A look at Immigration at Redwood

By: Johan Satorre

Redwood, to some, may feel insulated from the rest of the world. Being in the Central Valley, it doesn’t always seem like the community is particularly diverse. Why would anyone ever move here? If you dig deeper, the opposite is actually true.

From Haiti to Redwood High School

Jean Beny Stahl ’20 immigrated here to Visalia with his brother and sister without his parents, in 2017 from the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Jean Beny explained that he moved here because there was a lot of tragedy in his family. “My parents, my dad and I decided that coming over here would be the better option because there’s a better opportunity here that back there [Haiti].”

According to the World Bank, the GDP per capita in Haiti (Essentially, the amount of wealth generated per person per year) was around $870 in 2018. Over 6 million Haitians live on less than $2.41 a day; for comparison, in the US, being in poverty is defined as living on less than $33 dollars a day per person. Jean Beny said that he is a lot better off here than he would ever be in Haiti and that it makes him appreciate things in the US more.

“I miss everything from home because home was pretty much my base. It’s hard to lose my base.”

Jean Beny

November 1st will mark his third full year in the country. Beny says that adapting to life in his new home has been a process, “You know, there’s a lot of things that I heard beforehand. There were some things that I expected and I was looking forward to and somethings that were hard to adjust to.” Jean Beny thinks that there are some things that he will never be able to fully adapt to, but he says that he wants to make sure that it doesn’t define him. When asked about home, he says, “I miss everything from home because home was pretty much my base. It’s hard to lose my base.”

When asked about what challenges he expected to face here, he answered in concern of his race. “I didn’t have much fear, I expected that and I knew I was going to have to fight that.” Jean Beny says that in his time here, he hasn’t had to deal with very much racism. He thinks that Visalia generally does well with people of multicultural backgrounds and diversity.

Especially as of late, not everyone in the country has viewed immigrants as a good force in the country. Jean Beny says that people won’t bug him directly about it but he will hear people talking badly about immigrants in general. “When they talk trash some else as an immigrant, they’re talking trash about me too. I see myself too [in other immigrants].

“I think being an immigrant here gives me a different view of the world. I got to show people there’s a difference between me and them and I want to make a difference and let people know that where I came from makes me different.”

Jean Beny

Jean Beny says that being an immigrant affects his life at Redwood tremendously. Sometimes people who immigrated try to conceal it and bury it. Not Jean Beny. He likes to turn it into a positive influence on everyone around him by sharing some of his experiences, “I think being an immigrant here gives me a different view of the world. I got to show people there’s a difference between me and them and I want to make a difference and let people know that where I came from makes me different. Being here, I know that I’ve got to light up because you know, a lot of people see more of the downside of me being an immigrant and as an African American. I know a lot of people get the downside of who I am. I’ve gotta show them who I really am.”

From Iran to Redwood High School

Sameh Esmaeili ‘21 has a story that is both very similar and uniquely different from Jean Beny’s. Her family moved from Iran in 2010 when she was 7. Her mother was the one in her family that really pushed for them to move. According to Esmaeili, “It has been one of my mom’s biggest dreams since high school. You speak about America and people just jump. It such a dream and fantasy almost.” She also wanted her to have better opportunities than she would’ve had in Iran, she said, “I mean, why wouldn’t you want to come here? I think everyone, especially in Iran… if there is a chance for you to get out of Iran… it’s a great country, but it has problems. The government, work-wise, having a family in general, and living, is getting harder and harder each day.” Her family applied for and was selected by the Visa lottery program.

The goal of the lottery program is to promote immigration from countries that don’t send that many people here. There is some misunderstanding about the Visa lottery program. It isn’t a lottery in the sense of how we would think of one here. Each candidate is vetted by the State Department before they are even allowed to apply. After that, the US only lets it a certain number of people each year per country. In 2010, when Esmaeili immigrated, 245,733 people applied for the program in Iran but only 2,773 actually got in.

Esmaeili says that she didn’t really understand what was going on when she was about to move. She recalls, “I don’t think my mom ever really sat me down and said, ‘Hey this is what we are doing,’ I was about to start 1st grade so it wasn’t that big of a move but I was pretty much clueless. I was in my own world.” 

“I was one of those kids who would go out to recess and just sat there because I didn’t know how to communicate with anyone and no one knew how to communicate with me.”

Sameh Esmaeili

She remembers that her transition to living here was rough for the first couple of years, “I didn’t know what was going on. As I went to school and got older, I started to understand. But I was still a kid.” She says that her biggest challenge was that she didn’t know any English when she first moved, “I was one of those kids who would go out to recess and just sat there because I didn’t know how to communicate with anyone and no one knew how to communicate with me.” It took her around 3 years to finally pick up the language. She gives credit to her parents for supporting her and helping her learn English.

When asked how it affects her life here at Redwood, Esmaeili said, “It doesn’t affect it too much now. It did more in elementary. I think 1, Being a minority, 2, Being judged, and 3, people making fun of me because of where I am from. I think it used to affect me more but as I got older, I’ve had more people say, ‘Oh, be proud that you are Persian.'”

“You should be proud of your religion and you should be proud of where you are from whether you are American or not.”

Sameh Esmaeili

This becomes a point of focus for her. She says that she doesn’t feel that she is fully American and that she still considers herself Persian. She notes that she is not disloyal to the country, but she doesn’t fully feel like she can wear the title of “American”. She says her parents say, “You should be proud of your religion and you should be proud of where you are from whether you are American or not.”

Although immigrants may not stand out here at Redwood, their culture is unique and different to each one. Like Jean Beny and Esmaeili, they are affected every day by their background and how that plays into their life at RHS.

Tags: Immigration, redwood high school, rhs