An incredibly entertaining, deeply moving memoir set in the mid-fifties. It is a story that will make you cry and laugh out loud. It talks of a journey through this great country from coast to coast, and gives voice to our most powerful emotions. It is a story of a young man who struggles to find his way in this new land of long winters, as his past impinges on the present, bringing both hope and despair. An unforgettable story of family and friendship, of loves lost and won. It is also a story that will resonate to many an immigrant from that time when there was little support for newcomers to this land of dreams and second chances. It is a fast moving narrative with the innate ability to describe the true story of a forgotten past.

All Dele Akinpelu ever dreamed about was a better life in a new country, but he never expected it to be a challenge that will test him to his very limits.Growing up in Lagos's musty and bustling city and born to struggling middle-class parents, Dele Akinpelu knew everything there was to know about life's struggle. Right from a young age, he'd seen and experienced the effect of poverty and worked hard to make sure he avoided the same fate.Excelling in school with flying colors and after years of intense studying in the university, Dele thought he had it figured out.But the world had harsher surprises in store for him.Thrown into the real world soon after he completed his university education, Dele soon found himself drowning and clutching desperately at straws.To make matters worse, the temptation from his more successful friends who made much from illegal and fraudulent activities was almost becoming overpowering. Still, luckily, he had the strength of character to resist it.His big break came after he got an offer to study at a university in America. Filled with hope for the future, he sold off all he had, solicited help from his family and friends, and moved to the United States of America to pursue his dreams.He had no idea he was about to experience the biggest shock of his life.Will he succeed despite the seemingly insurmountable odds stacked against him? Or will the harsh and unfair system break his spirit and his resolve?

In this book, Richard S. Kim examines the central role played by immigrants in the independence movement that sought to liberate Korea from Japanese colonization. Regarding Japanese rule as illegitimate, Koreans in and out of the Korean peninsula viewed themselves as a stateless people. Their independence activities had to be carried out from abroad, creating conditions for the emergence of a diasporic nationalism. Using English and Korean language sources, Kim traces how Koreans in the United States articulated visions of national sovereignty, drawing particularly on American political rhetoric and symbolism, and increasingly relied on U.S. state power to mobilize international support for their cause. Their efforts to establish an independent homeland necessitated their participation in civic and political activities in the United States, engaging in organizational activity that led to the development of an ethnic consciousness and paradoxically established them as an American ethnic group. Ultimately, Kim argues, homeland nationalism was central to the assimilation of Korean immigrants as American ethnics, even as they were denied U.S. citizenship.

Poet-activist Jimmy Baca immerses the reader in an epic narrative poem, imagining the experience of motherhood in the context of immigration, family separation, and ICE raids on the Southern border. Jimmy Santiago Baca sends us on a journey with Sophia, an El Salvadorian mother facing a mountain of obstacles, carrying with her the burden of all that has come before: her husband’s murder, a wrenching separation from her young son at the border, then rape and abuse at the hands of ICE, yet persevering: “I keep walking/carrying you in my thoughts,” she repeats, as she wills her boy to know she is on a quest to find him.

By the time he is twelve, Frank Levy understands that to attain his wishes, he must depend upon himself. In the young adult edition of Life with an Accent we meet Levy as a happy toddler oblivious to political dangers. Seeking safety, in 1936 his family moves from Germany to the British Mandate of Palestine. Ten years later they emigrate to America to be with grandma. Again, Levy must change languages, cultures, even his name. With every effort to adapt, he sees that the history we live through matters.

Explores the United States immigration system, presenting what legal immigrants have to endure and arguing that the system is unfairly rigged against "the good guys."