Peopling of New York https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012 Sun, 02 Dec 2012 02:06:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://files.eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/var/www/webroot/ROOT/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/01/15140022/mhc_logo_NEW-favicon.png Peopling of New York https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012 32 32 Course Site https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/05/21/williamsburg-bridge/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/05/21/williamsburg-bridge/#respond Mon, 21 May 2012 20:38:26 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=1221 Professor Snyder | Spring 2012

Using the lens of NYC, this class examines immigration, gentrification, ethnic enclaves and cultural groups in NYC.  Our personal Migration Stories and class resources are posted on this blog.   Use the Authors tab to view a by author archive, or traverse through our stories by clicking on the arrows.  

Williamsburg[h], our project site, showcases various ethnographic studies that were completed during the semester.  Much like the dropped “h” in its name, people have driven the transformation of its structure.  Our projects reflect on Williamsburg’s historical roots, documents its place in 2012 time, and based on this research, imagines a likely future for this this rapidly changing neighborhood less than a mile away from Manhattan.

  

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Authors https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/05/19/professor-snyder-spring-2012/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/05/19/professor-snyder-spring-2012/#respond Sun, 20 May 2012 00:39:09 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=1253  

Christopher Chang
Min Jee Choi
Michael Grasberg
Michael Harris
Amanda Huang
Manal Janati
Jessica Lin
Aashumi Mody
Sion Siyanov
Keith Stegner
Camille Studer
Abhinaya Swaminatha
Alexander Thomas
Kenny Vu
Raynond Wang
Kelly Wu
Kelvin Wu
Darius Zhang

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A Tale of Two Nations https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/04/02/a-tale-of-two-nations/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/04/02/a-tale-of-two-nations/#respond Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:55:24 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=930             My parents both grew up in China in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. Life in the villages was harsh and messy and required a collaborated effort to make ends meet. People were assigned tasks – women and children generally performed household chores and farmwork, men tilled in the fields and the elderly cooked in large communal kitchens. While each family had their own homes, it was modest and served only its practical function. Poverty ravaged the land, so much that my father quotes: “If you were hungry, you’d rip a potato out of the ground, brush it off and wolf it down”. The day started at dawn and ended well into the night.

            My father had tried his hand at many different odd jobs, from recycling to selling foods to repair work but decided to travel elsewhere for opportunities. His first stop was in Mexico where he worked in a restaurant and found a life-long friend. He saved up some money and with help from a few relatives, went to New York City. Although he arrived here without a high school diploma, spoke no English and carried only $300 in his pocket, he strove to make ends meet.                                      

            He lived with a few relatives in an apartment in the Lower East Side and worked many fortune cookies. Lunch consisted of discarded cookies, cheap bread and coffee. The spartan life was hard but he persisted, knowing that one day he would be bringing my mother over too. Little by little, he saved up a sizeable amount, borrowed heavily from relatives and bought an old house in Brooklyn. He fixed it up himself and when it was done, sent for my mom.

            My mom grew up in the same village as my father and shared the same hardships. She spoke no English, did not have a middle school diploma, and only had the skills she learned back home. When she became pregnant with me, she stayed home to look after me while my father found a better paying job in Florida, albeit still stuck in the low wage, Chinese patronage jobs. He would visit every 3 months for the first few years of my life.

            Growing up, while I had a much easier time meshing in with American culture, my parents had a hard time adjusting. The language barrier held them back from holding better paying jobs and with this sense of being an outsider, settled in communities with large Chinese populations. In Brooklyn, they chose Bensonhurst, which even then had a burgeoning Asian population and in Manhattan, they chose Lower East Side, which was close to Chinatown.         

            My dad worked in restaurants for many years until he started taking English classes and landed a stable janitorial job. While working there, he became acquainted with the pizzeria owners and learned a bit of Spanish. My mother worked in a garment factory for a time, which was essentially a sweatshop with the meager pay and long hours. My mother did go on to learn a bit of English to pass her citizenship test but that was the extent. Despite having spent so many years in the United States, they never truly assimilated into American culture. They felt most comfortable within the Chinese community bubble, where they continue to stay.

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Huang Migration Story https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/14/huang-migration-story/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/14/huang-migration-story/#respond Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:35:11 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=911 My paternal grandmother first emigrated from Tai Shan, China to American in November of 1985, with the help of her younger sister. Grandma Li stayed with her sister and her husband in Whitestone, where they still currently live. In the spring of 1987, my grandma’s request to bring my dad and my twin fraternal aunts to New York City was approved. Since my great aunt was unable to house so many people, my grandma’s younger brother generously offered them an apartment complex he owned in Downtown Flushing.

