Close your eyes and imagine you were born in a remote part of the world, through no choice of your own. As you come of age, you look around and realize that resources and opportunities are scarce. Faced with limited prospects, you make the difficult decision to leave the only place you’ve ever known, either because you feel called to do so or because your circumstances suggest there is no viable future if you stay.
You can open your eyes now.
This was the exercise that Lily Sanchez, director of communications and development at La Paz Chattanooga, an immigrant advocacy and service nonprofit, used to begin her presentation to the Civitan Club, a Chattanooga service and educational organization, during its weekly meeting last week.
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“I just wanted you guys to enter this headspace with me, because I feel like what I’m about to share and discuss is something that everybody comes to collectively with their own personal perceptions and preconceived ideas of what it means to be an immigrant in any country, but particularly here in the United States,” Sanchez said after the exercise.