Immigrant Squared

Kamini, a child of Indian immigrants, grew up in a predominantly white community in Connecticut, where she struggled to fit in. Her parents worked hard to provide for their family while striving to maintain a balance between their Indian heritage and the American culture their children were growing up in. They supported Kamini and engaged in difficult conversations when she felt different, which greatly benefited her.

Despite feeling different from her peers who attended church on Sundays, Kamini participated in the family tradition of Sunday prayers at home. As a parent herself, she now encourages her children to embrace their multicultural background. Kamini advises investing in people who accept and celebrate cultural diversity.

In her work as a life coach, Kamini emphasizes the importance of self-compassion, kindness over judgment, and recognizing our common humanity. She acknowledges that seeking help is often taboo in immigrant and refugee communities. To make it less daunting, Kamini suggests reframing the idea of seeking help as gaining different perspectives from others who have faced similar situations. This approach empowers individuals to view seeking advice not as a weakness but as an opportunity to learn from others while ultimately making their own choices.

If you want to get in touch with Kamini

During these times when antisemitism is at an all times high worldwide, its important to learn where it all started. In this episode Dr. Vivien Sieber shares her family's struggle during the Holocaust, which led her to write the book, "Kino and Kinder: A Family's Journey in the Shadow of the Holocaust". The book revolves around Paula Ticho's family, who owned a cinema in Vienna until it was forcibly taken over due to Nazi antisemitism. Faced with threats from Hitler's regime, Paula sends her son Peter to England for safety and becomes a matron caring for Jewish girls evacuated from Europe during the war. The book delves into the survivors' experiences, including Paula's son's internment and naval service, and her fight to reclaim ownership of the cinema. It spans locations like Brno, Vienna, London, Newcastle, Windermere, the Isle of Man, and Canada, offering insight into pre-war Central Europe and post-war London. 

Eric is a visionary entrepreneur whose path led him from Vienna, Austria, to Madrid, Spain, and ultimately to the bustling entrepreneurial landscape of Miami, Florida.

Eric's story unfolds with his pivotal role in expanding a consulting firm, a journey that saw him establishing a branch in his hometown and later replicating this success in the United States. As an entrepreneur at heart, Eric ventured into various side businesses before taking the leap into full-time entrepreneurship in April 2023.

The podcast delves into the challenges Eric faced, such as navigating the tumultuous job market in Spain in 2011 and contrasting it with the entrepreneurial-friendly environment of the United States. Eric shares insights into the nuances of starting a business, revealing that, contrary to common belief, legal assistance isn't always imperative, as he discovered while forming a one-member LLC.

One of the podcast's highlights is Eric's perspective on the ease of building a company in the U.S., where fewer regulations provide a conducive environment for innovation. He also reflects on the rich tapestry of cultures within the American entrepreneurial community, which contributed to his seamless integration.

Beyond business success, Eric's company extends its impact globally by not only assisting U.S. companies but also creating job opportunities abroad—a testament to the social consciousness embedded in his firm. 

Collin is a documentary photographer, and a child of immigrants. He is also the author of "Finding American- Stories of Immigration from all 50 States". In this thought-provoking discussion, Colin shares the inspiration behind 'Finding American,' offering a glimpse into the research, personal experiences, and encounters that shaped the book. The 2016 Presidential elections in the US, and the rhetoric that came out about immigrants, concerned Colin. He decided to embark on a journey throughout the US to tell the stories of immigrants.  

Our conversation explores the unique perspectives and stories that Colin discovered along the way from identity and belonging to the rich tapestry of cultures that define the American landscape. In South Dakota, one family from Myanmar moved to work in a Turkey plant. This led to four more families moving, and opening a restaurant. In Alaska, Colin met a mountain climber who moved from Mexico for the snowy mountains of Anchorage. Many people Colin met, immigrated for love.

Listen to the episode for a sneak peek to the stories in the book and the journey of writing it.

Marc grew up in Albania and immigrated to the US when he was 17. Marc came as an exchange student and decided to stay and pursue higher education. After graduating, he got married and worked on several businesses.

