Journey to Dallas

This article was under “special reports” in the Dallas Morning News. It featured the journeys of three immigrants from three separate parts of the world. Pedram Moghen left his home in Iran and stayed in Pakistan for three years before eventually resettling in Dallas after a three-day journey, passing through Kuwait, Amsterdam, New York and Detroit. Jamala Maye fled from Mogadishu, Somalia with her five-year-old brother, stayed in Mombasa for a year with relatives, then was forced to leave by boat after the flights out of Somalia were canceled. After living in a Utanga refugee camp for several months, they rented an apartment in Mombasa until they were given government approval to resettle in the U.S. in 1997, six years after her journey had begun. Jamala made stops in Brussels and New York before eventually settling in Dallas. Ceu Lian Thang, left Thantlang in Burma/Myanmar in 1999. He traveled to Rangoon, Bangkok, Taipei, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Corpus Christi before reaching Dallas. He was granted residency through his wife, another Myanmar refugee.
This is certainly a different feature for the Dallas Morning News. Most of their stories of course relate to local, state, and national news, but they rarely do such special features. I do think they had good intentions in doing a story like this. Most of the stories we read about immigrants are surrounding the debate about illegal aliens and allowing immigrants to become citizens in the U.S., as well as the amount of benefits they would or would not receive from the government. Actually, so much emphasis is put on that debate that it seems sometimes we lose sight of the real issue; that these people hoped for a better life in America than in their home country, so they decided to make the journey in hopes of establishing residence and finding happiness here.
However, while this story is clearly trying to attract a wider variety of audiences, such as immigrants and their supporters, it is much too showy to truly promote diversity. There should not be a spotlight put on this issue in a “special feature.” Instead, it would be a better idea if stories like this ran more frequently in the paper. That way, Dallas residents would be more educated as to what the journeys were like for immigrants, and immigrants would feel like they are welcome in their new home. This would make the issue more real-life and well known and not such a rare occurrence that it had to have its own sporadic feature in the newspaper.

http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2007/refugee/