Guy Gunaratne on the ‘Push-Pull of Ancestry and Meaning’ in London By Hope Reese Feature Guy Gunaratne’s Man Booker-longlisted “In Our Mad and Furious City” recognizes multiple, overlapping versions of London and its inhabitants, examining the ways violence can bubble up through the city’s fissures.
Eating to America By Naz Riahi Feature When Naz Riahi was 9, she escaped tragedy in Iran only to be confronted by a cruel new world in America. Food became her solace and her tool for assimilating.
Querida Angelita By Longreads Feature The Mexican teenager who became one Mexican-American family’s maid taught a young woman that el oltro lado, the other side, is as much about class and good fortune as it is an international border.
To Tell the Story, These Journalists Became Part of the Story By Martha Pskowski Feature In two recent books about immigrant families seeking asylum in the U.S., the authors’ attempts to help become part of their subjects’ stories.
When It’s Time to Say Goodbye to the Old House By Siddhartha Mahanta Feature Siddhartha Mahanta looks back at the small suburban starter house in Texas that helped his immigrant father redefine “home.”
How Does It Feel To Be Unwanted? By Longreads Feature And how many times can you start your life all over again from zero? If there’s anyone who knows the answer, it’s Claudia Amaro.
For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors By Laura Esther Wolfson Feature My Soviet husband said we’d need 24-hour day care for any children we might have. Many years and the fall of an empire later, I finally realized why he said it.
Not Quite Not White By Longreads Feature Sharmila Sen grew up understanding distinctions between castes and religions, between the educated and the illiterate. Race was a distinction she didn’t understand until she came to America.
The Horse Was a Lie (The Horse Is Here With Us Now) By Levi Vonk Feature In Mario Chard’s “Land of Fire,” was it the truth or a lie that killed the migrants in the desert? And what if that’s the wrong question? What if we say it was a horse?
A New Citizen Leaves a Lost America By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Journalist Rebecca Mead explains why she first left England for the United States, and why she’s now moving back to a country that isn’t necessarily home.
Why I Lied to Everyone in High School About Knowing Karate By Jabeen Akhtar Feature As a teen, Jabeen Akhtar discovered that trying to be an exceptional immigrant can make you do stupid things.
Silence is a Lonely Country: A Prayer in Twelve Parts By Sadia Hassan Feature A poet reflects on finding her words in the face of injustice.
The Law Is No Place for Ethics By Michelle Weber Highlight The SCOTUS opinion upholding the Muslim ban might not be legally wrong, but shouldn’t the court look at what is just as well as what is legal?
There Are Few Second Chances for Immigrants Who Commit Crimes By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight How America punishes immigrant criminals multiple times for the same crime and continues traumatizing them.
“The Beasts of the Crossing Have Been Pushed Into the Light” By Michelle Weber Highlight Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s Jezebel essay “A Theory of Animals” is a gut punch. Read it.
Frailty, Thy Name Is Immigration Control By Katie Kosma Highlight Quoting Shakespeare isn’t new, but using it in court to fight Trump’s immigration control is.
Andrew O’Hagan on The Grenfell Tower Fire, One Year Later By Krista Stevens Highlight “Everyone who died that night died above the tenth floor.”
Has India’s Booming IT Industry Finally Plateaued? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight India’s once lucrative IT sector now fears it’s glory years are ending as one of its biggest companie starts downsizing.
Politics and Prose By Marie Myung-Ok Lee Feature Marie Myung-Ok Lee finds herself conflicted about attending a controversial author’s reading and wonders: what does “speaking up” actually mean?
The Forever Nomad By Margarita Gokun Silver Feature For an immigrant, losing a home is a given, but Margarita Gokun Silver wonders if never finding one again is also part of the journey.
What If the Price of the American Dream Is Too High? By Michelle Weber Highlight In a blistering essay, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio eviscerates an American Dream that lures migrants with the promise of opportunity, then forces them to live under constant threat.
How Much Would You Endure to Flee Persecution? By Krista Stevens Highlight Now that Europe welcomes migrants no longer, asylum seekers are making nearly impossible journeys through South America to the United States.
Longreads Best of 2017: Local Reporting By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in local reporting.
The Other People in Springfield By Imran Siddiquee Feature Imran Siddiquee considers the ways in which his identities — as a Bangladeshi-American and as a man — were shaped by growing up in the shadow of The Simpsons.
Greece’s Beleaguered Port City By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The violent chipping center of Aspropyrgos, Greece is a microcosm of Europe itself, struggling to benefit from the global economy while protecting its identity.
The True Story of Refugees in an American High School By Longreads Feature The politics of immigration ignores the reality: a classroom of young people adjusting to life in the United States, and a teacher driven to help.
An Interview with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Jason De León By Matt Giles Feature The anthropologist studies the objects left behind by migrants as they cross the border.
On American Identity, the Election, and Family Members Who Support Trump By Nicole Chung Feature Nicole Chung reflects on the burden of engaging with racism and educating white people, including some in her own family.
Growing Up in Rural Washington as a Muslim Immigrant By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Hayat Norimine describes what it was like to grow up as an only child in a Japanese-Syrian household in Pullman, a town in the Palouse region of Washington State.
An Unforgiving Legal System Welcomes Black Immigrants to America By Longreads Feature The Black Alliance for Just Immigration helps those affected by racial profiling and harsh immigration laws.
