Anneli | Germany | 2014
I am from East Berlin. I grew up behind the wall. The only things I knew about the United States was what I saw in movies and on TV. I was taught that the US was the enemy. I knew that I would never travel there. When the wall came down in 1989.
In 2007, I met my future wife at the Berlinale Film Festival. We fell in love and wanted to get married.
But, due to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied same-sex marriage on a federal level, there was no way for me to be with her in the United States. We carried on a long-distance relationship for seven years.
In 2013, DOMA was struck down. We hired a lawyer. It took a full year for me to be able to immigrate.
We were married in Boston, MA, at City Hall in 2014.
We moved to Saint Petersburg, Florida. We bought a house and have a community of friends.
We have officially spent more years together than apart. Back to THREADS
Asma | Jordan | 2017
I moved to the USA in 2017 with my husband Ziad. Moving to the US was a dream for me. I didn't know that dream would come true.
A nice thing happened accidentally. My Jordanian friend who lives in the USA introduced me to a man as my Facebook friend. I accepted his friend request. I had no idea about what was in his mind. I also had no idea he was living in the USA.
He started to ask me about myself. Then he made it clear and asked me directly he wanted to have a relationship with a lady from his culture. I accepted that.
I spent time to know everything about him.
Then he asked me if I'm ok to come live with him in the USA. This was a great surprise.
We got married. I started my new life in the USA in 2017.
Here I am now — living with my fantastic husband. I love him very much for over five years.
My dream came true in a good way; I never thought life would be like this. Back to THREADS
Nargis | India | 2017
Nargis moved to the US in 2017 at age 30. She filed for her green card in 2016 — two years into her intercultural, inter-religious marriage.
At the time she arrived in the US, her son was eighteen months old.
She came with no relatives, having only visited America twice.
She did not know English, how to drive a car, ride a bike, and rarely traveled.
She is now a US citizen with a loving husband, two kids, drives a car, and works part-time. Back to THREADS
Carla | Brazil | 1989
Carla was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She immigrated to the US in 1989. She is a retired attorney who has lived on four continents and several American cities before settling in St. Louis in 2011.
She loves the peacefulness of her home in Chesterfield. She enjoys painting, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends. Back to THREADS
Henryck | Great Britain | 1999
I came here in 1999 from Great Britain. I met my wife two years earlier. We decided that it would make sense if I joined her in America. Best decision I ever made. We have two boys. I am a full-time artist. Back to THREADS
Maria | Venezuela | 1975
Life in Venezuela reflected fluctuating periods of stability. During the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez, my family suffered hardship. My grandfather, a wealthy restaurant owner, was falsely accused of being a communist. He was sent to prison. He lost all his wealth.
During my childhood, Venezuela had a stable democratic government and a strong oil economy.
My oldest brother had an American business partner that lived in NY. I was introduced to his son Tony when visiting my family on Long Island. A year later we married in Caracas. We moved to NY in 1975.
My transition to America was generally easy since we moved with Tony's parents.
In retrospect, my mother supported my move to the USA because it was a promise of a stable life. She was afraid Venezuela would deteriorate again.
Hugo Chavez became president in 1999. That was the beginning of the major exodus of my family and friends all over the world!
There are many members of my family who cannot leave Venezuela because they cannot sell their homes. They are living with a lack of safety, medicines, essentials, and general food items. Back to THREADS
Anna | Hungary | 1949
I was born in Debrecen, Hungary, in 1930. The painting depicts my journey across the Atlantic, on board the artillery transport ship the USS General C.C. Ballou. It was October of 1949, and I was late for the start of the Fall semester at Stephens College, which had granted me a scholarship to study Fashion Design.
When my parents, sister and I fled Hungary by train five years earlier, we ended up in a small farming community outside of Salzburg, Austria, where we lived as refugees. I began high school in Salzburg, but because of the war, I was already a year behind in my schooling. I also didn’t speak German. I worked hard to learn the language, along with Latin, French, and English, among the other classes I took as part of the curriculum.
The scholarship that Stephens granted me was “to a student studying in a language other than their native language.”
After graduating from Stephens, I worked in the garment district in St. Louis as a patternmaker at two different dress manufacturers. I was fortunate to meet another Hungarian immigrant, Joseph, in 1952, at a Hungarian social group gathering in Clayton. We soon became sweethearts, husband and wife, and in short order, parents. We worked hard and became members of the neighborhood, school, church, sports, and social community, while also staying close to the Hungarian community through St. Mary of Victories Church/St. Stephen of Hungary Parish, AKA “The Hungarian Church.”
I am grateful for the opportunities that the United States has given to my family and me for nearly 75 years, since landing in the port of New York and boarding that train to Columbia, Missouri. Back to THREADS
Madhura | India | 2013
I followed my husband to Miami in 2013 after finishing my ophthalmology residency training in New Delhi, India. My husband, Sakil, was doing his pediatrics residency training in Miami. We were married in 2011. We lived in two different cities. We were reunited in Miami. I had to retrain in Internal Medicine. I grew up in rural India in a small town called Karad. Back to THREADS
Georgina | United Kingdom | 1955
She left the Scottish coastal town of Ayr at the age of 19 to marry my father. She chose to keep her UK citizenship. Just like many immigrants, her home was in both places.
She passed away recently but a portion of her ashes will return to her hometown.
She worked while my dad went through college to get his PhD. She raised four children, two grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. The photo [from which the painting was made] has the stamp of her passport. Back to THREADS
Mayela | Costa Rica | 1986
I was born and raised in Costa Rica. I moved to the U.S. in 1986. I was 36 years old, divorced with three children (13, 12, and 11 years old).
I was working in Costa Rica for an international agricultural company whose headquarters were in Des Moines, IA. After working for 5 years, they offered me a job at their headquarters. This was a great opportunity. I was able to grow professionally. I was able to give my children an education and exposure to a different culture. It was easy to make the decision to accept the new position in Iowa.
My children are all successful in their careers and have families of their own. They currently live in Iowa, Texas, and South Dakota. Back to THREADS
Diviane | DRC | 2012
Diviane was adopted from a small orphanage in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the age of two. She was completely French-speaking and became fluent in English in two months. She is now a happy Congolese-American middle schooler in a loving family who loves fashion, dance, and laughing with her friends.
There are millions of children living as orphans in Congo due to the longstanding political unrest, which is so very sad. Back to THREADS
Luisa | Colombia | 2001
I had a son that needed proper medical care and diagnosis. I sold everything. I came to the US in October 2001. It was scary to come. In 2009, I got citizenship. Back to THREADS
Maria | Mexico | 1996
Maria came to the US from Mexico thirty years ago. She married and has two sons. She works hard and is a kind, wonderful woman. Back to THREADS
Agnes | France | 1990
As far as I can remember it was always my dream to move to America.
On July 1990, I landed in San Francisco. I had a job, no connection. My dream was alive. Everywhere I went, I felt like I was walking in a movie set.
I have to admit that the American fantasy was not the daily reality I encountered.
Becoming a US citizen wasn't without its challenges, but I was privileged. I had a "high demand" diploma.
Today, I do feel this is my country. I have spent most of my life here. I was fortunate to live all around the United States.
Like most immigrants, no matter how we feel about living the dream here, as soon as we open our mouths we are reminded that we are still foreigners. We don't quite belong here and we don't belong there either. Back to THREADS