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“My grandparents came to the U.S. not knowing any English, leaving their 3 kids in China, in order to earn money and find better job opportunities. They stayed in the U.S. since, leaving their home, childhood, and culture. I will forever be grateful for their hard work and perseverance. Thank you grandma and grandpa.” Annie Chin

“My dad came to school here from Brazil and I was born here because of my parent’s dedication to me having a better quality of life. Thank you, mom and dad.”

“My mom immigrated to Chicago in 1968, leaving former Yugoslavia, now Croatia, behind. Her family immigrated for better opportunities and freedom from facism.” Nellie

“My grandparents migrated to the U.S. after being liberated from a Jewish ghetto. My dad, at two years old, came with them. They escaped Hitler’s final solution by weeks.” NP

“My mom was born in China and my dad was born in Japan. After they met each other and got married, they moved to California to let me and my siblings have a better life. I love my family a lot.”

“My parents went to Canada in 1989 as refugees during the Civil War. My grandfather had an accident, we all went back to El Salvador when I was 7. Years later, my wife got her US papers. We came here in love. We married, which is illegal in my country. I have never felt so free to be me and this is what America means to me: freedom to love! Back at El Sal I had to hide my sexuality and now I celebrate it! Second wedding anniversary and a home full of love.” Ligia Milla

“I was newly married and came with my husband.” Lakshmy Nair

“My maternal grandparents left Riga in the early 1900s – they came for opportunity & freedom to live without fear of being imprisoned or marked for their faith and their origins.”

“3 brothers moved from England and became slave owners. Very haunting but honest.”

“My father’s mom was sold as a housekeeper to a rich family in NY. She left Puerto Rico after elementary school (11 years old).”

“My family is composed of descendants of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Forcibly removed from Africa to provide free labor in the Americas.”

“Native Americans still live! My family is native to this land. We are the native Americans. Later in life my great-grandmother was born, her mom and ancestors before were Native American & her dad was African American.” Shanija Ary’el Coleman

“I was born in a United Nations make-shift hospital in Bosnia and Herzegovina. My birth signified life while death was all too common. In the United States, very few notice that I am a refugee.” Elmedina Brkic

“I immigrated as a refugee. I studied here and met my husband. I’m glad that our kids will be born Americans because there is so much opportunity here.” Nellie

“At age 15 I left my family in northern Myanmar and walked to India. After a year there, I was flown to Michigan to start a new life. At 25, I am now an American citizen, a senior in university, a home owner – yet I have not seen my parents since the day I fled for my own safety from the military.” Mang Boih

“My dad passed away in April 2021, I have been trying to record my mom’s experiences as a Bangladeshi immigrant to Kuwait then America to share with Ella. I want Ella to learn that her grandma Josephine survived wars in Pakistan and we survived the Gulf War in Kuwait, that she’s comes from a strong, resilient, intelligent, and resourceful Gene’s. We are the products of our past. (2 of 2)” Lauren Gomes Atwood

“My family immigrated to America after the first Gulf War when I was 8 years old. My parents wanted educational opportunities and safety for my brother and me so we wouldn’t struggle the way they did. My parents knew that education would afford us a new life and into jobs outside of hard physical labor. I am comfortable, healthy and safe because of their sacrifices and struggles, allowing my daughter, Ella a new world of privilege that none of us had. (1 of 2)” Lauren Gomes Atwood

“My great grandfather Walenty Staszak lived in partitioned Poland under Russian domination. Polish language, culture, and national sovereignty were denied by the Russians. In the mid 1890s Walenty took his last money to come to America to get work and set up a household for the wife and child he left behind. A few years later he sent for wife and baby daughter (my grandma) to begin their new life of freedom in America.” Carla Tomaszewski

“On a cold and snowy day in January 1969, my dad stepped off the merchant marine ship in NYC, armed with a phone number, $5, and three important words of English: “hello”, “goodbye”, and “hamburger”. He thought he was prepared for anything, he wasn’t prepared for New York City in the winter.” Fenny Lin

“Havana, Cuba, 1996. In the middle of the worst economic crisis in the country, I entered the United States Interest Section to ask for a visa. The consular officer asked me why I wanted to emigrate. “To write in freedom,” I said. That probably wasn’t the most common answer applicants gave, but I got the visa nonetheless. More than twenty years later, having published twelve books, I found Mr. Steven Rice online and thanked him. I write in English and Spanish. My mystery novels, published by Soho Crime, feature Padrino, a Santero detective, and weave in Afro-Cuban beliefs and culinary elements: Death Comes in through the Kitchen (2018), Queen of Bones (2019, chosen by NBC News as “one of the top 10 books from 2019 by and about Latinos”) and Death of a Telenovela Star, upcoming August 2020. Muchas gracias.” Teresa Dovalpage Opportunity & Freedom