During this time, my parents were already together for a few years, but not yet married. My father went back to China and married my mother on January 31, 1988. However, their citizenship statuses kept them separated on opposite sides of the world. My mom explained that they did not have the money to visit each other (my dad’s aunts and uncles had to loan my parents the money for airfare). They also did not have the kind of technology we are lucky to have today, such as video chatting or texting. Long distance phone calls were expensive, so my newlywed parents kept in touch through good old-fashioned mail. It wasn’t until almost two year later on January 17, 1990 that my mom was able to join my father in the United States and finally start a family.

My family remained at the Downtown Flushing residence after the birth of my two brothers in 1991 and 1992. When my parents found out they were pregnant with me, they decided to invest in a larger and more private residence. My aunts and grandma followed and in early 1993, my parents were able to afford a two-bedroom apartment on Kissena Boulevard and 45th Avenue.

My aunts eventually got married and moved out; the younger one to Bayside and the older one stayed on the same block as where my parents lived. My grandma remained with my parents so that she would be able to continue to raise us while my parents worked full-time. Eventually, my grandma moved in with my aunt who lived nearby when she had children. My grandma would continue to raise five grandchildren, all born within seven years of each other, until each of us graduated elementary school. I’ve always admired my grandma and viewed her as a superhero for being able to do that and we thank her by perpetually giving her reasons to be proud.

In 2005, when I just started junior high school, my parents started to search for a house. They finally settled on one in Whitestone and we moved in right before Christmas time. We now live within five blocks from my great aunt who initiated my family’s migration to the United States. My aunts and their respective families also moved into houses, though in Oakland Gardens. My grandma now lives in Bayside, in between Whitestone and Oakland Gardens and within close proximity to all of her children and grandchildren.

Since we are unable to spend as much time together as we used to, my whole family makes it a point to see each other at least once a week. Being raised in a tight knit family and being surrounded by so much support and love provided me with an enormous sense of identity and appreciation.

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Maksim’s Migration Story https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/04/migration-story-2/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/04/migration-story-2/#respond Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:41:12 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=818             The Avrakh family came to America when I was only four months old. We lived in Riga, which is the capital city of Latvia. The country of Latvia had a great amount of anti-semitism that my Jewish family had to endure. We had to go through a lot of religious persecution so we decided to move to the land of many freedoms. When my father was applying for university, the headmaster of his designated school said he would only accept a Jew into his university over his dead body. Once my dad was accepted, he never heard of this headmaster again. We had to go through religious persecutions as well as living in a communist state. There was not much room to succeed in Latvia and my parents knew something had to be done. My parents didn’t want me to go through the same struggles, so they decided that once I was born, we would move the entire family to New York. Why did they choose New York? New York had the largest job market in America, and if you decide to move to this wonderful country, you might as well move to its greatest city.

            My father orchestrated our arrival to the states. My family consisted of two sets of grandparents, my great-grandparents, my parents and myself. We all depended on my father to make the best choices, to get the entire family settled down as fast as possible, and he did all this with a minimal amount of money. When we arrived on July 2, 1993 he went out to get a job at a computer start up company. He was the only one putting food on the table because my grandparents and great-grandparents couldn’t speak the language. My mother started at Hunter College so she could pursue her dream of becoming a nurse, while my dad had to pay for the schooling. My grandparents would receive government benefits and they eventually moved to Brighton Beach because that was the Russian community in Brooklyn and they would finally be able to communicate with people in their native language. I was taken care of mostly by my grandparents and was taught the Russian language so that I could communicate with them. Eventually as I got older, I became their translator; going to doctors with them, translating their aches and pains to the doctor while translating back to Russian what the doctor’s diagnosis was.

            As I started my schooling at the age of 6, my parents moved to the Sheepshead Bay area in Brooklyn because they had some of the best public elementary schools in the borough. My entire family continues to live in Brooklyn because we have come accustomed to taking that same train to work and going to the same Stop and Shop to get our groceries; we are just used to the neighborhood and don’t want to change anything. This mentality really changed when the rent became “too damn high.” Living in Brooklyn is not cheap, and my parents wanted to move into a house once my little brother was born a few years ago. Houses are extremely expensive in the Sheepshead Bay area; therefore my parents started looking at homes in New Jersey because home prices are cheaper. I never wanted to move to New Jersey because it’s too much of a quiet area in comparison to Brooklyn and there just doesn’t seem like there is much to do there. Luckily for me, my parents have stopped looking New Jersey because my brother likes his school here in Brooklyn anpd my parents don’t want to move too far from my grandparents. I don’t know what the future holds for my family, but so far I love living in Brooklyn and couldn’t imagine myself living in any other place.

