{"id":29033,"date":"2017-11-14T22:30:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T03:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/creator\/?p=29033"},"modified":"2020-02-26T14:27:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T19:27:53","slug":"we-are-founders-we-are-women-we-are-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/we-are-founders-we-are-women-we-are-immigrants","title":{"rendered":"We are founders, we are women, we are immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I grew up first-generation American. My dad came as a refugee from Serbia in 1956, my mom as a young German au pair. They met in Chicago and stayed. Without extended family in the U.S., our \u201cfamily\u201d and community were mainly other immigrants: Serbian, German, Korean, Greek, Armenian, Iranian, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve photographed immigrants for the last decade and was very drawn to the issue of immigration when it became a political hot-button issue with this administration. Our response to the immigration ban was to bring together a close group of immigrant friends and business associates we are proud to know, and photograph them and share the stories of their experiences in a book that’s easy to pass around. What emerged was the <\/span>American Immigrant Project: Women’s Edition<\/em><\/span><\/i><\/a>, a project to document their experiences, show people how alike we all are, and honor what women immigrants weave into the fabric of our country and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We assembled a team of people who volunteered their time and expertise to get this done, and the project was completed in just over one month from idea to book in hand. This is our way to share stories and highlight American immigrants. <\/span>Here are a few of the stories from the book, which draw from interviews conducted and edited by Mindy Raf.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n