Stories
Immigrant restaurateur gives back to the community through Lebanese cuisine
Gus Sleiman’s family left their homeland in 1989 to escape the Lebanese Civil War, a 15-year conflict that killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced another 900,000 — about one-fifth of the population. Sleiman was 16. The family moved to Michigan then New York and, while visiting a church in… Read More
Lebanese immigrant ensures newcomers have opportunities in Cedar Rapids, IA
When Salma Igram arrived in the United States, she was 18 years old and had never seen a calculator or a hamburger, “let alone a hot dog,” she says. But there she was in her husband’s fast-food restaurant, Jimbo’s, working the griddle and mastering the cash register. “My husband would… Read More
Immigrant credits English language and training opportunities as critical to his success
Tony Golobic jokes that he got his first job in America —cleaning oil-fired boilers —because no one else wanted to do it. “The boilers were red hot, the work was dangerous and dirty,” he says. “But I was making really good money, a lot more money than I ever imagined. Read More
Immigrant Entrepreneur Opens Doors for Innovation and Design in Wayne County
At times during the First Liberian Civil War, young Andreas Browne got on his knees and prayed for the opportunity to live. Now he calls his time in America his “second life.” Browne grew up in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, on Africa’s western coast. His mother moved to… Read More
Immigrant Engineer Driven By a Call to Serve His Country and Community
Kamal AlSawafy was 9 years old when he arrived in Dearborn in 1997. Three years earlier, his family had fled Iraq, where his father, a construction worker, risked imprisonment and torture for his failure to support then-President Saddam Hussein. Now they had been granted refugee status and joined family in… Read More
From Alexandria, Egypt to Charlotte, NC: An Immigrant’s Support for Other International Students Pays Off
Tarek Elshayeb is from Alexandria, Egypt, and came to the United States to attend graduate school at Clemson University in South Carolina. “I was looking for a better education, better work opportunities, a better life in general,” he says. While studying for his master’s degree in human resources, he obtained… Read More
Kenyan Architect Starts Over in Lowell and Finds a Way to Repay the Favor
Anthony Nganga came to the United States in 2004 to join his wife, who had moved to America to earn a master’s degree and was living in Lowell. In Kenya, Nganga had worked as an architect. Now, because foreign professional licenses typically are not recognized in the United States, he… Read More
Escaping Cambodia as a Child, Lowell Resident Uses Business Expertise to Help His Community
Rasy An was about 9 when the Khmer Rouge sent him to a work camp. “I still have scars on my hand,” he says. “I told my daughter: This is something I had to do to survive, because if you couldn’t work they didn’t keep you alive.”… Read More
Des Moines Register: Iowa’s leaders are putting jobs before politics
A fresh class full of bright young engineers, agronomists, plant scientists and other budding technologists just graduated from Iowa State University of Science and Technology. These are the young men and women who will fuel our innovation economy and keep farms and other businesses booming in central Iowa, and there’s… Read More
New Report Shows Immigrants in Roanoke Contributed Over $75 Million in Taxes in 2017
Roanoke, VA – Immigrant households earned nearly $304 million and contributed over $75 million in taxes in 2017, according to new research by New American Economy (NAE) in partnership with the City of Roanoke and Local Colors, a non-profit that celebrates the city’s… Read More
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
