WE ARE: A Nation of Immigrants - New Haven 2018
The Participants
Bushrah
Iraq
Portrait Location:
New Haven Green A14
Current occupation: Seamstress
Arrival in the US: 2014
Reason for migration: My husband was shot because my son was working for the United States and the Iraqi militia didn’t like that. We were no longer safe.
Commentary: After my husband was shot – thank God he survived – we decided to leave Iraq. With the help of the IOM (International Organization for Migration), I moved to Jordan with my husband and four children. We lived in Jordan for one year and five months until we got a call telling us when we would travel to the United States. I was so happy to come because my family is safe here. If we had stayed in my country, maybe they would have killed us all. But thank God and thank America for giving me the opportunity for life.
The first day I came here, I felt like I was alone. I didn’t have any friends. But after one or two months, I couldn’t stay home any longer. I went out looking for any place where I could work. I wanted to learn the words about sewing in English. I know all these words in Arabic because I have 24 years’ experience as a seamstress. I didn’t care about money. I just wanted to learn how to speak to people about what they wanted me to sew for them. Thank God I learned everything and now I have opened my own business in my home. I have customers and I can speak to them in English! Thank God for everything.