pag-asaharibon:

Why Immigration Is an Asian American Issue

Asian Americans* are the fastest-growing immigrant population in the United States today. According to 2011 Census data, almost half of all immigrants in the United States—18.2 million—came from Asia. This group overwhelmingly supported President Barack Obama for re-election—by 68 percent—and cares deeply about fixing the immigration system.

This support for immigration reform is critical as the Senate moves to take up an immigration reform bill, S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. Currently, family sponsorship is the most common way that Asian immigrants arrive in the United States, with 55 percent of Asian immigrants coming through the family-visa system in 2012. However, while S. 744 creates new legal pathways for immigrants to enter the country, it also threatens family reunification by removing entirely the allocation for siblings of U.S. citizens.

May marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It is a celebration of the cultures of this diverse group, as well as an opportunity to educate the public on the past and present contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the social fabric of America. As the month-long celebration wraps up, here are the facts you need to know about Asian Americans and immigration. (read more)

Tram Kieu was an intern with the Immigration team at the Center for American Progress.

* The term Asian American includes any person from Asia living in the United States from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent/South/South Central Asia as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.

(via fascinasians)

weareamericaishome:

“ I am dreaming, hoping, and fighting for a better future, because of my mom, my dad, and my brother.

I am dreaming, hoping, and fighting for a better future with my mom, my dad, and my brother.

I am nothing without my family and they are my everything.”

This was the only recordable family photo where all four of us are in one frame. Taken when my two cousins from South Korea visited us, and whom we haven’t seen in 11 years. [From left to right: my brother, my cousin, myself, my cousin; my mom and dad up front] Taken in 2009. 

This was my submission for a $1000 photo prize in advocating for “family first”discussion in the immigration reform 

——Finding our Family Photo  —-

It was not easy finding a photo of my family where my mom, dad, brother and I were all present in one setting, posing for the camera at the same time, with the oddly resembling smiles in one picture frame. Actually, I couldn’t find one of just us four.

Our pictures are in pieces:

The poorly focused photo of my brother in 6^th grade band, where it takes a whole minute to find his saxophone blowing face out of numerous of other floating heads….

The work-in-action photo of my mom with the unnatural smile in front of a sewing machine that I took for a school project…

And the harder to find picture of my camera shy dad, who always repeats, “My aged self is not pretty to see in pictures.”

The awkwardly picture-less family album, and the oddly fitting reality, the invisible family pictures tells the story of my family’s immigration experience.

The four of us is all we have. And though no luxury granted family photo ops for us to prove that we are one, every day we wake up fighting for each other.

Fighting to survive together.

Often in the pro-immigrant political rhetoric, people point fingers at my parents for their decision to move to the US, in order to legitimate my [undocumented] existence in this country.

While pointing at me, they say, “This innocent child had no choice but to follow her parents”, shaming my mom and dad for the years I lived in this country, “illegally.”

To win votes, to “protect” my filtered-prized goals and dreams, they shove my parents behind doors, shaming their struggles, silencing their existence.

But they are wrong.

My family moved here as one.

I am here with my dreams and goals because of my parents.

I am breathing here today, right this moment, because of my family.

We support each other, we move together, we dream together, and we fight for each other every-single-day.

My family’s experience, my immigrant story is of one collective struggle; filled with love, tears, cries and laughters that belong to my mom, my dad, and my brother.

If you want to talk about my DREAMS, you cannot isolate my family.

Though our pictures are scattered, we move as one.

I am dreaming, hoping, and fighting for a better future, because of my mom, my dad, and my brother.

I am dreaming, hoping, and fighting for a better future with my mom, my dad, and my brother.

I am nothing without my family and they are my everything.

messylittleposts:

How I feel about the 844 page CIR bill

No need to reinvent the wheel 

I trust Prerna 

(via alaamuk)

meetmyimmigrantmom:

My Immigrant Mom, Ki Jung, came to the United States in January 1998.  She has never stopped sacrificing for my sister and me ever since.  As a single mother, she worked 70 hour weeks as a waitress to support my sister and me.  Never once having basic workers’ protections and rights that Americans are typically given, she worked as a waitress until 2005.  When her legs gave out, in order to continue supporting our family, she carried on as a nail salon worker, breathing toxic fumes.

In 2008, she was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer, requiring her to have a mastectomy and radiation/chemotherapy afterwards.  When she decided to go through with her surgery, that gave me the courage to come out as undocumented and speak out to protect my community.  Two years after her surgery, she was also diagnosed with pituitary adenoma, a benign tumor in her pituitary gland that was slowly making her blind.  Only at the urging of her children, she stopped working and sought medical care.

Even now, she still doesn’t give up.  Against her doctor’s wishes, she continues to work so that our family lives a comfortable life.

I will hopefully never know what it means to leave my entire family behind to start a life in a new country.  I will never know what it means to raise two children as a single mother.

Saranghae, umma!

<3 

reallifedocumentarian:

foreverthesoniag:

Lmao just summarizes my thoughts on this #CIR #Shitty #Blueprint #immigration #undocumented #lol #fail thanks @prernalal @thejval http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/transcript-bipartisan-framework-comprehensive-immigration-reform/story?id=18330912

My feels in four frames as well :-)

It was great to share very similar sentiment and reaction about CIR 2013 with these folks. All in all i laughed a lot

really-shit:

The REAL Toy Story | Michael Wolf

Behind those toys are a whole new world of “fun”.

no shit…  

hello to the world of globalized capitalism. let’s go spread more “democracy” and exploit cheap labor because these people obviously don’t know any better…but if they come here by any means seeking for a better life, deport them. 

what else is new? 

(via maria-grazia)

queerdesi:

flavia-isabel:

For the peanut gallery.

LOL.

<3

hahahahahhaha

this is so funnyy 

kemee:

First, I was illegal

An identity given to me

By a socio-political complex

Hell-bent on forcing me to

Reject my notion of self.

 

Illegal is illegal, they said –

More than my age

More than my gender/sexuality

More than my humanity –

I was now this thing, an ‘it’

No longer a human being.

 

I stay silent.

 

Then, I was a dreamer

An identity that built

A collective consciousness

And finally made me

Part of an ‘us.’

 

I was put on a giddy high

Of dreams deferred

Of “I have a dream”

Of a rainbow of caps & gowns.

For we are the dreamers,

The mighty, mighty dreamers.

 

Never mind those whose dreams

We are not acknowledging because

They do not match our own.

Never mind those who will not make it

Far enough to don a cap and gown.

 

Suddenly, a proclamation:

“But we are all dreamers,”

documented or undocumented.

 

I stay silent.

 

Then I was undocumented

An identity borne of the realization

That I am more than just legislation,

That this new piece of paper

Would not magically heal the wounds of the struggle

Wrought by lack of papers to begin with,

That to drive home the assertion that

No human being is illegal,

We must first stop referring to ourselves as such,

That dreams without concrete, effective action and empowerment

Would not serve my growth.

 

Again, it was said:

“But we are all undocumented,”

united in this struggle.

 

I stay silent.

 

Then I became unafraid,

Unashamed,

Unapologetic –

About my immigration status,

About refusing to bow down

to rhetoric & political punting,

about choosing a movement over a campaign,

about acknowledging the full, wide, deep and beautiful

spectrum of the undocumented experience,

and about reclaiming my voice and

demanding that it be the only vehicle

through which my story is told.

 

This time though,

We were not “all unafraid.”

Instead, I was being divisive,

I was being stubborn,

I was selfish, petulant,

I was Radical.

 

Once again labeled an “other”

In the delicate world of “Us”

I called home.

 

I stay silent.

 

At the end of the day,

Though our many struggles and experiences intersect,

And you say we are all dreamers,

My dream of existence in a society

That still views me as illegal, as an it,

Has yet to come true.

 

You say we are all undocumented,

Yet I am the one who has to justify,

In a court of law,

The right to call the dirt I walk on

And the air I breathe

My Home.

 

Can I not claim an identity of my own,

Without it being co-opted, rebranded,

Misinterpreted and censored

by those who are not affected?

Those who support, understand,

Sympathize, fight alongside,

But who are not undocumented?

 

If you truly support me,

You would understand

the importance of my words,

for they are one of the few weapons I own.

 

If you truly support me,

You would understand,

The necessity,

In a world in which

I am constantly told I have no rights,

To have an identity to call my own.

 

If you truly support me,

You would understand that

My struggle is not about you.

 

If you truly support me,

You would understand that

We both lose

When I remain silent.

 

forever reblog 

In case you missed it,

Junot Diaz on The Colbert Report talking about Freedom University 

Please SHARE THE DONATION PAGE FOR FU 

http://www.freedomuniversitygeorgia.com/donate—done.html

http://www.freedomuniversitygeorgia.com/donate—done.html

http://www.freedomuniversitygeorgia.com/donate—done.html

And please take a step further in donating to the organization. Despite the large public coverage on FU, we never get donations and we have to constantly struggle not to stop classes. 

Share the love, not just words

I mean…football is technically an American sport…

deporting unwanted “third-world”* PoC immigrants is I guess considered a US sport 

I mean have you seen the numbers? Pres.Obama is trying to set a all time high-score for noone else to beat 

photo source: Puente Human Rights Movement

*use of the quotation is only to emphasize the perceived normalized threat. the immigration issue is much larger than the current context of third world v first world discourse 

fascinasians:

There will be four sessions at KASCON XXVI.: (1) [ROOTS] Engaging the Past; (2) [IDENTITIES] Breaking Down the Walls; (3) [PASSIONS] Grasping the Present; (4) [VISIONS] Imagining the Future.

I. [ROOTS] Engaging the Past: Taking a comprehensive look at our history as Koreans as well as Korean Americans and how this historical heritage impacts our present.
Topics include:

• History of Korean migration
• Evolution of religion in Korean culture
• Impact of Korean War
• North + South Korean History
• Economic growth + Diaspora

II. [IDENTITIES] Breaking Down the Walls: Taking a critical look at the identities that we occupy and build, and what it means to examine ourselves as individuals and as members of communities that intersect, working with/against each other to produce the unique experiences each of us live. Topics include:

• Gender rights + LGBTQ activism
• Intergenerational tensions + family structure
• Media representations of Asians
• Adopted and/or Multiracial Koreans
• Relations w/ other ethnic groups

III. [PASSIONS] Grasping the Present: Viewing how Korean Americans are making inroads into industries today in entrepreneurship and their various other professional fields and industries. Does being Korean or Asian American influence where we stand in social and economic institutions today? Is it limiting? Is it empowering? What are the effects of our successes and of our failures?

Topics include:

• Contemporary Art
• Politics + Civic Engagement
• Entrepreneurs + Business
• Body Image
• Academic culture + Elitism

IV. [VISIONS] Imagining the Future: Envisioning a future that we create with our own hands, through establishing a clear sense of our identities and our goals, both as a group and as individuals. Anexploration of visions, goals, and hopes, diverse and sometimes disparate, and the bigger picture they create of a living, evolving community. Topics include:

• Education Reform
• Immigration Reform + Political Representation
• Social Entrepreneurship + Humanitarian Work
• Increasing economic presence of Asian countries
• Preservation of culture

Speakers include Maria Yoon, John J. Kim, Curtis Chin, Pauline Park, Iris Shim, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Keish Kim, Franny Choi, Steven Choi, Christine Yoo, Karen Chung, and Mark Ro Beyersdorf.

who is planning to attend this event?? 

I will be speaking on the issue of immigration~ 

let me know b.c if any of you out there are attending, it’d be cool to meet y’all and stuff