This episode of Immigrants' Journeys is a little different than previous episodes. My guest on this episode is Kevin Gregg an immigration attorney. I wanted to learn more about the immigration process. So I reached out to Kevin who hosts his own podcast called Immigration Review. Check it out. Listen for some basic education on immigration status an related paths.

In this episode, Nick is forced to flee Venezuela, with his wife and daughter to escape political persecution. He leaves his house, his career in the media, his parents, his extended family and friends to start a new life in the United States. There, he learns English quickly ends up starting his own business and starts living the American dream. Listen to hear Nick's attitude and how it has carried him through this new chapter in his life.

In this episode, Popi or Kelly as she's known in the U S, talks about the influence her Greek parents had on her growing up in Astoria, New York. At the age of nine Kelly and her family moved to Greece where she grew up and spent most of her adult life. However, the economic crisis in Greece, starting around 2010, led to Kelly repatriating to the United States at the age of 47. She's learned a lot going back and forth between both countries.

In this episode, Anuja leaves Sri Lanka at the age of 20 to escape civil unrest. She recounts how her family narrowly escaped having their house burned down. Many years later, Anuja talks about how living in the U S has allowed her to meet people from all over the world. Her view of being an immigrant is one of embracing the country in which you currently live. She feels that being an immigrant is a privileged position since one has the opportunity to appreciate both cultures. Similar to other episodes, we get into food music and what it was like for Anuja growing up in her home country.

As a young man Taoufik leaves Casablanca and heads to the United States to attend college. His helpful nature, which he attributes in great part to Moroccan culture, has helped him in his career as a product manager in this software as a service industry.

Growing up multilingual, including learning Moroccan, standard, Arabic, French, and English, has allowed him to better understand people, their needs, and how he can design systems to address their pain points. In this episode, Taoufik shares some observations regarding the differences between Morocco in the United States.

To learn more about this show, visit www.ImmigrantsJourneys.fm

I invite you to listen to Taoufik's immigrant journey.

Magie is a serial ex-pat. Having grown up in the US, she did her first study abroad at the age of 16. That planted the seed for multiple immigrant journeys, primarily to the German speaking world, but also French speaking, Switzerland and Northern Africa. She's currently living in Vienna with her German husband, about to transition back to the US. As a professor at the Business and Economics University in Vienna, she teaches informatics, but is primarily a researcher focusing on how people interact with information systems.

I invite you to listen to Magie's immigrant journey.

Having immigrant parents myself, I can relate to Martin's story. Martin grew up in the US. His mother was from Germany and his father grew up in the US in a Hungarian household.He talks about how they influenced his interest in language, which lead to moving to Germany and Estonia. I went to college with Martin in Germany, so we also reminisce our adventures a little bit.

To learn more about this show, visit www.ImmigrantsJourneys.fm

Listent to Martin's immigrant journey.

This episode is part of a mini series in which I interview different members of the same family.

Freesia was born in French Guiana and moved to the US when she was about 3. At 18, she leaves Western Pennsylvania and moves to Quebec Canada for college. Ironically, growing up speaking French at home, didn't make the transition to Quebec as easy as she thought it would have. When she accepted Québécois as being a different language from French, it allowed her to master it. Six years after having moved to Montreal, she's completed her master's in chemistry and is planning the next phase of her life. 

To learn more about this show, visit www.ImmigrantsJourneys.fm

Llisten to Freesia's immigrant journey.