Posts Tagged ‘immigrant students’

Coming out in the New York Times

// April 22nd, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Immigration

“Get in line!” I am told. This is quite ironic since “getting in line” is precisely what made me an “illegal alien.” I was brought here legally on an F-2 student visa from Fiji when I was 14 and was legally here until I graduated from high school and wanted to attend college. At 17, my parents helped me apply for an F-1 student visa so I could continue my studies, but unfortunately, in the aftermath of September 11, my student visa extension was rejected.

Why? My parents had filed for permanent residency (I-130) prior to this through my grandmother, who is U.S. citizen, so the immigration service would not grant me a non-immigrant visa to study in the United States. As a teenager, I knew nothing about immigration laws and was at the mercy of my parents.

Read the rest of the entry here

Serving at Promigrant.org is not the only thing I do for immigration rights but they cannot possibly publish my whole CV. We discussed and decided to leave out all the work  I do for the DREAM Act. I think journalists really like to use my story because it really explicates the flaws in the U.S. immigration system (how trying to do everything legally can still screw you over), not to mention the discrimination that exists against the LGBT community, which is precisely why I am in limbo. I had to fight to put the line about my sexuality back into the story even with length issues. That was my activity on the Day of Silence–to not silence part of my identity.

What I really missed in these pieces was a ‘Latino’ voice. I know we keep saying that immigration is not just about ‘Mexico’ but at least 41% of undocumented students are from Mexico and that fact cannot be ignored. Instead of being ashamed of it or shying away from it and the socio-economic struggles that the particular identity brings, we must embrace it and tackle the hate head-on.

Being a ‘model minority’ face of DREAM gets tiring.

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Moron of the Week – Tom Tancredo and His Nativist Thugs

// April 14th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // Immigration, Moron of the Week, Racism

Former Congressperson, Tom Tancredo, was not allowed to speak at a recent event in University of North Carolina hosted by the Youth for Western Civilization [Read: Youth Against Multiculturalism and Diversity].

Protestors shutdown the event through their non-violent chanting. Someone banged loudly on the window to make noise and broke it. And just for that, all hell broke lose or so the media spins. Our resident anti-immigrant demagogue William Gheen was quick to compare it to the persecution of Jews.

That’s really a case of the pot calling the kettle black given that his organization–ALIPAC–has ties to right wing hate groups according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Nezua from the Unapologetic Mexican states:

Regarding Gheen: He is really stepping on ALL my nerves now. I am not only a Mexicano who takes all Gheen’s gross proselytizing personally, but also descended from the Jews he uses as a coin here. And as a descendant of Russian/Romanian Jews who fled Europe as stowaways because of Anti-Semitic violence-and only 3 generations ago-I find this comparison of my people to those who use divisive and exclusionary and inciteful and hateful and persecutory anti-ILLEGULZ speech that is fueling violence against my people-Latinos and other brown folk-EXTREMELY offensive and a wonderfully perverse use of suffering to further even more racism and oppression

Setback for free speech? Boo-hoo. Get over it.

At least Tancredo and his cronies do not have to worry about being invaded and detained by ICE whenever they practice their hate speech.

This is also the same Tom Tancredo that asked ICE to arrest and detain college immigration advocates when they were testifying for the DREAM Act in 2007.

Apparently, ‘free speech’ is only convenient when the speech in question is in agreement to one’s own sentiments and belief systems.

Read the whole piece at Promigrant.org

a glimpse into the life of an activist academic

// January 5th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Site Updates

“No, I just got back from URPE sessions at ASSA.”
“What? What is that?”
“An academic conference for political economists.”
“Oh, I thought it was another DREAM(immigration)-related conference.”

Welcome to my life. 24, gay, single, desi, new media blogger, civil rights activist, student organizer, aspiring lawyer, researcher, programmer, fiction writer, editor, graphic designer, fitness freak … and so much more.

The trouble begins when these many hobbies become jobs.  The above list in bold are actually jobs, in some cases–professional level jobs that should pay me.

I find myself spread so thin nowadays — my true passion is academia, be it writing or researching new material. And yet, given my wide array of skills, I somehow find myself ’signed-up’ for  every sort of activity, even the ones that I am mediocre at i.e. programming.

I want to make a list of promises for my readers, the ones that have been emailing me with their concerns.

