Indomitable! Immigrants’ Stories of Perseverance and Resilience tells the stories of 32 current immigrants to America from all over the world. In this blog, I will be highlighting parts of all the stories to show the hardships, successes, and amazing wisdom of the people in the book.

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The first section of Indomitable! tells the stories of people fleeing persecution. Nader’s tale is one of overcoming obstacle after obstacle and coming out on top. Nader is an Azerbaijani Turk born and raised in Iran. Because of his ethnicity, he was subject to much discrimination and was put under government surveillance. He was prevented from continuing his education and from working. Eventually, he decided to emigrate to Turkey. Even if you are leading a difficult and dangerous life, it is never an easy decision to leave your family, friends, and everything familiar to strike out into the unknown.

In Turkey, he was able to earn a Masters’ Degree while he joined a professional basketball league – one of his many loves. But he also was an active volunteer collecting data on human rights abuses in Iran for the UN and other NGOs. Because of this activity, he knew the Iranian Intelligence Service continued to have him in their sights, and he was prevented from getting a work permit.

He applied to the UN for refugee status, and after two years of scrutiny, the UN granted it and sent him to the US. He found the Training Futures (TF) program of Northern VA Family Service, which provided an intensive training program in English, computer skills, American culture, and all the soft skills expected. Nader says that applying to TF was his best decision in the US. Through TF he found a job that he loves, and he is continuing his education.

There is one more huge hurdle that Nader has had to navigate all along the way. Read the book to learn what that was, and you will be amazed at his persistence and resilience.

Photo by Enes Aktas on Unsplash