Welcome to the first episode of Immigrant Tales, a new subseries of Model Minority: Uniquely American!

Chu May Paing is a PhD student and Burmese immigrant who first came to the United States through a visa lottery ticket. Despite having all her immigration papers and status in line, she found herself facing a multitude of barriers when she tried to find employment in the United States, with discrimination coming from both within and outside of the Asian community.

In this story of adversity and resilience, we are invited to challenge our definitions of "success" and "equality" for Asian immigrants. Through Chu's eyes, we can see how even when people coming to America do everything "right," they face experiences that can be only be described as - troublingly - Uniquely American. You can find more about Chu's work on the Southeast Asian community her website here.