BETH ROONEY | Chicago | Photographer|

Photo Essays :: Stories: Strange Shore

Strange Shore: African refugees on Chicago's north side 

We have all heard stories about war, displaced people, and refugees throughout the world. As outsiders it is easy to think that once these people have been removed from immediate harm, all their problems are solved. 

Tucked away on Chicago's far north side amid university students and professors lies a growing community of African refugees. The new residents hail from all of Africa's war-torn corners and struggle to make new and better lives in a foreign city. 

Each member of this new community faces different challenges in their new lives in Chicago--poverty, a dramatic shift in climate, adjusting to a new diet, finding a job and sifting through a complicated system to ensure that children are educated. Despite these daunting challenges, more and more refugee families are calling Chicago their home and finding open arms to welcome them.  

 

  • Women's Day at Interfaith Immigration and Refugee Ministries
  • Kidan's kids play in the living room before Kidan goes to work.
  • Sawson hold up the baby clothes that her new baby girl, Amma, will wear when they leave the hospital. {quote}She's beautiful,{quote} said Sawson. {quote}I am happy.{quote}
  • Omnia, Sawson's oldest daughter plays with the blinds in their new suburban home. Sawson and her family left the city because the rent was too high.
  • Asiya brushes Lelia’s teeth before heading to her English class. Asiya and her family came to the United States in February 2006 and are still learning the language, the school system, and the daily routine of living in Chicago.
  • Women's Day at Interfaith Immigration and Refugee Ministries
  • Asiya and Aline watch as their bed is dismantled in order to take it downstairs. Aline is upset at her mother for moving the family to Indiana because her friends are in Chicago.  The family is moving because rent is less expensive and public aid is easier to receive in Indiana.
  • Everlyn Sesay spends another afternoon at home waiting for her life to start in America. The family has been put in a holding pattern because they are waiting for papers and documents to allow them to work and go to school.
  • Lamin and Victoria discuss their impending move amid all their boxes.
  • The Mambo family's apartment in Chicago was full of cockroaches and the walls were marked from past tenants. {quote}The bugs are everywhere,{quote} said Aline. {quote}We could sometimes feel them in the bed.{quote}
  • Asiya came home too exhausted from work to even do much around the house.  She and her family will be leaving for Fort Wayne, Indiana soon because it is less expensive.
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