After spending countless hours nurturing and honoring the stories of Saira, Aziza, Mila, and Sajni, it has become clear that no amount of interviews, archival work, or analysis can truly capture the lives of these women. Nonetheless, the glimpses and histories offered for our engagement serve as powerful portraits of how gender, class, and cultural expectation converge and conflict in everyday life for immigrants.
Across this archive, recurring themes have emerged from the interviews and oral histories over the years. The themes are as follows:
- Immigration: Loss and Possibilities
- Nuanced Structure of Motherhood
- Isolation vs. Community
- The Dream of Return
- Faith and Cultural Continuity
- Generational Patterns Across Gender
Living between two worlds is a difficult task for anyone, let alone young women from entirely different continents. In examining their stories through various lenses, we are able to identify recurring patterns that speak to the immigrant experience.
This archive does not seek to offer closure or answers. We honor the ambiguity in each of these themes and the various ways in which they are presented throughout history.