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On Tuesday, May 15th, Asia Society and AABANY presented “Here to Stay: The Asian American Immigrant Experience,” at the Asia Society, where four Asian Americans shared their firsthand accounts of their journeys immigrating to America. The speakers included Antonio Xu Liu, a Resource Coordinator at the National Grid, Xiaodeng Chen, a political science student at Brooklyn College, Stephanie Ji Won Park, a community organizer at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), and Tereza Lee, a pianist and immigrant rights activist who is known to have inspired the creation of the DREAM Act. 

The speakers’ storytelling was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Chris Kwok, the Co-Chair of the Issues Committee and Asia Practice Committee at AABANY. The two panelists were Steve Choi, the Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, and Rose Cuison Villazor, a professor of law at UC Davis. Steve and Rose placed the stories in their historical and current context, given the anti-immigrant climate that all immigrants, including Asian Americans, find themselves in. After the panel discussion, all the storytellers were invited back on stage to continue the discussion and to take questions from the audience.

To see an album of photos taken by Corky Lee, go here. 

You can view the video of the entire program here.

We thank all the community partners for spreading the news about this event:

  • Arab American Association of New York;
  • Asian American Federation;
  • Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund;  
  • Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York;
  • Chinese-American Family Alliance for Mental Health;
  • Chinese-American Planning Council;
  • Chinese Progressive Association;
  • Coalition for Asian American Children & Families;
  • CUNY Asian American/Asian Research Institute;
  • Filipino American Lawyers Association of New York;
  • Japanese American Citizens League;
  • Japanese Americans, Japanese in America;
  • Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York;
  • New York Immigration Coalition;
  • New York Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs;
  • OCA-New York;
  • South Asian Bar Association of New York; and
  • Sanctuary for Families.