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Thiago Heilam: His Immigration Story

Thiago Heilman immigrated to the United States from Brazil in 1996. His family initially came on a visitor's visa to earn money, but Thiago decided to stay for his education. As an undocumented citizen for many years, he struggled until receiving DACA status in 2012. Thiago's reasons for staying included gaining an education and establishing a family, relating to human rights around nationality, marriage, living standards, and education.

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111 views2 pages

Thiago Heilam: His Immigration Story

Thiago Heilman immigrated to the United States from Brazil in 1996. His family initially came on a visitor's visa to earn money, but Thiago decided to stay for his education. As an undocumented citizen for many years, he struggled until receiving DACA status in 2012. Thiago's reasons for staying included gaining an education and establishing a family, relating to human rights around nationality, marriage, living standards, and education.

Uploaded by

valeria navarro hidalgo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Thiago Heilam: his immigration story

1. Name of immigrant: Thiago Heilman


2. Country of origin: Brazil, specifically Belo Horizonte
3. Year they came to the United States: 1996
4. Summarize their story: Thiago came to the United States temporarily with his family
as a teenager. His mom wanted to settle, gain money and, after that, return to Brazil
to continue with their lives. However, Thiago realized that what he wanted to do was
to stay in New York City and continue his education. Unfortunately, he was an
undocumented citizen for a long time since his family traveled with a visitors visa
(which didn’t allow him to be “legal”). In 2012, when Obama established DACA, he
was finally able to become a US citizen and began to live as an American (he
enrolled in college and got married).
5. Identify the reasons why the person or their family decided to immigrate:
Reason why his family stayed:
- save money
- have and own home
- live life comfortably
Reasons why he stayed:
- education
- estable family
6. What human rights relate to the reasons you have identified?
- Article 15: Right to nationality and freedom to change it.
- Article 16: Right to marriage and family.
- Article 25: Right to adequate living standards. (family)
- Article 26: Right to education.
7. How easy do you think the decision was to immigrate to the United States?
Easy at first because it was supposed to be for a short time. But then, when he
decides to stay and live, it is a difficult decision because he is away from his family.
An example of this is that he was not being able to say goodbye to his grandparents.
Finally, I think it was a difficult decision, but it was because of something bigger and
being able to have more opportunities.
8. What decision would you have made in the same circumstances? Would you also
have immigrated to the United States?
We would have taken the same decision as Thiago because, judging by the
circumstances, we can infer that their economic situation in Brazil wasn’t as good as
it could have in NYC. Staying with the aim of achieving a greater education is a good
“argument” when deciding to immigrate or stay in a foreign country because it will
benefit the person who is staying. We are aware that there are a lot of obstacles
when settling in a new country, however we know that nowadays there are more
facilities and, just like Thiago, we would be able to fulfill our dreams.

Name Country of Year Reasons for Leaving Human Rights


Origin
Thiago Brazil 1996 - save money - Article 15: Right to
Heilman - have and own nationality and
home freedom to change it
- live life - Article 16: Right to
comfortably marriage and family
- education - Article 25: Right to
- estable family adequate living
standards
- Article 26: Right to
education

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