 

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Michael Harris’s Migration Story https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/04/michael-harriss-migration-story/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/04/michael-harriss-migration-story/#respond Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:01:11 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=816 My family’s migration story to the United States starts in the 1870s, when my mother’s father’s grandmother came to New York City from Austria. This generation of my family grew up in Ridgewood and Bushwick section of Brooklyn. My family has been and still is Jewish, but my mother’s father’s family was largely secular because his neighborhood was mostly Italian, Polish, and Irish, according to my mother.

My grandfather’s family on my mother’s side contrasts strongly with my grandmother’s family, as my grandmother grew up in East New York, surrounded by first and second generation American Jewish families. My grandmother’s mother came to New York City through Ellis Island in 1900 when she was 16, leaving her family behind in Poland and escaping the anti-Semitism that would characterize much of Europe for years to come. My grandmother’s family is not exactly Polish, however – they lived on the border of Poland and Germany. The language that was spoken at home for this generation was Yiddish, indicating significant German influence on my family’s culture, although various family members from this generation were supposed to have known languages other than Yiddish (Polish, Russian, etc.).

My father’s side of the family is as Americanized as my mother’s father’s side. My father’s family grew up in Brooklyn and mixed with the cultures they encountered in their neighborhoods in New York City. Although some basic Jewish tradition was retained in my father’s family, they were not as religious as my grandmother’s family.

My mother’s parents met in the 1940s, married, had two daughters, and moved from Brooklyn to Cambria Heights, Queens in the 1960s, where my mother grew up around American Jewish families, later witnessing integration and racial tension and violence between whites and blacks in her middle and high school. My father’s parents met around this same period and had two sons in Brooklyn, where my father grew up around blacks, Italians, and Jews. My grandmother on my father’s side still lives in the same apartment that she has had for 50 years in Brooklyn, and my grandmother on my mother’s side has lived in Whitestone, Queens for the past 30 years. Most of my extended family now lives in Brooklyn or in several places around the United States.

My parents met in the 1980s, when my father was living in Brooklyn and my mother was living in Queens. They married and moved to what is now a largely Asian neighborhood in Flushing, Queens, where I have lived my whole life.

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Min Jee’s Migration Story https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/01/min-jees-migration-story/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/03/01/min-jees-migration-story/#respond Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:13:57 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=770 Trying to vaguely remember the moment I came to the United States, I don’t think I even remember my parents telling me that we were moving there – possibly because I was only five years old. Leaving the comfortable environment of South Korea, my parents decided to take us to a foreign land filled with opportunities for our sake. After a long 16 hours on the airplane, we finally arrived.

            It would have been hard for my parents to find a house or apartment to live in as soon as we arrived, so we lived at our family friends’ house in Long Island. The only thing I could recollect from our time there is the elder siblings of the household trying to teach me English through workbooks and coloring pages.

            Before September arrived, our family moved to New York. Our cousins from New Jersey helped us find an apartment. The first, and only, neighborhood we resided in was Murray Hill. Our apartment was half of the size of the family house we live in today, and there was a funny smell to it too. My parents also told me the door was so weak and the hinges were rusty that they were scared someone might break in in the middle of the night. The majority of the neighborhood was Asian oriented, so it was easier for my parents to communicate and get around to places.  My father had to get a job as a cashier in a supermarket and my mother obtained a job at a nail salon. As for my sister and I, we went to school for the first time in America.

            Soon after, my parents decided to move to a better neighborhood, for Murray Hill wasn’t the best neighborhood to live in. We moved to Flushing, into a more stable and larger apartment. The neighborhood was still Asian oriented but it was more diverse than the area we’ve lived in before. My father switched his job as a cashier to a truck driver, delivering products between the supermarket and a farm. School was another foreign land within the foreign land my sister and I were already in. The rules were different, the language was different, and the people were different. Luckily, we learned quickly and were able to adapt quickly.

