THE FORUM

JUNE 2021 EDITION

 

 

Happy Immigrant Heritage Month! Throughout June, we honor and celebrate
the immigrants, current and past, who made the journey to the United
States and contribute to our nation's wellbeing. In this edition of

**The Forum**, we highlight the immigrant stories of our staff and
program participants. Read on for more!

 

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Stories of success in the workplace

The Forum's English at Work program teaches customized English and
digital literacy skills for limited-English-proficient employees to
better interact with customers and increase their career and
earning potential.

English at Work Participant Spotlight

**What's your name?** Inocente

**Why did you immigrate to the U.S.?** To get a job that would allow me
to provide for my family.

**How has the English at Work impacted you?** The program has boosted my
confidence not only at work but in my personal life, like reaching out
to my children's teachers with questions or navigating doctor
appointments.

Read Inocente's full story here.

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We're excited to celebrate our 5-year anniversary with Whole Foods!
Through this partnership, we've helped employees like Inocente gain
the language skills needed to succeed. Learn more about our English at
Work program here.

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"The diversity of our teams is of utmost importance for our future
growth, and we are committed to creating opportunities for our team
members that will allow them to grow."
-Richard Goss, Whole Foods Market, Executive Leader of Operations for
the Northeast Region

 

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Making this country a home

Per recent DHS estimates, about 9.2 million of the 13.6 million
green-card holders residing in the United States on January 1, 2019,
were eligible to naturalize. Since 2013, the Forum has worked with some
of the nation's largest employers to address this need. Learn more
about our citizenship assistance program here.

Forum Citizenship Services Participant Spotlight

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**What's your name?** Bernadine

**Why did you immigrate to the U.S.?** To get a college education! I
studied at Trinity University and majored in Information Technology
Systems and minored in Economics.

**How has the New American Workforce program impacted you?** This
program walked me through the naturalization process and gave me the
financial resources I needed to finally become a citizen. I was able to
vote for the first time in over 30 years living in this country!

Read Bernadine's full story here.

You can support the National Immigration Forum's programs that help
immigrants like Inocente and Bernadine reach their American dreams.

 

DONATE NOW

 

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Staff Spotlight

Immigration is our passion here at the National Immigration Forum, and
many of our staff got inspired to do this work from their own
immigration stories. Get to know a little bit more about two members of
our staff here. Afterward, head over to our Twitter to read more staff
stories.

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**What's your name?**Danilo Zak

**What do you do at the Forum?** I'm the Senior Policy and Advocacy
Associate, focusing on asylum, border, and legal immigration issues.

**What's your immigration story?** My paternal grandparents fled
Poland during the Holocaust and had my dad while on the run in
Uzbekistan. Eventually, they made it to New York in the 1950s. My mom
was born in Japan and lived in India for a while before her parents
decided to come to the U.S. for work and to continue to raise their
family. I think a lot about how it was fairly easy for my mom's family
to move from country to country, but for my dad's family, it was about
life or death.

Learn more about Danilo and his work at the Forum here.

 

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**What's your name?**Helena Coric

**What do you do at the Forum?** I manage the New American Workforce
citizenship program, working with the country's leading corporations
and municipalities to support immigrant integration.

**What's your immigration story?** I was born in Croatia and came to
the US with my mom in the 90s during the breakup of Yugoslavia. Watching
my mom navigate immigration courts and USCIS offices alone for nearly 15
years showed me the strength and resilience it took to
be an immigrant.

Click here to learn more about Helena and her work at the Forum.

 

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Want even more immigrant stories?

Check out our latest **Only in America** podcast series
 where we share what it's like to
come to the US-and what our nation's immigrant heritage means for
the American identity.

 

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Thank you for reading The Forum. If you like what you see here, send us
an email at [email protected]
. Or, feel free to forward it
to your friends and family!

 

 

DONATE

 

**Follow Us**

 

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The

**Only in America** podcast brings you to the people behind our
nation's immigration debate.

 

Listen now on:

 

**iTunes**
,
**Stitcher**
,
**Spotify** ,
and **more.**

 

 

National Immigration Forum

10 G Street NE, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20002

www.immigrationforum.org

 

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