Traditionally and historically, the United States of America is seen as the ultimate country of immigration. During the past decades, there have been several waves of immigration. There are not only numerous countries from which these immigrants come, seeking better opportunities and a better quality of life, but also numerous reasons to leave their country of origin, ranging from a lack of jobs to the fear of violence, wars, slavery or deportation. Whilst the USA participates financially towards the challenges resulting from the situation facing refugees worldwide, since the beginning of the conflicts in Syria, the USA has taken in only 1,700 Syrians. Throughout the 2016 election campaign, individual views on asylum policy could not have been more different. Whilst the Democrats demanded a more active refugee policy, Donald Trump pledged to halt the influx of refugees and to build a wall between the USA and Mexico. However, the question of how to deal with refugees who enter the USA from Mexico has been subject of debate for a very long time.
Participating author: Nora Bossong
Nora Bossong, born in Bremen, Germany in 1982, studied Philosophy and Comparative Literary Studies in Berlin, Leipzig and Rome. Her debut novel “Gegend” (Engl..: “Area”) was published in 2006. Two years later she received a New York scholarship from the Deutsches Haus which gave her the opportunity to spend ten weeks in New York in order to write there. Since then she published the novels “Webers Protokoll” (2009, Engl.: “Weber’s Protocol”), “Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung” (2012, Engl.: “Society with Limited Accountability”) and “36,9°” (2015). She also published the collections of poems “Reglose Jagd” (2007, tr.: Motionless Hunt) and “Sommer vor den Mauern” (2011, tr.: Summer in Front of the Walls). For the latter she received the 2012 Peter-Huchel-Preis. Additionally, she has received several other awards, for example the Art Award Berlin and the Roswitha Prize. Her journalistic Texts have been published in numerous German newspapers, for example in ZEIT (The Times), taz (Die Tageszeitung – ‘The Daily News’) and fazonline (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – ‘The Frankfurt News’). In February 2017, her new book “Rotlicht” (Engl.: Red-light) will be published by the German publisher Hanser.
USA – Photographs by Beowulf Sheehan
Leelen Mahbub, from Bangladesh, interviewed August 23, 2016, Lower East Side, New York, New York.
Photographed in August 2016.
Yessenia Alvarez (with daughter Tzeitel), from Venezuela, August 24, Long Island City, Queens, New York.
Photographed in August 2016.
Alex Vasilyev, from Russia, August 27, Battery Park City, New York, New York.
Photographed in August 2016.