We are all Immigrants

“Of course, we couldn’t all come over on the Mayflower. But I got here as soon as I could, and I never wanted to go back.”

Anton Cermak

We are America

“Speaking different tongues, we nevertheless meet here today as brothers…Henceforth we have one country, one hope, one destiny”

Justice Nathaniel Bennett

These are our Stories

“One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say,

You’re not as alone as you thought.”

John Steinbeck

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Latest Stories

Makka Djibrine

Competition From Within

Education is a prized commodity for Makka Djibrine Khatir. But it hasn’t always been this way. Indeed, for most of her early life, education was the same as suffering.

Sankar Raman

A Rebellion Against Silence

Sindy Avila-Gutierrez looks back undaunted on her life as an undocumented immigrant.  “I’ve always been a rebel in that way,” she says. “You tell me

Zhou Fang

Struggling to Stay in the U.S. of A.

Sometimes persistence pays off–especially when wending one’s way through the morass of the U.S. immigration system.  Zhou Fang learned this lesson first-hand

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Featured Stories

Sankar Raman

Finding Strength in a Complex Heritage

“Being 100% American means fully accepting your heritage — whatever it is,” Mitzi Loftus says, reflecting on her experience growing up in Oregon

Sankar Raman

Gaza Is Full of Dreams

Living in Gaza — one of the most dangerous places on earth — the Al Ghussein family learned years ago that where there is smoke,  

Karen Weliky

History Keeps People Thinking

Jack Boas counts his career as historian as beginning at conception. “Or maybe even before,” he suggests. “I could not avoid it, as a child of

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Latest Podcast Episodes

Sankar Raman

Patriotism Despite Incarceration

Janice Okamoto was just a baby, only a few months old, when she was sent to Minidoka with her family. Her father was a musician, and like all the

Mark Conrad

Something Greater in Life

Vasyl Matsyuk, a Yale Divinity student, grew up in the fully Democratic Ukraine only to see it ravaged by a war with Russia that began a year ago in February. […]

Sankar Raman

A Different Kind of Inner Calling

Balamurali Balu, who goes by Bala, immigrated to the United States from Southern India. He completed his PhD at Georgia Tech.  

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Featured Movies

To Bear Witness: Closure

On a journey to come to terms with their losses, a group of Holocaust survivors from Portland, OR, travel together to six of the locations where concentration camps

To Bear Witness: Reconciliation

A survivor of the genocide in Rwanda when he was a teenager, Emmanuel Turanturanye has a theory about why he is alive: to tell rest of world what happened

To Bear Witness: Building Community

After the Khmer Rouge killed her husband, Saron’s mother gathered her three small children and made her way to a refugee camp in Thailand and, finally, to America.  

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The Immigrant Story Live!

Temple Romance – Live on Stage

Temple Romance goes to South Indian classical flute melodies blended with a strong string and chorale harmonies. Bala’s inspiration for this piece is derived from  

Magic Gem – Live on Stage

Magic Gem takes a classic Western melody and adapts it to an Eastern classical vibe using the Chinese erhu, played by Jerry Lin. 

Hit the Strings – Live on Stage

Hit the Strings is based on a Middle Eastern musical scale and features the Japanese koto played by Masumi Timson. Many cultural influences flow between  

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What We Carried

Jim Lommasson

Postcards, Budapest, Hungary

Les Aigner:  My mother Anna asking my dad Gyrela, if he ever received the food package that she has sent him This postcard was sent to a town named  

Jim Lommasson

Photographs, Chongkal, Cambodia

Saron Khut: In 1980 my mother, my sister and I escaped Cambodia carrying only a few things, as we walked to the Lumpook refugee camp in Thailand.  

Jim Lommasson

Coffee Cup, Juba, South Sudan

Rudwan Dawon: More than 11 years ago, when I was leaving my beloved country of Sudan, my colleagues from Juba University gave me this tiny cup for coffee.  

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