Throughout his immigration journey in the US, Marc was on his own and did not have a safety net. At times, he had to sleep outside, he was hungry, and he struggled to combine work with school. He learned the value of making mistakes and learning along the way.

Marc advises other immigrants not to come to the US alone without a support system.

Rony immigrated to Israel from Russia when he was seven years old. He insisted I interview him during the current war in Israel because he needed the distraction. You will hear some pauses as Rony had to run to a bomb shelter in the middle of our interview.  

Rony mentioned that growing up as an immigrant in Israel, he chose to blend in with local society but kept the traditions of his culture of origin through music. Today, Rony is an entrepreneur and has several social initiatives to help immigrants. He believes that when you combine the hard-working attitude of the immigrants from former soviet republics and the Israeli Hi-Tech eco system, good things develop.

Suzy immigrated to the US from Armenia at the age of two. Up until recently, she never thought of herself as an immigrant. Suzy struggled with her sense of belonging between the American and Armenian communities. At times, she was seen as not being American enough or Armenian enough. Now, Suzy embraces both cultures, and she writes poetry about being a multicultural and multilingual child of immigrants.

Check out her poetry and sign up for her newsletter

Instagram: suzyspoet

Golara came to the U.S. 12 years ago on a diversity visa from Iran. Her Masters in Organizational Development at American University helped her understand her journey. She feels at home wherever she goes and embraces her tricultural background. Golara also hosts dinner parties and cooks food from her cultures of origin to feel more connected and authentic.

Golara authored a book called Immigrant: Courage Required which follows her on an average day as she goes about her new life and work. But, in truth, this day is anything but normal as we are immersed in flashback after flashback to her previous life in Iran and the early days of her life in the U.S.

Rocio came to the US two years ago as a refugee due to political persecution in El Salvador, after already being an asylee in the US many years ago during the civil war in El Salvador.

Rocio has been an entrepreneur her entire life, and now she helps female entrepreneurs advance their businesses in El Salvador. As a refugee in the US, Rocio continues to promote her various businesses, such as coffee, shoe, and candy brands.

Follow the entrepreneurs on

Instagram

Anna has covered immigration and refugee stories extensively as a journalist. Throughout her travels, she was struck by the idea of how the papers you hold affect the way that you move through the world. When she moved to Turkey, she fell in love with a Syrian journalist who is now her husband. Together they had to move to Iraq due to immigration issues, and eventually, he was able to get asylum in the UK.

Anna is the author of "Love Across Border," and she gave us a sneak peek into one of the love stories in her book. She documents love stories that have been affected by freedom of movement. You can buy her book anywhere you buy books and follow her on social media.

Amina and Ekaterina shared their respective stories of statelessness. The struggles stateless individuals face, recent developments in policy in the US, and a glimpse of hope for the future with the Stateless Protection Act and the USCIS announcement.

Amina was born and raised in the US. She shared how gender discrimination in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia led him to struggle with being stateless. Ekaterina is part of an ethnic minority in the former Soviet Union and has struggled with statelessness for over 20 years.

To learn more about United Stateless and read about recent developments in the US as well as how climate change affects statelessness:

Maryna was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and immigrated to the US with only 300$ in her pocket. Despite fulfilling her American dream, she still misses her home country, Ukraine.

Maryna is the President of United Help Ukraine, a non-profit organization that was founded in March 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and the war began.

Over a year after the full-fledged attack on Ukraine started in February 2022, the organization continues to work tirelessly to provide supplies and services to the people of Ukraine.

Vanda left Croatia in 1991 during the war and sought refuge in Germany. After she integrated into German society, Vanda joined a political party and became a spokesperson for immigration policy. Helping immigrants and refugees has been top of mind for Vanda, and through networking in Washington DC she met Wendy who has similar goals. Together Vanda and Wendy founded One Journey Festival which is hosted annually on the grounds of the National Cathedral. The festival is a celebration of refugees, its family-friendly, and connects individuals through the common languages of humanity: food, technology, music, arts, and sports.

A fellow two time immigrant, Yelena, shares her journey from Moldova to Israel and then to Australia. Why she has a gap in her memory between the ages of 9-11, and how classic Russian movies helped her.

