11 Kids Books About Immigration and the Refugee Crisis - How to Talk to Your About Immigration and Refugees
Like so many of us, my American story is an immigrant one. My dad, came to this country eager to try his luck; my mom came as a brand new bride, unsure of a new land where she neither looked nor sounded like her neighbors. Their story has a happy ending: from Bombay to the ‘burbs of New Jersey, kids, houses, Sunday temple trips followed by pizza nights.
I’m textbook New Jersey: brassy, ballsy, and all about that Boss. But among the many titles I wear proudly—mother, editor, pediatric cancer crusader, friend, and Jersey girl—first-generation American tops that list. It speaks to the idea that I get to be American because my parents took a chance, risking it all to build something better. It tells you that they were tough enough to leave all they knew to start again.
It’s important, in between her toddler yoga lessons and Thursday sushi nights, that Satya, my 3-year-old sassbucket of a daughter, knows her second-generation privilege was built directly on her grandparents’ immigrant dreams. America has given my parents and in-laws, my husband and myself, the opportunity to thrive. So it matters that she’s aware, right from the beginning, that Americans come in different colors and faiths, with different accents and backstories. We wear turbans and hijabs, yarmulkes and baseball hats. And that this America is as much hers as it is it the kids who are fleeing Syria for a second chance.