#undocumented

Thank you @uww_prc & @uwwimpact for having me on your campus the past few days visit a class, screen my documentary, and kick-off National #ComingOutDay 2017. I’ve never visited a campus queer center as rad as yours! Thank you for treating me like family and letting me share my coming out story with you all ✨ TL;DR version of my coming out day speech I born intersex, didn’t know until 18, came out as intersex to gf, came out as queer to fam & friends, then came out as intersex to fam friends and world, and recently came out as non-binary, and now coming out as a supporter of #Blacklivesmatter, #Palestine, #Undocumented Folks, #SanctuaryforAll, #NoBordersNoWalls on stolen land, and that 45 is a White Supremacist & coming out is a process like love and it’s never finished ◾️Have a great time at Homecoming you all! thank you again for having me (all photos except selfies were taken and provided by the amazing and uber talented @simplyramz!) .
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#intersexstories #toocutetobebinary #NationalComingOutDay #queer #queeraf #IntersexIsBeautiful #nonbinary #lgbtq #lgbt #lgbtqia #gay #college #collegelife #collegespeaker #campuslife (at UW-Whitewater)

Have you seen our new video? Check it out!

In this video, we highlight three undocumented women who organize in the bay area.

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#Undocumented #Immigration #immigrantart (at San Francisco, California)

Honoring the voices and visions of DACAmented artists and organizers in our struggle to #DefendDACA. We refuse to turn our backs on our friends and families who rely on DACA to work, study, and thrive. Undocumented organizers fought to make it a reality, we’ll fight for it to stay.
Learn more at DefendDACA.com
#HeretoStay #DACA #Undocumented #UndocumentedandUnafraid #MigrationisBeautiful #SocialJustice #ImmigrantRights #MigrantRights

Now is the time artists, culture makers, organizers, and activists rise up to #DefendDACA! DACA has provided nearly 800,000 undocumented youth access to education, work, protection from deportation, and more. We won’t let politicians try to undo the progress we have made without putting up a fight.
Learn more at DefendDACA.com
#HeretoStay #DACA #Undocumented #UndocumentedandUnafraid #MigrationisBeautiful #SocialJustice #ImmigrantRights #MigrantRights

Politicians have threatened to end DACA as early as September 5th. Today, on the 5 year anniversary of the first DACA application, we’re taking a stand, in solidarity with our immigrant communities, to #DefendDACA. Let’s honor and center the voices and visions of DACAmented artists, organizers, and culture makers as they lead this fight.

Visit DefendDACA.com to learn more. #HeretoStay #DACA #Undocumented #UndocumentedandUnafraid #MigrationisBeautiful #SocialJustice #ImmigrantRights #MigrantRights

DACA has provided nearly 800,000 undocumented youth access to jobs, education, protection from deportation, and more. Now, politicians are threatening to take it away. We’re joining thousands of DACA youth and allies across the country TOMORROW to #DefendDACA! Visit DefendDACA.com to learn more. #HeretoStay #DACA #Undocumented #UndocumentedandUnafraid #MigrationisBeautiful #SocialJustice #ImmigrantRights #MigrantRights

DACA has provided nearly 800,000 undocumented youth access to jobs, education, protection from deportation, and more. Now, politicians are threatening to take it away. We’re joining thousands of DACA youth and allies across the country TOMORROW to #DefendDACA! Visit DefendDACA.com to learn more. #HeretoStay #DACA #Undocumented #UndocumentedandUnafraid #MigrationisBeautiful #SocialJustice #ImmigrantRights #MigrantRights

Me: “So, what are you hoping to do after college?”

Jeffrey: “Graphic design. You know…if I can get hired!” (laughs)

I have been undocumented since 2002, the year I left South Korea with my family after the late 90’s financial crisis. My parents began working in a dry cleaning store (a “seh-tak-so”), where my mom was denied pay for at least a month under the excuse of “learning how to do the job.” That year, a lawyer who promised green cards for all of us turned out to be a scam, and we were left undocumented. 

People and society itself refer to me–to us–as a hopeless case. Someone who doesn’t fit in, someone who can’t be heard, and someone who no one sees but a mere shadow. It seems like the only option is to give up, but I will never give up my American dream. Last year I applied for DACA, and I went back to college, hoping to become a doctor someday. That hope is at hold until our leaders in Washington decide. Now, I am coming out from the shadows and I am unafraid. Unafraid to be heard, unafraid to be seen.

