I grew up in a Tamil immigrant household and everyday I saw the resilience of immigrants in the way my family and community rebuilt their lives in a new country. Watching them navigate a new language, culture, and society, while preserving their own really shaped how I understand migration today as not simply a move from one place to another, but as a complex roadmap of building stability and belonging without losing your identity.

 

I was raised around conversations about colonization, diasporic identity, and centuries-old history, and I learned about our culture within India and across borders, our advocative nature, and the persecution of Tamilians, including those affected by the Sri Lankan genocide. While the latter history is not entirely my own lived experience, the stories of displacement along with my own experience in an immigrant household, has truly shaped how I think about power, survival, and what it means to rebuild across borders.

 

Simultaneously, growing up in the United States, I've seen how immigrants and refugees are treated, and though I've always been aware of our system's unjust treatment of marginalized communities, I now have the education  to really grasp the consequences of policies and administrative decisions. What began as conversations in my everyday life and advocacy through my social media has now grown into a conscious decision to center my career around this work.

 

The scale of displacement globally along with what I see happening in the U.S., has made the urgency impossible to ignore. That’s why I’m now focused on applying my skills to help reform resettlement systems and integration practices, with the goal of better prioritizing and preserving the dignity and agency of displaced communities, while also supporting their survival and long-term belonging.