I am working so hard for immigration reform and LGBT rights in this country that I find myself swamped, and at times, divided between the two movements that are unfortunately separate for most people. They are not separate movements for me as a young gay immigrants, and not separate for someone like Mohammad, who is undocumented and gay. Forget the vile hatred from the anti-immigrant groups and the misguided opinions of Raza Educators who openly advocate against legalization opportunities for undocumented kids, the disconnect between my two communities is all too real and painful. And it happens quite often — when a gay brother is talking ill about ‘illegal aliens’ or when an undocumented student is making anti-gay comments.

Not realizing the intersectional, multidimensional oppression faced by many students like Mohammad is not only preposterous, it is part of the problem. And it must stop starting from you. If you support the DREAM Act, why not Uniting American Families Act? We are all human — why so hatred for someone based on an arbitrary thing like place of birth? By now this must be ‘ad nauseaum,’ to borrow from Dave Bennion at Change.org.

As an activist, we all need to deal with ’special’ people at times. People who think they are organizers or have great ideas or only make a bee-line to you in order to ‘use’ you. I am of the welcoming nature, the coalition-building-everyone-under-one-big-tenth kind, so I am especially susceptible to that.

News from astrology-ville — My mom consulted a priest about my ‘issues’ and he told her that I had to be careful about my current group of friends. Regardless of the nature of advice, that is something I have always known — Why else would I keep everyone at a distance? But it certainly does not do anything to alleviate my trust concerns.

To add to the workload, I ave academic papers to write for journals and at the same time, finish up her ‘romantic-drama’ piece. Next, I will be told to screenwrite for a movie. Oh wait. Bummer.

Lost in Translation – Migrant Students Navigating the American Education System

// August 25th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Education, Immigration

I came across this blog through a Google Alert yesterday and it holds a lot of potential. Basically, the ‘owner’ is gearing up to get migrant students from his school to blog about their experiences, to tell their stories and helped by a grant from AILF. They may also blog in languages besides English (YES PLEASE). The idea has a lot of potential and I am looking forward to hearing some stories.

I don’t think I have ever written about my experiences as a LEGAL immigrant student at an American public high school. I would rather not revisit that period of my life. First, my counselor put me in a grade that I had already completed back in Fiji (10) not due to any scores but due to my ‘age’ – I discovered later that he did not need to do that. THEN, instead of placing me in tough honors classes since I tested above 12+, I was placed in almost-remedial activities like P.E., Art, English-P, Intro to Biology … I tried making up for this in Grades 11 and 12 when it became clear that the material I was learning seemed like Grade 6 in Fiji. The saving grace was the new policy debate program and Ethnic Studies that became the starting point of my activism and radical roots. Lets not launch into a discussion about how I found American students to be superficial and materialistic, not to mention culturally insensitive for making fun of my accent, Payless shoes and simple attire. Well, it still beat the rampant homophobia I experienced in Fiji so I ain’t complaining.

Sorry for the diatribe. It would be great if everyone with a pro-migrant and/or DREAM blog could put up a link to it sooner or later as it develops.

Also, feel free to bring to my attention other new sites or projects that are pro-migrant.

Immigrant Students and Being Thankful to the United States

// August 12th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Education, Immigration

I am yet to understand why I should be thankful to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA for my higher education.

Did the government pay for it? No.
Did they sit tests and write papers for me? No.
Could I have gotten the same education and made the same achievements anywhere else? Probably, given the amazing primary school education I received that enabled me to score at college standard when I arrived here. I always came in at Rank 1 from K-_____, whenever and that hasn’t changed. Studying in the United States, has nothing to do with it.

That does not mean I am not grateful for the opportunities this country has given me. I recognize them first-hand. I realize we are more ‘free’ here as women, our sexualities are less repressed, we may have more freedom of expression and more activities that we can do to distract ourselves.

I don’t see why I should be thankful to anyone besides my professors and colleagues, my parents (footing the bill) and myself (hard-work and intellectual acumen) for any of my educational achievements.

If you are an immigrant student, do speak.

Law Reviews – DREAM Act

// May 10th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Immigration

It’s about time I went to L/N Academic looking for law reviews on the DREAM Act. Most of them were pro-DREAM, obviously, like I mentioned previously, academics are more likely to be benevolent and understanding towards DREAM.

You can find these on your library Lexis-Nexis database.