Albania to America to MRC: One Immigrant’s Story

It has been nearly 20 years since my family emigrated to the United States from Albania. I was a toddler of just three years and thus completely unable to grasp the significance and magnitude of what my parents accomplished that day. Having now worked for Migration Resource Center (MRC) for a couple of months I have acquired a deeper understanding of what it takes to successfully and lawfully enter this country. Today, I have a healthy respect for my parents and their story. They literally uprooted their lives from a tiny third world country, knowing very little English, and successfully went on to live the American dream as they say. As an adult, I cannot help but marvel at this whilst looking inward and asking myself “would I be able to do that?” 

Migration Resource Center is a firm that represents an impressive amount of diverse clientele from a wide array of countries. During my brief time here I have seen a new individual every day. I have now met and dealt with citizens of countries I had never heard of before; which has been a rewarding learning experience about the different situations that people find themselves in when living in countries of poverty or political instability. The legal process, even with the best of conditions, will be lengthy, exhaustive, and of course time consuming. It can also be quite overwhelming for the client, especially if they have no mastery of the English whatsoever. For certain clients, failing to earn the right to live here lawfully may mean having to go back to a war torn country or a country in the grip of armed rebel groups that terrorize regular citizens. This is an incredible psychological burden to bear and it shames me to think of the frivolous things me and my peers complain about on a daily basis when there are people in far worse circumstances.

BY: Sindi Zoga, MRC Administrative Receptionist



Migration Resource Center provides affordable immigration legal services.
Call us: 646-609-8805
Visit our Website: https://www.migrationusa.org/contact/

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