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Immigrant New Yorkers Share What They Needed When They First Arrived in NYC

Immigrant New Yorkers wish they knew more about English classes and job training upon arrival.

Nancy Chen
AND Dashiell Allen

Oct 13, 2023

Summer engagement interns, Nancy Chen and Dashiell Allen, represented Documented at the University Settlement’s annual ROAR summer festival on August 5 and 12. They introduced informational guides to immigrant New Yorkers and distributed 150 booklets in Chinese, with explainers to help New Yorkers file taxes, apply for affordable housing, protect themselves when facing anti-Asian hate crimes, and more.

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During the event, Documented spoke to 24 attendees and took their portraits with the goal of learning about their immigrant experience in New York City. We asked them: What did you want to know when you first arrived in the United States? Here’s what they told us.

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Photos courtesy of Dashiell Allen, Rommel Ojeda and April Xu

Also Read: Free English Classes for Chinese New Yorkers

Nancy Chen

Hongyu (Nancy) Chen is a Chinese-English bilingual reporter who graduated from Columbia Journalism School. She writes about immigrant communities and older adults in New York City. She also specializes in documentary filmmaking. Prior to Columbia, she studied International Relations at the Australian National University.

Dashiell Allen

Dashiell Allen is a bilingual master's student at the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, focused on reporting on Latino immigrant communities in New York City. His work has appeared in City Limits, Univisión, and Epicenter-NYC.

@dashiell_allen