Educational Resources
TV/Film
After Spring
"After Spring is a feature documentary that focuses on the Syrian refugee crisis. With the Syrian conflict entering its sixth year, millions of people continue to be displaced. This is the story of what happens next. By following two refugee families in transition and aid workers fighting to keep the camp running, viewers will experience what it is like to live in Zaatari, the largest camp for Syrian refugees. With no end in sight for the conflict or this refugee crisis, everyone must decide if they can rebuild their lives in a place that was never meant to be permanent." Link to purchase: Watch After Spring | Prime Video (amazon.com) |
Flee
"In FLEE, the Grand Jury Prize winner at this year’s Sundance Festival, filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells a poignant story of belonging and the search for identity. Amin’s life has been defined by his past and a secret he’s kept for over 20 years. Forced to leave his home country of Afghanistan as a young child with his mother and siblings, Amin now grapples with how his past will affect his future in Denmark and the life he is building with his soon-to-be husband. Told brilliantly through the use of animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his life, opening up for the first time about his past, his trauma, the truth about his family, and his acceptance of his own sexuality." Link to purchase: Watch Flee | Prime Video (amazon.com) |
Books
Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a Fargo High School
"'Green Card Youth Voices' is a collection of thirty personal essays written by students from Fargo South High School. Included with each essay is a first-person video narrative. These are the memories, realities, and hopes of young people from twenty-two different countries, who by the turning of countless events were brought together into one classroom." Link to purchase: Amazon.com: Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a Fargo High School eBook : Fargo South High School Students, Green Card Voices, Gronneberg, Betty: Books |
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
"This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home." Link to purchase: Amazon.com: Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen: 9780062851345: Vargas, Jose Antonio: Books |
Solito: A Memoir
"Zavier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks. At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family. A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home. Link to purchase: Solito: A Memoir: Zamora, Javier (amazon.com) |