reluctant to confront the prospect of her dear friend's death, refused at first. But Hang, who never shouted, pounded the table with a fist weakened by chemotherapy and yelled at Chong to take her request seriously.

I pounced on the Nintendo Switch 2 when it came out earlier this year because I wanted something that felt familiar while living abroad. I've been a digital nomad for nearly ten years and currently live in Bangkok, Thailand, nearly 8,500 miles away from my six children and two grandchildren. The Switch 2 lets me play the latest games with my kids, which I love to do, even when the time change makes schedules wonky.

Located in Bartow, Florida, Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant does the most business during hurricanes. Connie Wu recalls her parents' restaurant was still taking orders during Hurricane Irma in 2017, even as the lights went out and the army rolled up to their door. "They had to order food," Wu says. But Christmas was always a close second. "Other than the hurricanes, Christmas would be the busiest."

Middlesex University Needyanand Raya arrived in London from Mauritius in 1999 to complete his master's degree. He was bearing a promise he made his father - to continue his studies "until there will be no examination beyond that to take". More than two decades later, he's now Dr Raya, having completed a doctorate in social policy at the age of 69 at Middlesex University. When asked how he felt about it? "Well, nothing much. It's just an achievement of a lifetime."

I immigrated to Canada from South Korea when I was in fourth grade, and then to the US in high school, and my parents didn't have firsthand experience with how the corporate world works here. My friends meant well, too, but we were all fresh out of college and figuring things out. None of us really knew how the industry worked yet, and we repeated what sounded "safe."

There's a turnaround in the climax of this noctambulist Paris immigrant drama that suddenly charges the film's seemingly neutral title with meaning. Food courier protagonist, Souleymane, is hopefully in the process of altering his destiny, and this key scene is carried by fantastic acting from Abou Sangare: trembling violently as a lifetime's tension and struggle, as well as the daily grind of an app wage slave, comes pouring out.

De Lara transforms everyday tools, plants, and furniture into anthropomorphic and surreal forms. These works act as vessels of memory, resilience, and humor, but also as pointed reflections on the immigrant experience, queer identity, and the liminal space of DACA status, the temporary US policy that offers young undocumented immigrants protection from deportation and the ability to work legally, though without a path to permanent residency or citizenship.

Ali Akbar knows everyone and everyone knows him: the last newspaper hawker in Paris, he zigzags each day from cafe to cafe, shouting humorous headlines in the heart of the French capital. "France is getting better!" he cries, just one of the headlines he invents to sell his wares round the upmarket streets of Saint-German-des-Pres. "(Eric) Zemmour has converted to Islam!" he shouts,

The call came around 3 a.m. "Your mum had a stroke," I heard my cousin in India say. I crumpled to the floor. As I sat sobbing, he explained that she was in surgery and still critical. My mind swam with disbelief. Less than 24 hours ago, I had spoken to her over video chat. She'd been in high spirits singing Old MacDonald to her new grandson our daily morning ritual since his birth that April.

His classroom has colorful posters, smart boards and cozy reading corners filled with books and comfy swivel chairs. Each child has a cubby with their name on it for storing the school supplies tucked into their backpacks. Like every parent, I hope my child likes no, make that loves their teacher. That they feel welcome in school and enjoy their first step to the many years of learning ahead.

Now, he's living in Seoul andbuilding a business that aims to create a community for the Korean diaspora like him. Getting here required leaving behind everything he knew. By his mid-20s, Cho felt like he could see exactly what the next 20 years of his life would look like. Good pay, long hours, and climbing the corporate ladder in finance. "I felt like a dead person," Cho, now 28, told Business Insider about his job at Goldman Sachs.

Every week, the Teitel family balanced their Jewish faith and community ties with their grocery store's operations, serving Italian neighbors and maintaining cultural traditions intertwined with survival.

Daniela García Hamilton's hybrid canvases showcase vibrant traditions and immigrant experiences through portraits of family, utilizing colour, pattern, embroidery, and oil painting.

Juan Carlos, waiting outside Home Depot, carries a message on his T-shirt, 'We built this city,' representing hard-working individuals who constructed the urban landscape of New York.

I was born in a small town in the Mekong Delta in 1986. My parents left Vietnam through the Humanitarian Operation program, which helped former re-education camp detainees immigrate to the US.

"Authenticity is about emotional truth. It's about creating food that evokes memories and honors the intention behind traditional preparation methods."

I start cleaning a waterpark, which is Wings and Waves in McMinnville, where I was hired as custodial. And I didn't know I was hired as a custodial because I didn't speak English...

Deli Boys cleverly blends slapstick comedy with themes of organized crime, focusing on two hapless brothers who inherit a convenience-store empire only to lose it, leading to unexpected revelations.

Anita Menon's creative curiosity and artistic explorations embodied humanity, offering inspiration as she shared Bharatanatyam through the Anjali School of Dance and connected with diverse audiences.

Ibarra's song 'Bakunawa' highlights Filipino folklore and motherhood, with heartfelt lyrics performed in English, Tagalog, and Bisaya, showcasing her cultural roots.

My father studied the Ukrainian artists, activists and workers who defied the Soviet regime and thus faced surveillance and imprisonment. Their resilience offers relevant lessons today.

Chinese immigrants in the U.S. have been fighting for centuries against racial prejudice, the author Michael Luo says; their story should be seen as an American epic.

Inside the lab, only the worst student would keep running the same experiment while hoping for a different outcome, and yet outside the lab, this inefficient method is the norm.