Yelena's experiences with bullying and suicidal ideation led her to write the book "What's Normal Anyway? The Keys to Unlocking Your Mental Well-Being". The book provides tools to seek professional help and tools to become your own psychologist. We discussed bullying and the stigma that some immigrant communities have around seeking mental help. I also shared my personal bullying story as an immigrant, and how it impacted my life.

Sophia Tupolev-Luz and Ariella Raviv are the Co-founders of The Reboot Startup Nation- A nonprofit organization in Israel helping welcome war-displaced professionals and immigrants into the High-Tech industry.

Ariella grew up in Detroit, Michigan where her American mother and Israeli father lived after they met at a Kibutz in Israel. Ariella met her Israeli husband in the US, and together they moved to Israel for a year and stayed.

Sophia is a three-time immigrant, born in Russia, Immigrated to the US, spent her twenties in Russia, and then immigrated to Israel. Sophia is also helping the new immigrants fleeing Russia and Ukraine to have access to information about financial services and avoid the bumps on the road related to sanctions placed on financial institutions in Ukraine and Russia.

In the wake of the war in Ukraine in 2022 and taking the lessons learned from the 1990 over million immigrants from former Soviet Union, they founded The Reboot Startup Nation. The organization helps Ukrainian refugees and those who fled Russia to become part of the vast high-tech ecosystem in Israel by turning brain drain into brain gain. The platform they created allows anyone in Israeli society to contribute and help displaced professionals, whether it is by setting up Hebrew conversation clubs, establishing a network of mentors, help the high-tech community find the talent, and for the talent to  upscale their experience,  and translate their resume so it is relevant to Israel etc.

Martine was born in Zambia to parents who came from the Democratic Republic of Congo formerly known as Zaire. Martine came on a visitor's visa when she was four years old, and as a teenager she became undocumented. Martine also learned that she was stateless, and spent seven years in deportation proceedings.

Martine wants everyone to be able to connect through immigrants' stories, which is why she wrote her book "Illegal Among Us: A Stateless Woman's Quest for Citizenship"- a personal account of her journey in the US, being stateless, battling for seven years with immigration services, and struggling to discover her identity.

Connect with Martine:

Yasmin was born in Egypt to a Libyan father and an Egyptian mother. She was five years old when her family sought asylum in the US. Since she was born in Egypt and spoke Egyptian she always thought that she was Egyptian, but coming to the US helped her discover her Libyan heritage.

Yasmin was not welcomed by the Libyan community in the US because she spoke Egyptian and felt that she had to become Libyan quickly in order to be accepted. Yasmin preserves her cultures of origin and teaches her kids through celebrations and cooking the food of her people. Her advice for other refugees and asylum seekers is to give locals the benefit of doubt and teach them about your culture by sharing foods and holidays with them. Helping other refugees helps her to feel grounded.

You can find Yasmin on:

Kat came to the US 15 years ago from Eastern Ukraine. Her immigration journey was exciting, but losing her personal and professional network has been the biggest struggle.

Kat shared that the support of friends and colleagues in the US helps her to deal with the feeling of helplessness, being in the US when the majority of her friends and family are in a war zone.

Kat's advice for immigrants is to believe in themselves, educate themselves, and continue to invest in their professional development. Building a reliable support system in the personal and professional worlds is very important.

Kat is happy to provide moral support and help any immigrants with career advice.

On the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, I had the honor to host a fellow immigrant squared and compatriot from Ukraine to talk about her immigration story and the impact of the war on Ukrainians abroad.

Katya was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and when she was eight years old her family immigrated to France. In 1997 Her family immigrated to the US.

In the suburbs of Paris, there was a diverse population from all over the world, but it was hard and isolating not to have friends who spoke her language and came from the same Ukrainian culture. Despite the struggles, Katya considers France her second home after Ukraine.

Immigration as a teenager to the US was very rough. Katya became very Americanized and ended up shedding some of her cultural identity. However, over the past few years Katya rediscovered her Ukrainian culture.

