<p><strong><em>Know your rights as an immigrant mother</em></strong></p><p>“Homelessness is a tragedy for anyone. Being homeless as a new immigrant can be even more challenging.” Immigrant Solo Moms know this already, but the <a href="http://homeless.samhsa.gov/resource/helping-new-immigrants-to-access-housing-resources-what-providers-should-know-47254.aspx" target="_blank">Homelessness Resource Center</a>—which made that statement in a brief designed to equip housing providers with the resources they need to secure housing for new immigrants—has tools to help Solo Moms meet the challenge. The organization offers advice that can help immigrant moms know their rights when it comes to housing assistance. </p><p>For example, if you are in one of the following immigrant groups, you are generally eligible for public housing and housing choice vouchers (Section 8) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):</p><ul><li>Lawful permanent residents</li><li>Refugees and asylees</li><li>Victims of trafficking and their derivative beneficiaries</li><li>Certain battered women and children who are not lawful permanent residents</li><li>Persons paroled into the country for at least one year</li><li>Persons granted withholding of deportation</li><li>Temporary residents under <a href="https://esme.com/resources/c/immigration" target="_blank" class="wordlink">Immigration</a> Reform and Control Act’s (IRCA) general amnesty or paroled by IRCA into the United States for less than one year</li><li>Cuban-Haitian entrants</li><li>Citizens of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau</li></ul><p>(Read “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.nilc.org/issues/economic-support/overview-immeligfedprograms/">Overview of Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Programs</a>”<span class="redactor-invisible-space"> </span>by Tanya Broder and Jonathan Blazer to learn more.)</p>Immigrant moms should know that even if you do not have legal residence documents, you may qualify for housing benefits through your child. If at least one member of the household is eligible for housing benefits based on immigration status, the family may reside in HUD public housing, but the subsidy will be adjusted to reflect the eligible portion of the family.<p><br></p><p><span style="font-size: 11px;">Photo credit: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Shutterstock.com</span></p>
<p><strong><em>Meet a <a href="https://esme.com/voices/perspectives/whats-a-solo-mom" target="_blank" class="wordlink">Solo Mom</a> who built a dance community</em></strong></p><p>Huong Phan is one of the most amazing moms I know—glamorous, cheerful, smart as a whip, and totally unfazed by the challenges life has thrown in her path. She is on the verge of earning a doctoral degree in computer science and has a software engineering job offer waiting for her on the West Coast when she’s done. She has done all of this in a foreign country while raising her smart and sassy daughter on her own, teaching herself the art of photography, cutting her own hair, and creating one of the most successful Latin dance studios in Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts.</p><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GZUVa2KCis0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><p>Yes, you read that right. This petite, Vietnamese computer geek Solo Mom is a <em>hot </em>salsa dancer. She fell in love with the art as a young international student in Australia, then she brought the salsa scene back to her hometown of Ho Chi Minh City. “I just called people together and taught them, because I wanted to dance. My students from those days have gone on to run big dance studios—they dance better than me! But they always treat me like someone special when I go back,” she says, laughing. </p><p>More impressive still, she went on to do it all over again—starting from scratch and creating a new dance community. In 2006 she moved with her three-year-old daughter to pursue a master’s and PhD at University of Massachusetts in the small university town of Amherst, Massachusetts. It was not easy being a Solo Mom halfway around the world. In fact, she returned to Vietnam after finishing her master’s degree in hopes of rescuing her failing marriage. In 2010, when <a href="https://esme.com/resources/c/divorce" target="_blank" class="wordlink">divorce</a> became inevitable and her advisors called her back to Amherst, she reclaimed her place at UMass and embraced a new life in this vibrant university community. When she could get out to dance, people asked her and her dance partner where they taught. “We said ‘we don’t teach’ a few times, and then we looked at each other and said, ‘well, why not?’” In October 2011, Amherst Salsa was born, launching many new dancers in the Pioneer Valley.