“My family moved to the US in 2018. My mom had gotten a promotion and needed to be in her company’s headquarters in Lexington Kentucky. I was 12 when we moved. Initially I was upset at the thought of leaving my friends, home and family to move to a foreign country and being a new kid. However, the thought of living in the land of freedom and opportunities was much bigger than the fear of change. We were thrilled about the life we would get to live in America.” Zoya Adwika Abbas

“I still treasure my heritage (Turkish), but considering the deteriorating condition of liberty and civil rights in Turkey, I feel more at peace to live in the United States. I have many friends from all walks of life that I am proud to call “my village”. I am a contributing resident of this beautiful country and I feel that I am embraced by most people.” Fatma Gurel Kazanci

“I came to U.S. in August of 2001, a month before the heinous 9/11 attack, to study mathematics at University of Pittsburgh. I was a newly-wed Muslim women who was trying to navigate this new environment. Over the years, I realized why people from all over the world wants to come to America. As a Muslim, America has been the best country for me to live freely, be strong in my faith but also learn from other faith traditions or people that do not subscribe to a faith. I became a naturalized citizen in 2018 and I feel that I am an American.” Fatma Gurel Kazanci

“My grandfather’s parents came in 1905.” Christopher Burrow

“We came through the lottery system in 2001 from Romania. I thought it was just a vacation. This is the longest “vacation” I’ve ever been on. My first memories here were shocking but they add to who I am. West Lawn & Oradea make me who I am.” Ioana Bogdan

“My mom moved to the US for her career (she’s being a nurse since before I was born). She had always heard that Nurses were valued in the States. She also wanted to give her children better opportunities. She moved in 2002. Finally got to join her in 2010.” Biodun Dapherede

“My parents migrated me here at the age of 11 for better opportunities and future. My country of Birth does not allow children of non- citizens the same opportunity as those who their parents were born there. Though I am a second generation black female immigrant here, America has granted me opportunities I would have never received from my country of birth. I am now a first generation college graduate, Which I will always be thankful for.” Milanda Milanda, Family & Opportunity

“My birth father fled the Civil War in El Salvador. In America he worked odd jobs where he met my birth mom. And here I am a mixed race adopted gal. I do not know him, but respect the battles and decision he made.”

“On my first day in middle school, my first subject was American history. My teacher was talking about a guy named “George Washington.” I turned to my seatmate and said, “Who’s George Washington?” My classmate looked at me funny, he pulled out a dollar and said, “This guy here, he’s the first president of the US.” That’s when it dawned on me, I’m in a whole new world."

“My family came as slaves, but didn’t let it become our family story. We used opportunity and hard work to continue our story and further our history. So, force may be how we got here. But, opportunity is why we remained and thrived here.”

Shattered glass Shouting match Religious oppression Pogrom session Seek new lands With empty hands to the west and from the east Hopefully the journey ends with relief”

“I came to study in Michigan and completely fell in love with my friend, partner and now husband and father of my two beautiful daughters. America gave me not only a home, but the love of my life. Life is wonderful because I have the best family I could ever hope for.”

“Katie ‘Daisy’ Kane survived a shipwreck along the coast of Halifax, N.S. on her way to OH from Donegal. Without her, no me. Courage. Struggle. Curiosity. Despair. A small life – No – majestic -"

“I was adopted from China when I was 2. This, I believe, is quite a different experience from those who have immigrated since, for me, the US is the only home I know or remember. My parents believed my birth mother gave me up to an orphanage for better opportunity, but that is all speculation.”

“My immigration story has proven to be one of lies and deception. Originally thought to have had Norwegian, Irish and German heritage the family’s story was germanic. 23 and Me tells a different story of my heritage and sends me on a path to Italy, Egypt and Great Britain to meet the family I never knew.”

"1928 Grandma – Gertrude Ruter from Germany at 8. Could only bring one toy. Chose a ball. It bounced off the deck into the Atlantic 😞”

“My family comes from Mexican fortune yet my grandparents wanted to “Americanize” their family just to show them the fortune and opportunities America has to offer. We started living the ‘American Dream’ with yet many setbacks.” – South Side CPS Chicago Student “I’m from Durango too woooh!!! – Durango, Mex”

“My family first fled France and migrated to Ireland due to religious persecution. They then later fled Ireland and came to America in 1858 because of religious persecution again. Our family’s history here has always been to live a liberated life w/ our family free of judgement."