Chicago's Generation 1.5 Immigrants

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Kalyn Belsha/MEDILL

 

Chicago is a global city. Even more, it’s a hub for dozens of global communities and about 1.5 million immigrants, more than half of whom live in the suburbs with their families. That statistic, eye-opening as it is, accounts for first-generation immigrants only; those who were born outside the United States and migrated here. It does not consider the second-generation; those who are sometimes called immigrants, though they may not think of themselves as such, who were born in the United States of an immigrant parent.

 

This project is for those in between – Generation 1.5 immigrants who were born outside the United States but who came here before or during their early teens. They bring something of back home, they tend to be bi-cultural or multi-cultural, they speak English better than their parents and for them, the United States, and in this case Chicago, is as likely to feel like their home as is their country of origin.

 

These stories are for them:

With an estimated 5.5 million children living in the U.S. who have parents who are in the country illegally, the immigrant reform movement focuses on the trauma caused by separating families.

Azita Mojarad was 13 years old in 1978 when she and her parents left their home in Tehran for Chicago. Follow her on her odyssey through immigration channels as she abandons Chicago to avoid deporation, flees from Iran again, this time on foot and horseback to Turkey, moves to Sweden from where she left under a false Italian passport to get into West Germany, then into Austria, much of the time as an illegal immigrant. Liz Hoffman catches up with her in Chicago where she is an immigration lawyer helping others navigate the vagaries of international migration.

For Gabriela, life in the United States hasn't turned out the way she expected. After crossing the U.S.-Mexican border illegally, things went downhill quickly. In a year, her husband was deported to Mexico and she lost her apartment in a Little Village fire -- all while she was pregnant.

Chicago and some 80 other municipalities have sanctuary laws that are intended to make life more secure for the city's immigrant communities. CookCounty has one too. Alex Keefe looks into how protective they really are and exposes why they work only to a point.

Documents have become a gatekeeper to living and working in the United States. Liz Hoffman reports on the importance of having papers, and the commerce that's developed to serve it.

Follow one woman on a journey of two conversions -- from Catholicism to Islam and from Mexican to Pakistani-style cooking.

Follow one woman as she goes through the process of getting a green card for her husband, an immigrant from India, in the U.S. on a high-skilled worker visa.

Since moving to Chicago in 1985 from Michoacan, Mexico, Hector Duarte has fused the Mexican Mural tradition with the American Barrio Mural Movement to create a cityscape all his own. The beneficiary is Chicago, and the people who come and go and take the time to look around. Join Dante Mozie in the tour he took with Duarte.

Some youth soccer coaches want to use the sport as a way to help foreign-born and second-generation youth grow up to be successful. They find, however, that economics, culture and other immigration-related issues make the task a little bit harder.

The glistening five-story building at 101 W. Congress Pkwy. in Chicago is home to the Department of Homeland Security's immigration offices and courts. As Liz Hoffman reports, it's also the home far away from home for immigrant detainees whose deportation cases are heard there using videoconferencing that has them trying to penetrate the legal process from miles away.

Not all Americans meet immigrants with open arms, especially if they’re undocumented. Chris Linden reports on those who want to curb the millions of illegal immigrants pouring across the border and the echoes of opposition throughout Chicago’s long immigration history.

Amid plans from the Obama administration to address a potential path toward legalization for illegal immigrants, Chicago Latino organizers are taking new approaches to demand reform. Though the movement may be fragmented, Kalyn Belsha reports it's also teeming with ideas and hope. 

Mohammad's story of immigration to the United States and Rogers Park is not one of economic opportunity or escape. Meribah Knight reports that it's a simple story of a brother helping his sister.

Sofia Zavala, who considers herself a second-generation Mexican immigrant, is not your usual high school counter-recruitment activist. For one, she hopes to join the military.

The presence of JROTC programs in the Chicago Public Schools is a continuing issue of controversy, especially among the city's immigrant communities. Yana Kunichoff convened a group of students to discuss the pros and cons.

Public art follows the immigrants who move into a community. But when communities change, what comes of the art? Dante Mozie explores some of Chicago’s more recent clashes over gentrification.

Some coaches promote certain international soccer styles while others believe it’s nothing more than a marketing ploy.

WashingtonPark is the planned site for Chicago's Olympic Stadium, a part of the city's 2016 Olympic bid. It's also a home for the Midwestern Cricket Conference and hundreds of local cricketers who play every weekend during the summer. H. Jose Bosch paid a visit to learn more about the game and its allure.

Stories of immigration come from all places and in many forms and textures. Dante Mozie reports on how quilting is taking a place in the passing of stories from generation to generation.

Chicago has long been a home to immigrant groups. Check out this timeline of some of the major groups to settle in Chicago and highlights where they settled.

We speak with an expert on immigration and minority politics to see what lies behind some of the most common immigrant myths.

A ruling from Attorney General Eric Holder earlier this month has both sides of the immigration debate talking. Though the decision was narrow -- simply vacating an earlier decision by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey -- it has people again talking about what rights immigrants are guaranteed in court -- and what the Obama administration might have in store.

It was a late January afternoon in 2001 when Tian Shuai, a 20-year-old dancer with China’s Guang Zhou ballet company, decided once and for all that he was not going back to China. Meribah Knight follows his story from defection to the 55th floor above Lake Shore Drive.

Students visit the Miller Family Youth Exhibition at the newly opened IllinoisHolocaustMuseum and EducationCenter in Skokie, IL. The space, designed for children aged eight to 11, uses state-of-the-art technology, interactive stations and a park-like setting to offer an experiential approach to lessons of tolerance and responsible citizenship.

This year the children came first. On April 30, 2009, the evening before the May Day rally in Chicago, children marched to express their innocent hope for immigration reform that would keep their families from being separated. Nirvana Bhatia filed this audio slideshow.

What's it mean to be an immigrant in America? Nirvana Bhatia files this first person account on seeking a delicate balance between homes.

If there are violations of the city's and county's sanctuary laws by law enforcement authorities who've overstepped the line, you'd never know it from any records of prosecutions or discipline.

CPS, the Chicago Public Schools is the largest JROTC program both in number of cadets and total programs, with 9,000 cadets in 63 schools across the city. There's more.

 

 

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