</p><p>Huong’s attitude is the most inspiring part of her. She simply doesn’t know that as a solo immigrant mom, she’s “supposed to be” downtrodden. When I asked her what she relied on to find her way forward, she laughed and said, “I don’t know . . . myself, I guess! I just figured out what I had to do and tried to enjoy the things that make me happy!”</p><p>Phan was lucky, in a sense: Her divorce was the sad but civil ending of a long and loving relationship, and she found support in a community that values the diversity that she and her daughter bring. But she also made great use of her good fortune by working hard, drawing on friends, building community, and taking time to enjoy beauty and express joy through dance.</p><p>And people, you really should <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZUVa2KCis0" target="_blank">see her dance</a>.</p>
<p><em><strong></strong></em><em><strong>A look at the ways immigrant Solo Moms are united and how we can all be inspired by their strength</strong></em></p><p>She knows who she is, but others may not.</p><p>She just dropped her son off at day care, kissing him goodbye on both cheeks and sending him in with a tight squeeze. </p><p>She just welcomed the same boy into the classroom, greeting him in Chinese and smiled brightly when he gave her the response he had learned from his playmate, her daughter. </p><p>She studies at night to pass the Indiana state medical licensing exams, again, though she was a practicing obstetrician in her home city of Mumbai. She struggles intently to understand the doctor’s instructions and wonders if there is a translator. </p><p>She teaches English to undocumented workers at the Haitian community center in Washington, D.C., and ensures that, like her, they know their basic rights under the law. </p><p>Her daughter’s quinceañera featured an amazing spread of home-cooked delicacies, and her daughter breathed a sigh of relief to see her American friends gobble them down. </p><p>She came to Los Angeles ten years ago, leaving the violence of her marriage, determined to do better for her three children and herself. </p><p>She arrived last night and tries to put on a brave face for her two darlings as she wraps them in the thin blanket at the U.S. Border Patrol’s family detention center. </p><p>She dances beautifully. She swears softly in her mother tongue. Some nights she misses her family and friends across the ocean so much it hurts; some days, she revels in the solidarity and love of the new ties she has built, one leap of faith at a time.</p><p>She has so many questions that other Solo Moms can help her answer; she has so much knowledge that some may never imagine. </p><p>She is you. She is your neighbor, your cleaner, your sister, your boss. </p><p>She is making a new home for her family, on her own, in a country that welcomes her diversity and challenges her to fit in. We are here to welcome her, to celebrate her, to support her.</p><hr><p><span style="font-size: 12px;">Photo credit Shutterstock.com</span><br></p>
<p><em><strong>Tan Le talks about leaving Vietnam with her sister, <a href="https://esme.com/voices/perspectives/whats-a-solo-mom" target="_blank" class="wordlink">Solo Mom</a>, and grandmother</strong></em></p><p>Tan Le is a scientist, entrepreneur, and activist<span class="redactor-invisible-space">. </span>In 2011 she told her story at TEDxWomen, <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_my_immigration_story?language=en" target="_blank">Tan Le: My Immigration Story</a>. A refugee at age four, Le recounts how three generations of women in her family—she and her younger sister, her Solo Mom, and her grandmother—fled Vietnam, joining millions of “boat people” to seek a new start in Australia. Le’s immigrant story reminds us of the strength children can draw from the courage and determination of an immigrant Solo Mom.</p><p>Here’s an excerpt from her TED talk:</p><p><em>“How can I speak in 10 minutes about the bonds of women over three generations, about how the astonishing strength of those bonds took hold in the life of a four-year-old girl huddled with her young sister, her mother, and her grandmother for five days and nights in a small boat in the China Sea more than 30 years ago, bonds that took hold in the life of that small girl and never let go—that small girl now living in San Francisco and speaking to you today? This is not a finished story. It is a jigsaw puzzle still being put together.” —Tan Le, 2011</em></p><p><em><br></em></p><iframe src="https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/tan_le_my_immigration_story.html" scrolling="no" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe><p><strong><br></strong></p><hr><p><span style="font-size: 11px;">Photo credit: Screen shot from Ted Talks "Tan Le: My <a href="https://esme.com/resources/c/immigration" target="_blank" class="wordlink">Immigration</a> Story"</span><br></p>