Katya shared how the war in Ukraine changed her life and her identity. In the beginning, she could not function and had to take time off work to jump into action. After 3-6 months, life for many went back to normal in the US, but for Katya, the work continues.

ליליה נולדה בסיביר וגרה בקזחסטן . לילה לא ידעה שהיא עולה לארץ , ואחרי ביקור בחופשת קיץ ואירוע משפחתי טרגי, ליליה ואמא שלה נשארו בארץ.

בגיל שמונה לילה הייתה צריכה להיות חזקה בשביל המשפחה שלה ולהתמודד עם קשיים משל עצמה בבית הספר.

למרות הקשיים עם הזהות והרצון לעקור את כל מה שהיה קשור לרוסיה, ההורים של לילה עזרו לה לשמור על השפה והיום היא קוראת הרבה ברוסית.

.היום לילה חוזרת לשורשים שלה ועושה ארוחת נובי גוד עם החברים הישראלים שלה.

כעורכת דין, כשהיא התמודדה למשרה חדשה, אבא שלה חשש שהיא לא תתקבל בגלל שהיא רוסיה. זה גרם לה להבין את הטראומות שעברו מדור לדור, ולמה היא תמיד מרגישה שהיא צריכה לעבוד קשה מאד ולהיות הכי טובה שאפשר.

דיברנו גם על אנטישמיות שהמשפחות שלנו חוו ועל הבחירה של בן זוג מאותו המוצא ואותה הדת או לא. סיפרתי לילה על ההגירה לארה״ב ואיך יהודים אמריקאים מתייחסים פה לישראלים, ואיך ישראלים מתנהגים אחד לשני בחו״ל.

לילה חושבת שצריך לעשות יותר דברים בבתי הספר כדי ללמד על העלייה מברית במועצות לשעבר. לאוכלוסייה כל כך גדולה יש הרבה כוח והיא צריכה לדבר.

אם תרצו לספר את סיפור העלייה שלכם, אשמח מאד לארח אתכם בפודקאסט שלי

תצרו איתי קשר באימייל, דרך האתר שלי, או באינסטגראם

info@alisadel.com

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow Immigrant Squared, and the Co-Founder and COO of Immigrant Food, Tea Ivanovic.

Tea was born in Belgium to immigrant parents from the former Yugoslavia and came to the US on a tennis scholarship. Tea feels like she is from everywhere but from nowhere at the same time, and calls both Serbia and Belgium home.

Speaking both of her native languages, and cooking family recipes are Tea's ways to preserve her cultures of origin. Tea believes that immigrants are natural entrepreneurs, and the transition to entrepreneurship was very smooth for her. This led her to Co-Found Immigrant Food- a social enterprise food startup with a mission to celebrate immigrants. Tea's advice is to connect with locals and fellow immigrants, help others, expand your network, and create long-lasting friendships.

Elena immigrated from Russia to the US as a teenager with her mother and struggled with getting used to a new culture and norms. Throughout middle school and high school, she tried very hard to fit in, and always felt like an outsider. Joining the swim and softball teams in high school was the turning point when she finally started feeling a sense of community.  While studying at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, VA, Elena met a group of foreign students and realized that it is actually cool to be proud of where you are from. Later in life, when she moved from the US to the UAE, Elena started going back to her roots and wanting to understand and try to preserve the traditions of her culture of origin. Being surrounded by ex-pats in Dubai reinforced her desire to strengthen her culture of origin. 

Elena grew up with a business mindset, and always had side gigs. For a while, she balanced a full-time job with her side businesses. It came to a point where she had to take time off her full-time job to work on her entrepreneurial ventures. Elena enjoys working on several things at the same time, and one day while on vacation she decided its time to jump ship. Elena's company Bessern focuses on performance and well-being in organizations. Her company Bloom Youth is focused on providing mentorship and career development to young people.

Elena's advice for immigrant entrepreneurs is to experiment and understand why is it that you want to be an entrepreneur.

Ianeta is the daughter of Samoan immigrants and an immigrant from New Zealand. She grew up to see the beauty of her blended cultures, and at 17 decided to immigrate to the US via a water polo scholarship at Arizona State University.

