by Holly Johnson, The University of Cincinnati
“When we came to America, though, we didn’t know what the right thing was. Here we lived with no map. We became invisible, the people who swam in between other people’s lives, bussing dishes, delivering groceries. What was wrong?
We didn’t know. The most important thing, Abba said, was not to stick out. Don’t let them see you. But I think it hurt him, to hide so much.”
― Marina Budhos, Ask Me No Questions (2007)
What is the immigrant experience like? Are all immigrant stories similar? What motivates a person to immigrate to another country? The following books can answer some of these questions and others as well. Some are collections of stories, others memoirs, but all are personal and true.
For instance, Papers: Stories by Undocumented Youth (Manuel, Pineda, Galisky, & Shine, 2012) contains stories from 30 young people between the ages of 10-32. There is a documentary that goes along with this text, which could be equally as enlightening for young people interested in immigration and the issues that currently surround it. 
Hearing from young people moves us beyond the political toward the personal. We are, after all, just people here. Another book of interest would be First Crossing: Stories by Immigrant Youth (Gallo, 2007), which expands readers’ thinking about those who immigrate. Not all immigration experiences are desperate journeys by undocumented workers.
Additional works that might be of interest include Never Fall Down (McCormick, 2013) and A Song for Cambodia (Lord & Arihana, 2008), which feature the story of Arn Chorn, a young Cambodian who was captured by and then escaped from the Khmer Rouge. 
Eventually Arn does find his way to the United States. Those interested in interviews, Marina Budhos (2007) book, Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers 
would be a wonderful book to add to any text set on immigration.
Books that include both memoir and illustrations expressing an immigrant experience would include Leaving China: An Artist Paints his WWII Childhood (McMullan, 2014) and 
Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home (Landowne, 2010). Both were produced by artists who have created atmospheric renderings of home and movement that are sensitive and deeply thoughtful.
Another memoir worth noting is Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America (Dumas, 2004). Both thoughtful and humorous, older readers would appreciate the author’s exploration of attempting to balance her life in the USA and her life as a young woman of Iran. 
There are also The Complete Persepolis (Satrapi, 2007) and The Other Side of the Wall (Schwartz, 2015), which are graphic novels about immigrating away from repressive regimes. One takes place in 
Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the other is the story of the author’s parents who leave East Berlin after determining they no longer embrace the Soviet Unity Party of Germany’s belief/political system.
There are other wonderful narratives on immigration 
and the immigration experience that would delight readers of all ages. There is Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team that Changed a Town (St. John, 2013), Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America (Thorpe, 2011), 
and A Long Walk to Water (Park, 2011.
To contextualize these narratives, however, would be other books addressing the issues of immigration that would allow young people to realize the complexity of the situations that immigrants—young and old—face as they try to find better lives in places often very far from home. By combining narratives, picture books, and informational texts, readers will gain emotional, political, and economic insight into the phenomenon of immigration. It is the hope, however, that while gaining these insights, readers will also remember their own heritages in relation to immigration.
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- Themes: Holly Johnson, Papers: Stories by Undocumented Youth
- Descriptors: Books & Resources, WOW Currents