Immigration Stories from a St. Paul High School: Green Card Youth Voices

by Tea Rozman Clark (Editor), Rachel Lauren Mueller (Editor), Bao Phi (Foreword by)

Overview

"Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a St. Paul High School" is a collection of thirty personal essays written by immigrant students from LEAP High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. Includded with each essay is a link to a first-persona video narrative. Comming from thirteen different countries, these young people share their life journeys in their own words. Some fled xenophobia, others came to be reunited with family, and all left behind loved ones: parents, children, friends. Throughout it all, each of these young people exhibits tremendous resiliency, courage, and unbashed hope as they imagine their future in this new country. The digital and written narratives in this book are exceptional resources for anyone looking to learn more about the human side of the immigrant experience. By seeing ourselves reflected in each of these stories, we begin to build the necessary bridges that will bring us towards a deeper understanding of one another. Including: study guide, glossary, and links to video narratives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949523041
Publisher:	Green Card Voices
Publication date:	04/23/2019
Series:	Green Card Youth Voices
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

AUTHORS: Lah Lah: Myanmar; Ahmed Hamza (C.R) Mahamed: Saudi Arabia; Anta Thosaengsiri: Thailand; Nathanael Valera: Mexico; Day Nya Moo: Myanmar; Aye Aye Win: Thailand; Nima Ahmed: Djibouti; Isaac Flores: El Salvador; Jae Nay Htoo: Thailand; Ah Bay Yan: Myanmar; Tatiana Anariba Osorio: Honduras; Sha Lay Paw:Thailand; Yomiyu Gafesu: Ethiopia; Christ Taw: Myanmar; Say Hay Taw: Thailand; Cristina Vasquez: El Salvador; Huoy Lin Mao: Cambodia; Eh Sa Kaw: Thailand; Aisha Abdullahi: Somalia; Oh Kler: Myanmar; Hla Yu Htoo: Thailand; Iya Xiong: Laos; Nelly Beltran-Espitia; Mexico; Wah Soe: Thailand; Pare Meh: Myanmar; Abshir Mohamed: Somalia; Kzee Ya: Myanmar; Javier Arreola Martell: Mexico; Ma Ka Lah: Thailand; Lu Lue: Myanmar

Read an Excerpt

We fled the country I was born in just as the regime we were fleeing form rolled their tanks into Saigon, shelling the airport night and day in an attempt to kill escaping families like mine. I am too young to remember, but from multiple accounts from my other family members, it is not an exaggeration to say it was a miracle we survive.

Close to four decades later, I and some members of my family sat in a restaurant in Saint Paul. Like many refugees my age, my comprehension skills are very sharp, but my speaking skills are poor. I remember fiddling with my food and hoping no one would ask me any questions that would require too much of a response, thereby exposing my terrible Vietnamese speaking skills. The conversation turned to reminiscing about those chaotic, terrifying days we fled. Who was where, who ran and when, and who didn’t make it. It struck me then, looking at my family members - just regular human beings - could walk outside, and have to weather any discrimination and ignorance brought to bear on them, when each of them has such an incredible story of survival and resistance.

Which is why the brave voices in this collection are so important.

The United States of America is a confusing place. The indigenous people of this country have to fight for something as simple as clean water, and some are considered “illegal” immigrants. There is xenophobia against those seen as “the enemy,” even if our relatives fought on the same side as Americans. There is police brutality and other forms of state-sanctioned violence against Black and Brown bodies, justified by racist logics that have been present since the creation of this nation but which many believe we have moved long past.

Many of us, who have a certain color of skin or speak English in a certain way or pray to someone in particular or any combination therein, are told to go back to where we come from, slander carrying an imbedded judgement: here is better than there, and you don’t belong here. WHich is a puzzling slur since the only people from “here” are American Indian people who do not benefit from these vicious bigoted nationalisms disguised as patriotism. Such ignorance only makes sense in a system of institutionalized oppression that centers one story and one identity as its center. But before we dismiss this as harmless misunderstanding, recognize that these dangerous narratives of who is a “citizen” and who is a “foreigner” are embedded with power and privilege, and those of us on the bottom of the binary can find our loved ones discriminated against, silenced, and deported.

There are many strategies to make our country, and our world, a better place, and one of those is telling our stories. In this collection, these gracious writers lay it all out on the table. WHat they had to do to come here. The waiting, the running, the hiding, the paperwork. The long hours and low-paying jobs, the English classes, the intrafamilial conflict. The storytellers here have so much to tell you, and you will come to realize that their journey is not necessarily about a point on a map. You will be in no danger of romanticizing immigrants and refugees after reading this book - they, like any other family, struggle with relationships, assimilation, poverty, and any and all other difficulties that being a human being comes with.

But they also need listeners, and readers. And here’s where you do your part. Read these lovely, harrowing, funny, sad stories. Never forget the courage it takes for these writers to share their lives with you. Don’t pity them - that’s not what they’re asking. Be proud of them, learn from them, see through their eyes, see yourselves in them. You and the world will be better for it.

Table of Contents

Foreword - i; Acknowledgments - iii; Introduction - v; World Map - viii; Personal Essays - xi; Lah Lah: Myanmar - 1; Ahmed Hamza (C.R) Mahamed: Saudi Arabia - 7; Anta Thosaengsiri: Thailand - 13; Nathanael Valera: Mexico - 17; Day Nya Moo: Myanmar - 21; Aye Aye Win: Thailand - 25; Nima Ahmed: Djibouti - 29; Isaac Flores: El Salvador - 33; Jae Nay Htoo: Thailand - 37; Ah Bay Yan: Myanmar - 41; Tatiana Anariba Osorio: Honduras - 45; Sha Lay Paw:Thailand - 49; Yomiyu Gafesu: Ethiopia - 53; Christ Taw: Myanmar - 57; Say Hay Taw: Thailand - 61; Cristina Vasquez: El Salvador - 65; Huoy Lin Mao: Cambodia - 69; Eh Sa Kaw: Thailand - 73; Aisha Abdullahi: Somalia - 77; Oh Kler: Myanmar - 81; Hla Yu Htoo: Thailand - 85; Iya Xiong: Laos - 89; Nelly Beltran-Espitia; Mexico - 93; Wah Soe: Thailand - 97; Pare Meh: Myanmar - 101; Abshir Mohamed: Somalia - 105; Kzee Ya: Myanmar - 109; Javier Arreola Martell: Mexico - 113; Ma Ka Lah: Thailand - 117; Lu Lue: Myanmar - 121; Afterword - 125; Study Guide - 127; Glossary - 131; About Green Card Voices - 137

Editorial Reviews

"This book helps to close the gap between the perceptions of who we are as Minnesotans and the realities. These young perspectives of those who have crossed borders are needed now more than ever, reminding us that history is now." -Wing Young Huie, Photographer, Owner Third Street Gallery “Currently, America is struggling with making sense of its growing immigrant diversity in a time when the global migration of people is larger now more than any other time in history. This collection of stories - beautiful and raw and authentic - of the lives of Americans who arise from that diaspora of humanity is needed for us to arrive at a place where we can fulfill the promise of our democracy and be a nation where our differences are seen as the substance of our collective strength.” -Carlos Mariani, MN State Representative

From the Publisher