After graduating, Ianeta's drive to create opportunities for herself and keep growing kept her away from her family in New Zealand, and she experienced loneliness. Ianeta's turning point was when she decided to make a home wherever she was living.

After spending five years working at Intel managing software products and teams, Ianeta embarked on her entrepreneurship journey.

Her company ExplainDev helps developers to understand and apply code. You install it as an extension on your browser and it answers technical questions with your code as the main subject of the answers. Ianeta is on a mission to connect developers and help them upskill.

Nikki is an industrial organizational psychologist and the daughter of Mexican immigrants. During high school, Nikki felt like an outsider due to cultural differences, but her six very resilient aunts and strong mother empowered her to embrace her uniqueness. During her Ph.D. program, Nikki discovered inequities in the Venture Capital field and decided to help VCs to make the right choices based on people's qualifications and not their network. This led her to start an entrepreneurial venture Blackhawke Behavior Science.

The company works with solo founders and startup teams to help them build diverse companies and effective teams with a strong culture. Blackhawke also provides tools, resources, insights, and assessments for Venture Capitalists to help them make unbiased decisions.

If you would like to take the personality assessment that can help you become a better entrepreneur, we have a promo code that will give you 25% off. The assessment comes with a guidebook that will help you become an entrepreneurial leader. Email us at info@alisadel.com or send us a message on Instagram @alisadel_ for a link to the assessment and a promo code.

Jen was born in Canada, and for the first few years in the US, she was undocumented. Jen never felt like an outsider and thanks to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 she was able to get her green card.

She spent 15 years as a college volleyball coach and realized that race in sports is not talked about in the way she wanted. So she decided to leave and founded her first company, Jen Fry Talks- a social justice firm that addresses diversity equity conflict, and inclusion.

In May of 2022, Jen started a group travel application called Coordle. Her journey with this venture forced her to learn about the technology world quickly.

If you are looking to hire someone to talk about diversity and inclusion or conflict, please reach out to Jen bookings@jenfrytalks.com  

Alexandra is a child of immigrants that escaped a dictatorship in Haiti and started a new life in Canada. Despite having to conform to different household rules than her peers, such as not being able to participate in sleepovers, Alexandra learned resilience and grit from her parents, which she leans into during hard times in her life. 

While she had a very good and comfortable life in Canada, Alexandra aspired for a change. A serendipitous moment and a post on LinkedIn led her to move to San Francisco to pursue her American dream. During the pandemic, Alexandra realized that a 9-5 is not enough to fulfill all of her dreams, and she embarked on an entrepreneurship journey. Combining an entrepreneurship career with a full-time job allows her the flexibility to step away when it becomes draining and go all in when she feels energized.

If you are an entrepreneur and have any finance questions or know someone who does, please reach out to Alexandra

Nejat grew up in Eritrea and moved to Ethiopia when she was in high school. She later came to the US to pursue a Master's degree. Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs with eight siblings, the most difficult part of her immigration journey was being away from family. Luckily she found a community among other international students at her university.

Nejat believes that if she is truly going to be fulfilled with her life, whenever she sees something that needs change, she is going to fully participate and make a change. This is the mindset that led her to her current business, a combination of her two dreams education and entrepreneurship.

Today Nejat is the CEO of NBAC, an academy for leaders and managers. Nejat offers training for new managers as well as self-leadership and managing up courses.

Simone is a child of Ethiopian immigrants and a comedian in Washington DC. Growing up he struggled with his identity being Ethiopian at home and American outside. Now as a father, he teaches his child to embrace her multicultural identity. Simone believes that comedy can bring people together across cultures. His new storytelling comedy album is coming out soon where he shares a dating story about how he broke up with a spy.

I had the pleasure of hosting Will, the President and Co-Founder of KAMA DC. KAMA DC is a volunteer-run non-profit organization that allows immigrants in the Washington DC area to share their skills, stories, and experiences.KAMA is based on a model that started in Austria in 2008 to showcase the skills that immigrants bring with them to their new communities.

Will is also an immigrant from the UK. He shared why he resisted the label of immigrant, how he finally embraced it, and why being in the DC area helped him come to terms with his sexuality.