sharing the life stories of immigrants, expatriates, and refugees to the United States
Feel Like You Belong TV is your source for real stories about the real people we call migrants. They may be the seasonal workers who traverse the country picking our daily produce.* They may be the expatriates who come on temporary assignment for their multinational companies. Or they may be the intrepid** souls who have committed to calling these United States their new homeland.
People have been migrating since time immemorial.*** They have moved for safety from earthquakes and drought. From war and disease. From persecution and economic hardship. They have the same characteristics as our immigrant forebears who gave up the familiarity and comfort of home in order to take risks and build a better life.
Join us here every week with these heroic storytellers and learn about what it is that still makes America a destination for entrepreneurs and risk-takers. The people who moved themselves and their families across deserts and oceans. People who add to each new generation’s vibrancy**** and can-do spirit. Welcome to Feel Like You Belong.
Call it serendipity. Call it kismet. Any way you frame it, Attila Mosolygó will tell you there are forces in the universe more powerful than the decisions one makes alone. His career in ballet? Blame it on his six-year-old sister! His residency and ultimate U.S. citizenship? Credit his parents' decision to take a "little vacation" across the Atlantic! Join us as we hear the story of a boy from Hungary who finds life fulfillment an ocean away from home.
Floriza Genautis was a new college graduate and thought she had the world by the tail. Then her mother said, “You’re coming to America.” It was months of adjustment, countless hours of practicing English, and years of hard work in her attempt to belong. Today, she is a soccer mom, business owner, and community volunteer in West Michigan. Does she fit in now? Check out her interview to see!
Jinane Itani and her husband fled civil war in their native Lebanon. Although they lived and worked in a number of countries, they settled their family in the U.S., a place that feels like home. Now a small business owner and community volunteer, she says she is thankful every day to live in her adopted United States.
A timid teenager when he came to the U.S., Raymond Trujillo sought solace in his lifelong refuge of drawing and painting. With the mentoring of a teacher, he honed his skills and grew in confidence. Today, this intrepid immigrant from Mexico works as an artist, floral designer, party planner, clown, graphic designer, dance instructor, and emcee. Don't miss our chat with jack-of-all-trades, Raymond Trujillo.
This week, Alan interviews Vandana Magal on her newly released documentary on modern communication trends of immigrants and refugees to the U.S.
Ethnic clashes. The Black Panthers. Urban renewal. The Daley Machine. Chicago, Illinois was a turbulent town in the 1960s and 70s. Join us as we talk to Puerto Rican-born civil rights activist José “Cha-Cha” Jimenez. He shares with Alan his personal experience with drugs, street gangs, and the social and political forces that shaped a major U.S. city.
Lebanese-born Ray Nadda moved to the U.S. for college, stayed, and became a U.S. citizen. He worked in corporate America for two decades before learning he was better off calling his own shots. The owner of Wash 'n Wags pet grooming salons shares his thoughts about work, culture, and being a transplant.
What would you do if you became ill in a country where you didn't speak the language? Fortunately for thousands of patients in the U.S., this is the very issue that Carlos Pava concerns himself with. As Vice President for Voices for Health, Carlos supplies interpreters to hospitals so that patients can receive care in their first language when it matters the most--in a medical crisis. Join us as we explore the medical side of language and culture!
Joining Alan in the studio is cancer researcher Anthony Chang. Curious since his elementary school days, Anthony tells of his love for learning: from plumbing systems to martial arts. What makes this medical physicist passionate about his life in the U.S.? Creating micron-scale views of cancer tissue and sharing this pursuit of knowledge with his American students.
Three international students tell of their lives, their dreams, and a few stereotypes they'd like to debunk. Join Alan as he talks with Danilo (Cameroon), Paola (Italy), and Nargilya (Turkmenistan), in town for the annual international student conference.
Some move to the United States for work, others for education, yet others for safety. Andrew Gill did it for love. Married to an American, he now resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, father of two half-British children who sometimes tease him for the way he talks.
Born in Jordan to Palestinian refugees, Amer Zahr moved to the United States as a child and grew up as a member of a "suspicious" minority outside Philadelphia, PA. In his conversation with Alan, he talks about the discrimination against Arabs in the U.S. and how they need more representation on the national census. Billed as America's "funniest and smartest Arab," Amer shares with us one of his stand-up comedy routines in our What's So Funny? segment.
In his coming to the U.S. to study international development, a Singaporean begins to examine the deep personal issues of race, identity, and belonging. Listen as Kyle Lim discusses his own biracial background in the context of race and place in the United States.
Mach Makuei, former Lost Boy of Sudan, talks of his childhood days in a refugee camp in Kenya and coming of age in the home of a generous foster parent in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Now a graduate of Albion College, he dreams of taking his entrepreneur visions into the U.S. marketplace.
Lana Lie, her husband, and children flee Indonesia after the Communist government is installed during the Cold War. Leaving a beautiful home and familiar lifestyle behind, they move to West Michigan to be near cousins who emigrated there earlier. With Alan, she talks about learning a new language, dealing with racial discrimination, and finding meaningful work in a new land.
Brazilian Paulo Saiani talks about life in the United States from the viewpoint of an expatriate. He shares with Alan the struggles and joys of working on a temporary assignment for the Dow Chemical Co. in the U.S. Midwest.
Susan Im rejoins Alan in the studio, this time to talk about growing up second-generation Korean American in rural Michigan. She shares her newfound awareness of race, racism, and her own ethnic identity, which solidifies after the bludgeoning murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American mistaken for Japanese by unemployed auto workers in the 1970s.
Our conversation with Richard Blanco continues. Blanco is the first Latino, first immigrant, and first openly gay poet to read an original work in front of hundreds of thousands at a presidential inauguration. He shares with Alan his thoughts about ethnicity, place, and belonging. He humbly includes what he is grateful for.
Richard Blanco is only the fifth poet in U.S. history to be selected Inaugural Poet to the President. He shares with Alan his thoughts on the event and reads a poem he'd written for the Inaugural Committee which was not selected for the occasion. With the pithy understanding of someone anchored in two cultures, he observes that immigrants may be more patriotic than natives.
Maria Erazo tells of her life of poverty in Mexico and how she and her mom sneaked into the U.S. to look for work and a father who had left years earlier for the United States and then disappeared. She talks about the fear of living undocumented in the U.S. and how she eventually became a citizen, business owner, and community volunteer in the Latino community.
Feel Like You Belong is a sometimes serious, sometimes funny, always “touch-your-heart” real conversation about fitting into the American culture. It introduces guests who have made the immigrant journey to the United States. The stories–of both struggle and success–will help newcomers feel more confident in sharing their opinions and expertise, more likely to want to stay in the U.S., be more productive in their jobs, and fully invest in their communities.
