Embedded Files
Imagine you are six years old. You’ve lived in Italy your entire life. Your father has been staying in a whole other country called America for about a year now. He sends you letters but never talks about himself. You look at interesting news about this America. One day, your mother tells you that you will go to America with her and your older sisters. You suddenly panic and you’re scared. Six years you’ve been here, and all of what you’ve known will go away. The trees, the open space, and the Italian language. You can’t let it go. But you don’t tell your mom and you reluctantly go. You realize it’s not like Italy. It’s better.
This is the exact situation Sister Daniela Minniti was in. She’s a sister at Apostle Immigration Services, a program that helps immigrants, refugees, and asylees with legal services and other difficulties they face. They have clients from over 90 countries. She’s moving to Southern Italy to help others by the end of this month. She speaks English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Italian which helps her translate for clients. She spent seventeen years in Taiwan being a missionary. Sister Daniela Minniti was always a big helper to society.
She had some trouble adjusting to the US when she first came. She had to obviously learn English and she could only do that at school because her family spoke Italian at home. She stayed in Greenwich Village, New York City, an urban area, but in Italy, she lived near the countryside with open space and more freedom so she needed to “adapt” to the novel environment. Fortunately, people were very welcoming and helped her get comfortable with NYC. Daniela, like all immigrants, needed help getting used to the new country.
Daniele comfortably answered questions about her life without a sweat. Her answers were precise and thoughtful. The fact that America is her new home motivated her during struggles in adjusting. If she could change anything about immigration as a whole she would choose to have people be more welcoming. She carried many traditions from Italy like eating only fish during Easter. According to Daniela, the biggest difference between Italy and America was the size and scope of job opportunities. She’s happy with New Haven’s status as a sanctuary city.
Some of the biggest challenges were getting green cards and citizenships. For twelve years, her father had to renew his green card annually to stay in America. Daniela herself had to wait until she was eighteen to apply for citizenship and she got accepted but when her father applied at the same time, he was rejected because he couldn’t communicate well in English.
Her father tried again the next year and was accepted. Her late mother never applied and had to live on a green card until she died. Immigrants even today face problems with green cards and citizenship.
Daniela is a great role model to follow when helping individuals in society. She helps immigrants and uses her own experience to relate to each client she helps. She easily spoke about her own life and was happy to answer any questions. She stayed strong during the entire interview, even when we were talking about her late father and mother. The Voices of the World wishes her the best of luck in helping individuals in South Italy.
Report abuse