            Years passed, and my sister entered the 6th grade. Already 6 years were spent in that one apartment in Flushing, but it wasn’t long enough. My parents didn’t want my sister to go to the junior high school right next to our apartment because it was known as a bad school. They looked and looked until they found a family house near another junior high school. It was the first family house our family ever lived in so I loved it. I hated using the elevators up to high floors and seeing doors after doors in every hallway. The neighborhood was quiet, unlike the past areas we’ve been in. And another big difference was its diversity. The neighborhood was filled with various ethnics of people. My parents slowly started speaking more English than they used to. They were learning from the work places by interacting with their customers. It took them a while, but we started to become more and more like a Korean-American family, rather than a Korean family.

            Our family moved once again, which is where we live today, and the area is similar to the previous one. I can interact with my parents in both Korean and English, which makes it a lot easier for my sister and I. My father set up his own florist business, which he continues to run today, and my mother as his manager.

It’s been thirteen years since my family and I have came to this country. We didn’t give up all of our own culture, but assimilated our culture with that of New York. The life of being an “immigrant” continues. But I say, we’re now all New Yorkers.

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Kelvin’s Migration Story https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/02/28/kelvins-migration-story/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/02/28/kelvins-migration-story/#respond Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:48:05 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=766 My mom and dad’s families used to live in a small village in China called Taishan. It was only one of the many villages in the province Guangzhou so I wouldn’t be surprised if you never heard of it. However it was home to many of my relatives until they decided to come to America.

In 1984, for a better life and such my mom, her four sisters and my grandparents, they decided to move to America. At first they lived in a one-bedroom apartment where my mom and sisters sleep in bunk beds while my grandparents had to sleep on the couch. Later on they were able to get a house and eventually another house next door.

Some time after my mom moved to America, she went back to China to get married to my dad. Even though they were hemispheres apart, they still loved each other. Finally in 1989, my dad got a visa finally came to America. When my dad was looking for a job, he decided to take up the position of a waiter. The article was telling the truth when they said Asian immigrants are usually employed as waiters.

When my sister was born in 1990, my family was still living in an apartment. Later on, they finally found a house to live in and are still living in it to this day. There have been some changes with the wallpaper and the furniture but it is the house of many good memories.

When I was born, my dad’s parents wanted to see their grandson. They got a visa and ended staying for a year before they moved back to China. For my dad’s parents, life in America did not suit them. They preferred the life they had in China so I didn’t get to see them around 10 years later when my dad, mom, sister and I went to visit them for summer vacation.

Now my dad has around 6 to 7 siblings, all are married, and all have children. They decided life in America would be more prosperous so in December 2006 and September 2007, the families of two of my dad’s siblings decided to move here to improve their lives and their children’s as well. They now live in the house next door, which my family acquired in the early 2000s.                                                    

One of my dad’s siblings moved here with her husband but decided they liked life in China so they moved back, like what my grandma on my dad’s side did years ago. However, my grandma is now living next door as well. The siblings of my dad that moved here were taking care of my grandma in their house in China. My grandpa passed away a few years ago so if even though my grandma didn’t like life here, we couldn’t leave her alone in China.

Even though life in America was not as it seemed to some of my relatives, to me as well others it became home. My mom would tell me stories of how expensive meat was in China and that she would eat it only once a month while here I eat it everyday. Things that I take for granted are all the reasons my relatives decided to come here. Although not all of my relatives got to receive an education here or all the opportunities, those who did receive it are now taking care of the children so they live with what they didn’t in China. Immigration is not for everyone but that is just how life works.

