“Where are you from?” is a question we as immigrants both love being asked and dread answering. We love it because it gives us the opportunity to tell stories about the places we’ve explored and the cultures we’ve immersed ourselves in, and we dread it because the answer many times is “I don’t know”.
Earlier this March, I was among the millions of international students who were forced to leave their countries of education as the growing pandemic threatened our health and safety. Today we face a new set of challenges in returning to these countries as we see rising sentiments of xenophobia and anti-immigration masked as “protecting the safety of our people” from their leaders.
