Ali Lapetina

Documentary Photographer
 
Rohingya in Chicago
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Nationality: American
Biography: Ali Lapetina (she/they)  is a mother, documentary photographer and teaching artist based in Detroit, Michigan. Her personal practice as a documentary photographer is rooted in collaborating with communities through long-form visual... MORE
Public Story
Rohingya in Chicago
Copyright Ali Lapetina 2024
Date of Work Mar 2017 - Oct 2017
Updated Feb 2018
Topics Activism, Children, Community, Discrimination, Documentary, Dreams, Education, Emotion, Family, Freedom, Genocide, Globalization, Hope, Human Rights, Immigration, Islam, Isolation, Joy, Loss, Love, Migration, Minority, Motherhood, Oppression, Orphans, Parenting & Family, Peace, Photography, Photojournalism, Politics, Poverty, Protests, Racism, Relationships, Religion, Reporting, Revolution, School/College, Spirituality, Teens, Violence, War, Youth

The Rohingya people are desperately escaping Myanmar, the country where they have faced persecution for generations. The situation now borders on genocide and more than 700,000 have fled just in the past few months. Though the refugees are mostly in camps in neighboring Bangladesh, they have also been trickling into the United States in recent years. About 400 families have settled in Rogers Park on Chicago's North Side, one of the country's largest concentrations of Rohingya.

I wanted to photograph their quest to assimilate into American life while staying true to the traditions of their home country and Islam.  When I visited Rogers Park, the people I met told me that the comfort of the tight community of Rohingya and other immigrants was helping them rebuild their lives. Shared experiences have brought the community particularly close.

The story was originally published in The New York Times, October 2017.

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