Photograph by Wayne Crosslin
The International Institute’s 2009 Thanksgiving dinner for immigrants studying English.
Great food, grand parades, and Black Friday’s big savings can distract us from the real reason we celebrate Thanksgiving. If you need some inspiration for reasons to be thankful, read some of the messages from refugees and immigrants learning English at the International Institute of St. Louis. Opened in 1919, the Institute also offers counseling, financial education, and job training and placement for new arrivals. It taught 2,077 immigrants last year alone. And because Thanksgiving is a cultural holiday rather than a religious one, it provides the perfect opportunity for the students to show off what they’ve learned and what they’re grateful for, says community relations manager Kate Howell. And, as Howell points out, the pilgrims who started the Thanksgiving tradition were refugees themselves.
Here are a few of the messages posted in the lobby:
I am thankful for my family, my friends, school, job, freedom and my life.
—Immigrant from Bhutan
I am happy this Thanksgiving because so many of my family are in the United States of America. I am also happy this Thanksgiving because my son is back from Afghanistan safely.
—Immigrant from Nigeria
I’d like to thank everyone who has helped me to reach the States and I hope I’ll succeed in my pursuit for a peaceful and fruitful life.
—Immigrant from Iraq
I am thankful because I am safe and I learned to write my name.
—Immigrant from Liberia
I am thankful for my family and freedom I have.
—Immigrant from Eritrea