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Raymond’s Migration Story https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/02/28/raymonds-migration-story/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/02/28/raymonds-migration-story/#respond Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:39:25 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=764 I was born in New York City. I have lived here my entire life. However, my parents have not and they immigrated to the United States. My father came to the United States from Taiwan to expand his career. My mother came from China because she married my father. They arrived only a few years before I was born.
My father was a computer programmer in Taiwan. He was working for a company called IBM. During that time period, computers were not common. He helped the company write programs. He grew up in Taiwan his entire life and never though of immigration. His family owned a farm that grew crops and specialized in garlic.
However, my father tried is best in school and studied very hard. Eventually he worked for a computer company called IBM. He worked with the company for many years before he heard about the many opportunities that the United States offers. My father moved to the United States for these opportunities. He bought a house on Long Island and worked for a small banking company.
My mother came from China. She grew up there her entire life. My father was traveling in China when he met her. They decided to get married and have children. My mother moved to the United States only because she was married to my father. My mother wasn’t sure about immigrating to the United States, but my father convinced her that it would be better to start a family there. Since the time she met my father, she moved to the United States. Another factor that helped my mother decide was the fact that my mother’s sister is also in the United States.
My father was given an opportunity to work at a company called Paine Webber. I was already born and my parents decided that we needed to find a larger place to live. We moved to an apartment on Barclay Street in Flushing, Queens. It was a tiny apartment. We didn’t need much room since it was only my parents and myself. My sister was also born two years after I was. Since I was in preschool at that point, my parents have been thinking of my future education. They decided to move to an area with better schooling. We moved to a new house right after I finished preschool. We stayed in this apartment for around four years.
We moved to a house in Oakland Gardens, Queens. It is the same house that I have been living in up until the present day. I started kindergarten at the local public school and continued my education at the schools located near my home. My parents bought the house at that location because they believed that the elementary schools around there provided a better education.
The only other family that I have in the United States is my mother’s sister. She immigrated to the United States before my father did. She moved here because she also heard of the many opportunities. She first immigrated to New York City. She didn’t arrive in the United States with much money. She had to work extremely hard and live in a tiny apartment to support her. Eventually she got married and moved to New Jersey. Then she moved from Parsippany, New Jersey to Millburn, New Jersey so she should provide a better education for her children.
I only have a tiny part of my family that lives in the United States. The rest of my family live in their respective countries. However, my cousin is considering moving to the United States. Hopefully, more of my family will immigrate to the United States.

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Escaping Vietnam https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/02/28/escaping-vietnam/ https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/2012/02/28/escaping-vietnam/#respond Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:12:29 +0000 http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/snyder2012/?p=761             My family’s migration history is a combination of two separate stories. My father and mother immigrated to the United States at different times and places, but their experiences were the same. They both came from Vietnam and faced similar problems on their journey to the United States.

            My mother, Anna , came from the small city of Qui nhon. My grandfather was a doctor and my mother and uncle were students. She grew up in a middle class family, but political circumstances turned her life upside down in 1975. The Communist party of Vietnam grew stronger and oppressive; they shut down my grandparent’s medicinal business and took control of banks, draining any money my family had. This was the push factor that drove my mother out of Vietnam. She escaped Vietnam with my grandparents and uncle to search for a way to get to the United States.

            My father, Hung, grew up in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). His family was relatively poor with over 10 siblings living under one roof. Simliar to my mother, the Communists also tore apart my father’s life. He was drafted into the Communist army in 1975 and was stationed between Cambodia and Thailand. However, my father was a cunning man and somehow escaped from the army when no one was looking. As a penniless young man, his only option was to leave his family behind and get to the United States.

            In the 1970s, the only way for a Vietnamese escapee to get to the United States was to go to a refugee camp and wait for a sponsor to bring them over. My mother went with her family to a camp in Hong Kong. She worked a small job with electrical tools to make pocket money for her stay in the US. My father went alone to a camp in Thailand and spent time working and having fun with his camp mates. After several months, they were able to find sponsors that would house them and introduce them to the new country. My parents both entered the US through Angel Island in San Francisco. My father’s sponsor family flew him to Missouri and my mother ended up in New York.

            Adjusting to the US was a challenge for both of my parents. As refugees, they arrived with no money. My mother went to school in the morning and made a living by stringing jewelry at night. My father, on the other hand, did not go search for a job. His sponsor family let him stay while he attended an ESL program. Immigrating to the US was a harsh experience, but the sponsor program made adjusting to the new cultures a lot easier for my parents. They were lucky to get to the US and receive immense support. Unlike the people who could not escape Vietnam, they had a chance to create a better life.

            In New York, my mother easily adapted to the new surroundings. She was receiving education and maintaining a steady income. However, my grandmother became sick and my mother was forced to quit community college. This was one of the darker times in my family’s history, where my uncle also dropped out of school. My father, after finishing his ESL courses, left his sponsors and traveled around the country looking for a job. He tried states like Louisiana and Texas, but had no luck. He ended up moving to New York to find a job, and possibly a woman to marry.

            The city welcomed them with open arms and gave them opportunities that could not be found elsewhere. My parents met and married each other in 1989. Even after living in the United States for about a decade, money was still an issue. My father did odd jobs like working at a window factory and my mom continued to string pearls until she was able to open her own little jewelry booth in Manhattan. They started their own business from scratch, which is a dream for many immigrants, and was able to provide for their growing family in New York and to aid their poor families in Vietnam.

            My family migration story is similar to other immigrants who came to the US in the 1900s. My parents were pushed to leave their homes due to political reasons and they arrived with hopes of starting a family and making a decent living. They succeeded in moving upward in society and finding a happy life in New York City. 

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