Immigrant Report is an online publication celebrating the immigrants of this country through their stories, art, and ideas.
All tagged first generation
Vietnamese who live in-country refer to those in the diaspora as Viet kieu – sojourners, those that wander. I was the first in my family to return to Vietnam since we fled in 1975, on an ill-defined quest to claim what I could of my early childhood memories of Saigon, and the family history that my parents could not share with me growing up in America.
I'm not sure what my mother expected when she first moved to America, but I can certainly tell you what she did not anticipate; raising four boys as a single mother living on welfare was not part of the plan. It became her reality.
“What is culture shock like, you want to know? It's like losing your parents for days at Disney World. It's like having an existential crisis as a kindergartner. It's like an earthquake when geography is your second parent.”
Evocative music and writing by Jordan Vanderbeek “life is about trading out what is for what might be”
One Undocumented Student’s Journey to Liberation. “When I explore my identities through my writing, I am able to embrace myself…”
"My parents fled for us." A writer reflects on the sacrifices her parents made and her own place in the American tapestry.
