Each year, hundreds of thousands of people come to the United States to build a new life. Some come through the formal immigration process, others arrive as refugees, and still others migrate with no pre-defined status. Their migration journey can be uneventful, complicated, traumatic, or fruitless. The journey is a moment in their lives. Their identity is not limited to the immigration status with which they arrive in the Unites States. They come with passion, dreams, skills, customs and traditions, and emotions like love and anger that make them whole people.

Through storytelling, HILSC shares the journeys of four individuals who came to Houston from different corners of the world — Ethiopia, the Philippines, India and Honduras — in different decades, at different ages, and for different reasons, to change the one-size-fits-all narrative that dominates Americans’ thinking about immigration. We also put together an easy-to-follow tutorial on how you can use storytelling to change narratives and empower immigrant voices in your communities. The set of six workshops is available in English and Spanish and comes with a companion workbook that will guide workshop leaders on how to use the videos.

This project was produced by Culture Concepts. Workshops were designed and filmed by Joel Celestino Settles and story videos were produced by Alex Gerald.