By DESTINI AMBUS
Prince Michael Sammons finds strength through God and comfort in family. Sammons, an offensive lineman for the Auburn Tigers and native of Nigeria, received his American citizenship earlier this semester. It was a long process for Sammons to get to America, but it was even longer for him to gain his citizenship.
Continue reading “A Nigerian football player’s journey to U.S. citizenship”
By Pat Ruff
Moses Idris was asked what his life might look like once he’s finished high school.
Idris is a 6-feet-3, 190-pound Austin High School senior and starter on one of the top basketball programs in the state. Like the majority of the players on this team — three of them starters — Idris is of South Sudanese descent.
Continue reading “Austin’s basketball rebirth: Sudanese have given, received so much”
One of the Bayou City’s biggest immigrant gateways, southwest Houston, is a dangerous and daunting place for pedestrians.
BY PETER HOLLEY
Until January, Merci Madilu and his older brother, Espoir, had spent most of their existence in a refugee camp in the landlocked Central African nation of Burundi, where they shared a one-room, mud-walled shelter with their mother and eight younger siblings.
Continue reading “This Family Survived an African Refugee Camp. Their New Challenge: Surviving Houston Without a Car. “
Immigrants who obtain legal permanent resident status in the United States and those who, later, become naturalized U.S. citizens, often long for their close relatives — both abroad and inside the country — to follow their successful immigration journey.
There are several ways to help an eligible family member to immigrate to the U.S., but almost always this complex process begins with the submission of an essential form to establish the relationship between the applicant and the beneficiary.
Continue reading “It’s now faster for immigrants to help their relatives become U.S. residents. Here’s how”
In northern New England, an aging population has hamstrung growth, but immigration could provide heft for the workforce.
By Alfonso Serrano
Born in Somalia, Abdullahi Ali grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in Maine in the United States on a brisk day 10 years ago this month.
Continue reading “As economic growth languishes, state of Maine banks on immigrants”
Think about this: You are 14 or 15-years-old. You are moving to a new country, don’t know the language, the customs or culture of where you now live.
That’s where the International Rescue Committee in Tallahassee comes in to help.
In February, the group created it’s first literacy program. Now, 44 Congolese students and counting from grades 6 to 12, are not only learning English, but also ways to transition into American society.
Continue reading “International Rescue Committee working to transition refugees coming to the Capital City”
By Amanda Mancenido, Communities of Opportunity
Floribert Mubalama knows firsthand that it can be hard to find your footing when you transition to life in America as a refugee or immigrant. I met Mubalama through the Congolese Integration Network (CIN), an organization part of the growing group of partners supported by Communities of Opportunity to strengthen the connections that cultural groups have to their communities.
Mubalama courageously shared his story to help affirm that isolation is a common experience for many refugees and immigrants and that becoming involved with cultural community organizations can break that isolation and help people thrive emotionally and economically.
Continue reading “How one Congolese refugee’s organizing efforts helped integrate his community into King County”
By Shawn Vestal
Veronique Changa Changa recalls the night that she and her family began the long, long journey from the Congo to Spokane.
The 22-year-old burn scars on her leg remain to remind her.
Continue reading “American lives taking shape: For refugees from the Congo, life in Spokane is one of hope, heartache”
A mother and daughter are excited for a fresh start after receiving the keys to their new Habitat for Humanity home on Sunday.
Alphosine and her daughter Esther are originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, but they were living in a refugee camp in Uganda before coming to America.
Continue reading “Congolese refugees become newest Habitat homeowners in Lexington”
By Kirk Siegler
It’s the first day of school in Missoula, Mont., and Elongo Gabriel, a Congolese refugee, is dropping off his young son and two daughters.
A proud father, he has a wide grin. “For me it’s like a dream to get a chance for my kids to study here,” he says.
Continue reading “Popular Refugee Resettlement Programs Closing Under Trump Administration”
By Bill Decker
When I read or hear stories about the current immigration crisis on the U.S. southern border, the word “cacophony” frequently comes to mind: an “unpleasant mixture of loud sounds,” as one dictionary defines it.
The same dictionary then provides a list of synonyms: bedlam, clash, commotion, salvo, thunder, and uproar.
Continue reading “Taxi rides provide illumination about crisis of immigration”
Kenyan-born Dr. Godriver Odhiambo, a professor, at Le Moyne was among immigrants sworn in as American at the grounds of the New York Fair.
To honor New Americans day, nearly 100 immigrants were sworn in on Friday during a naturalization ceremony at Daniella’s, formerly the Empire Room. This is the fifth year the State Fair has held the ceremony and each one carries a lasting impact.
Continue reading “Kenyan-born professor among new Americans as New York State Fair holds naturalization ceremony”
Calling Aklilu Burayu a parking ramp attendant doesn’t come close to describing the roles he’s played in the Twin Cities economy.
In the 13 years since coming to Minnesota from Ethiopia, he’s been a painter and sander at a Blaine wood factory, an assembly line worker in Arden Hills and worked a succession of office jobs through a staffing agency. These days when he’s not at the ramp, he picks up shifts at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a chef.
Continue reading “East Africans Clock in With Hope, Hard Work on Minnesota’s Thankless Jobs”
By David Sharp
Most African asylum-seekers who made the perilous journey through Central America to the southern US border and flooded shelters in Maine’s largest city have new homes.
Thursday marked the closing of an emergency shelter set up in a basketball arena in Portland after several hundred African immigrants arrived from Texas. All told, the city has found homes for more than 200 people since the first families arrived in June.
Continue reading “Maine finds homes for several hundred African asylum seekers”