Lives of Immigrants and Refugees

Leirion Gaylor Baird is the mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska.Matthew F. Bokovoy is a senior acquisitions editor at the University of Nebraska Press, specializing in Native American and Indigenous studies, general nonfiction of the American West, and borderlands history. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the American Planning Association, New Mexico Historical Review, and Reviews in American History. He is the author of The San Diego World's Fairs and Southwestern Memory, 1880–1940.Lisa Guill is communications director at the Asian Community and Cultural Center. She is also the Welcoming Communities coordinator at Cultural Centers of Lincoln.Michelle Carr Hassler is professor emerita of journalism at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She was a newspaper reporter for sixteen years in Colorado, Arizona, and Nebraska. Hassler has received nine national teaching awards, most from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication-refereed competitions and her students have won national and regional awards, including the 2023 Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Digital Reporting. Hassler has received grants from the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and Knight Foundation. She was executive director of the Nebraska High School Press Association and received the R. Neale Copple Friend of Journalism Award in 2019.Joy Castro is Willa Cather Professor of English and Ethnic Studies and director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is the author of the memoir The Truth Book (Nebraska, 2012), the essay collection Island of Bones (Nebraska, 2012), the fiction collection How Winter Began (Nebraska, 2015), and the literary thrillers Hell or High Water, Nearer Home, Flight Risk, and One Brilliant Flame. She edited Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family (Nebraska, 2013), and serves as the founding editor of Machete, a series in innovative creative nonfiction by underrepresented voices at Ohio State University Press.Emira Ibrahimpašić is associate professor of practice in School of Global Integrative Studies and Women's and Gender Studies at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her research articles have appeared in Translocal: Contemporary Local and Urban Cultures Journal, Island Studies Journal, and CAPA: The Global Education Network Academic Publications.

"This important collection brings together academics and the Lincoln community to tell about how communities thrive as a result of immigration and change. These stories will make you cry and swell with compassion as you read the harrowing stories of trauma, resilience, and triumph directly from the pens of those who have lived through these adventures. These are American stories that reflect the bedrock notion that the United States, Nebraska, and Lincoln in particular have always been places that embrace immigrants from all over the world who come seeking a home to start a new life and become part of our community."—María E. Montoya, coauthor of Global Americans: A History of the United States"This important work chronicles how Lincoln, Nebraska's, residents have created a welcoming haven for the world's tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe freely. Recounting in first-hand narratives their past victimization, these women and men simultaneously celebrate how Lincoln has incorporated them into the body politic. In this moment of harrowing national peril, here is a powerful paradigm for welcoming strangers."—Ramón A. Gutiérrez, author of New Mexico's Moses: Reies López Tijerina and the Religious Origins of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement "This book is a remarkable creative accomplishment. Beyond the sheer poignancy and power of the individual stories, The Lives of Immigrants and Refugees is a testament to the ways in which municipal policy can and should intersect with public-facing scholarly work. Lincoln, Nebraska, can take a big measure of pride in the publication of this book for the ways it honors not only its immigrant and refugee neighbors but also the work of welcoming, supporting, and learning from them all."—William Deverell, professor of history and codirector of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

• Foreword: Leirion Gaylor Baird–Mayor of Lincoln, NebraskaPreface: Joy Castro, Matthew F. Bokovoy, Lisa Guill, and Michelle Carr HasslerIntroduction: Emira Ibrahimpašić and Julia ReillyChapter 1: Khamisa Abdalla, Anne: Queen of the Nuba MountainsChapter 2: Sadaqat Abdulrahimzai, Rising from the Ashes: An Afghan's Tale of Loss and LeadershipChapter 3: Alina, A New Beginning Across the Ocean: My JourneyChapter 4: Lin Aung, From War to Welcome: My Journey to LincolnChapter 5: Wensi Cui, Breaking Free: My High School MusicalChapter 6: Helen Abdali Soosan Fagan, CommUNITY: Cultivating Belonging in a New LandChapter 7: Shahad Kheder, My StoryChapter 8: Yazen Kheder, My StoryChapter 9: Tatiana Vodolazskiy, My StoryChapter 10: Paw Kyet, Finding Home in Lincoln: A Journey from the ShadowsChapter 11: Fariha Mohamand, A Journey of Purpose: From Newcomer to NavigatorChapter 12: Htee Moo, From War's Shadow to the Light of LincolnChapter 13: Ta Moo, My StoryChapter 14: Mariana Muñoz de Schell, Neither from here nor from thereChapter 15: Thuy Ngoc Ho, Unbreakable Spirit and HopeChapter 16: Kimngan Nguyen, My Family StoryChapter 17: Phanomvan Pongdara, A Journey to the American DreamChapter 18: Sajia Qasemi, The Bitter Farewell, the Sweet HarvestChapter 19: Rebecca Reinhardt, Finding Home Across the GlobeChapter 20: Oscar Rios Pohirieth, Fragments of a Dream–The Story of a Past, a Present and a FutureChapter 21: Roy Lenin Rivera Barcenas, In Searching for Myself, I Found the American DreamChapter 22: Sandra Rojo, My StoryChapter 23: Suu Sanar, InterviewChapter 24: Raul Sarmiento, My StoryChapter 25: Nikta Shariati, The Persian ImmigrantChapter 26: Leshan Darius Taruru, From Maasai to Emergency Management: A Global Journey of Culture, Safety, and ServiceChapter 27: Eh Ta Taw, Journey to a New WorldChapter 28: Camila Vargas, A Modern-Day HeartbreakChapter 29: Amir Waly, Strangers in Mesopotamia: Feeling Home in Lincoln NebraskaChapter 30: Gina Wei, Between Ruins and Renewal:Shadows of a Borrowed LifeChapter 31: Etza Wong, My Life: Without Fear, Without Lies–Biography of a Trans WomanAbout the EditorsContributors Section/Biographies