I struggled with my English in middle school. I was constantly made fun of because of my lack of vocabulary as well as my inability to respond to conversations. One instance I remember clearly was one of my classmates stabbing me with his pen–I was not able to tell the teacher. I gradually befriended the Webster Dictionary and cartoon characters through those tough years. In high school, I realized my dream was to work in the health field, to become a doctor; thus, I decided to dedicate my time and energy at my community hospital. My status finally hit me when I tried to volunteer at the hospital. I was denied volunteering when I could not provide my social security number in the application. The worst part was the fear–that the hospital would send someone after me.

I graduated from elementary school and middle school without having any idea of being undocumented. Then, my high school years began. During those years, my school decided to enroll some students to take college classes at a nearby college. I was one of those students. I remember how, in the application, there was a part where we had to fill in our social security number. I didn’t know whether or not I had one, until my older sister informed me. Even though I didn’t have a social security number, I never considered myself to be undocumented…until I realized I couldn’t do certain things my other friends where doing, like travel. I couldn’t go visit my grandparents, couldn’t drive, couldn’t get financial aid for college.

By the end of my high school years and the years of college, supposedly the happiest and most memorable times of one’s life, I had nearly broken under the weight of my undocumented status. I lived in this invisible bubble, screaming inside “please, someone save me”.

I lived my early years thinking I was like my peers, an American. I assimilated into this country’s culture, picking up the language quickly without a trace of a Filipino accent. It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year of high school did my life start to fall apart. I found out limitations against me and privileges I would be denied.

It was time for college applications, and I found that I couldn’t apply for financial aid because I didn’t have a social security number. The only way to afford paying for my tuition and to help my parents with their needs was by working hard, and so I did, but unfortunately I couldn’t stay in college, since tuition kept going up. So I decided to keep working and helping my parents pay the bills.

With immigration reform, many like me will be able to achieve their dream of integration, mobility, and safety, not just for DREAMers like myself, but also for people like my father, who was exploited by his employer because of his status. I intend to actively share my stories to encourage more of us to take care of one another, to bridge individual histories and transform them into a collective future.

The Economic and Social Costs of COVID-19

This is the last in this series about Race and COVID-19. Our panel looks at the impact of the pandemic on undocumented migrant workers, whose labour is exploited in Australia. The economy depends upon the work of racialised people, exposing them to high risk through the casualised frontline services that have kept the health system, and other businesses, going during lockdown. At the same time, racialised people are provided inadequate protections against infection, including poor personal protective equipment. Racialised people in general are disproportionately employed in sectors that have the highest rates of Coronavirus, including in hospitals, factories and abattoirs, where they are given little workplace rights, including sick leave. In other cases, migrant workers and international students were left without a safety net when Australia went into lockdown. They were simply told to go home, or else make do without the economic subsidies available to other Australians, even though for many of these migrants, Australia is their home. 

 Our panellists talk about the ‘punitive immigration policies’ which have impacted undocumented workers during the Coronavirus crisis, and how the theory on ‘curated storytelling’ plays out in race dynamics during the pandemic. 

Panellists 

Sanmati Verma is an Accredited Specialist in Immigration Law. She has practiced exclusively in the area of migration law since her admission to practice in 2010. She is a migrant rights activist and immigration lawyer with the United Workers Union and the Migrant Workers Centre. In addition to her practice, Sanmati conducts regular community legal education and training seminars in refugee and migration law. She is currently a member of the Law Institute of Victoria’s ‘Legacy Caseload Working Group’ and was previously the chair of the Refugee Law Reform Committee. Sanmati was nominated for the Law Council of Australia’s award for Young Migration Lawyer of the Year in 2014 and 2015. 

Sujatha Fernandes is a Professor of Political Economy and Sociology at the University of Sydney. Previously she was a Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Fernandes is the author of Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures (Duke University Press, 2006), Who Can Stop the Drums? Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela (Duke University Press, 2010), Close to the Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation (Verso, 2011), and Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling (Oxford University Press, 2017). Her latest book is The Cuban Hustle: Culture, Politics, Everyday Life (Duke University Press, 2020). She is an editorial board member of Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora.SHOW LESS

“Undocumented”
United States
1981