Emaan has been in America for a little over a month. She came from Algeria with her younger brother for school. In the month she’s been here, she’s gotten a job at a cafe in Astoria, and has started to build roots in the neighborhood. I watch her playfully bicker with her coworker right before she tells me about the different programs at the Al-Iman Masjid she’s been using. She says that, because of the Muslim community in Astoria, she doesn’t feel too out of place. It’s part of the reason she’s in this neighborhood to begin with. She says she’s been treated with great respect by her Muslim and non-Muslim neighbors. She views her journey with a lot of optimism. She says while she doesn’t feel like a New Yorker now, it’s an identity that might be open to her in the future. On the flip side, American identity feels very closed off to her because of the process to citizenship and the fact that she only plans on getting an education, not staying here.
However, even in a community similar to home, she occasionally feels lonely. She misses her family, and she misses the communal normalcy of Islam. She tells me about the adhaan (the Call to Prayer) and how she misses the way it filled the streets of Algeria. In spite of this, though, Emaan feels she’s more dedicated to her faith now. Now she isn’t a passive member of a religious community. She has to put effort into her faith. In a way that’s part of her optimism, seeing isolation from Islam as strengthening her as a Muslim. 

– Ismaeel El-Shafei

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant