In theory, rights are clear. Women have the right to health, autonomy, identity, and safety. Girls and adolescents have the right to be protected, to be heard, and to grow up in environments that support their well-being. But in practice—especially for immigrant women in the United States—these rights are not always accessible.
No one truly prepares you for the obstacles you’ll face in this lifetime, especially when navigating a journey into the unknown. This is the reality for many immigrants, who make the difficult decision to leave everything they’ve ever known behind, all in the hope of building a better future.
It is difficult to make someone understand the migration process if they have never experienced it. Migration is much more than crossing geographical borders; it’s crossing cultural and emotional boundaries. It’s leaving behind a life that you know you will never get back. For many, migration means burning bridges and diving into uncertainty, embracing an unknown world where customs and values are not always familiar, but where you must inevitably learn to navigate.
![The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Mexican market wom[an]" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1898.](https://www.vipmujeres.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/vip-oyeme-collage-migrant-women-made-new-york-city-300x216.jpg)
Walking the streets and trying to maneuver my way through the labyrinthic subway system, I keep encountering a woman who historically has nourished this city but has been kept in the shadows. She has had multiple faces throughout time. But if we take an attentive look at history, she’s the one always offering care: making food, cleaning, constructing, clothing New Yorkers, and much more. She is a migrant and a racialized, segregated worker. She tends to come from the Souths. She has endured low-paid, undignified, and unstable working conditions, and all her conquests have resulted from an incredible effort that ultimately has benefited all kinds of workers.
