What does thriving mean for Philly’s recent immigrants? Finding opportunity, overcoming fear and ‘creating something’

Philadelphia is currently home to the largest immigrant population it’s seen since the 1940s, with about 15% of current residents reporting that they were born in another country, per Pew’s just-released State of the City 2023.

The proportion of immigrant residents is higher here than the nation-wide population of 13.6%, and nearly a quarter of Philadelphia residents speak something other than English at home. Plenty of immigrants live in Philly’s surrounding counties, too, but those who do live within city limits have historically lived in Northeast and South Philly neighborhoods. In the last decade, though, more have moved to West Philadelphia, Chinatown and North Philadelphia.

Even though the local immigrant population is rising, it’s an often under-covered and underrepresented group. And many recent immigrants live on low wages, intersecting with Philadelphia’s lingering poverty problem: About 36% of its population lives on about $35,000 or less, Pew found this year. About 60,000 recent immigrants live in Philadelphia, per a Technical.ly analysis of recent Census figures, and about two thirds of them make similar wages.

What does it mean to thrive?

Technical.ly’s Thriving series looks at how different groups in Philadelphia and beyond think about their work, life and economic success. In this feature, we focused on the thousands of recent immigrants in this working-class income range. What have they gained from immigrating to the US, and what stands in the way of their success?

Much has changed about immigration to the US in the last century, but the reasons for immigrating have stayed relatively the same. We heard from the folks we talked to for this story that economics, freedom from religious or political systems at home, and safety were among the top reasons they decided to immigrate to Philadelphia.

While these motivators were cited for most of the people we spoke to for this story, other challenges were clear. Living with an undocumented status often leaves folks out of traditional resources for business capital or job access. Having a first language other than English can make navigating a primarily English-speaking city harder. And operating while your identity is being politicized at every turn also makes for a stressful existence.

Some of the people we talked to for this story emphasized that they wanted to highlight the everyday experiences of immigrants, especially when media coverage around immigration can be overwhelmingly negative.

“The only thing that separates an undocumented person from a regular person is just a social security number,” a 36-year-old Jamaican immigrant told Technical.ly. “We’re doing the same thing — we’re driving cars, we shop at the same grocery store, we pay taxes and we contribute to the economy. But we are looked down as the worst of the worst or not deserving.”

Jo, 36, of North Philadelphia: Living on ‘my own terms’

Jo didn’t necessarily have the goal of running her own business when she immigrated to Philadelphia from Jamaica in 2019, but she had a hard time securing a job.

After a few months, Jo, who requested Technical.ly use her nickname for this story, decided to try her hand at entrepreneurship. She comes from the design world, and began work on her firm, Jo Norm Creative Marketing, a design and marketing company to help businesses brand themselves and increase their online presence. She mostly serves other small businesses.

“I wanted to see if I could do it on my own,” she said. “They say America is the land of opportunity, and I wanted to try. I’m a doer.”

Jo. (Courtesy photo)

She got connected to The Welcoming Center, a nonprofit in Philadelphia that helps immigrants find community, workforce opportunities and entrepreneurship resources. Though it connected her to resources, external factors make it challenging to thrive. The pandemic hit the region less than a year after Jo moved to Philadelphia, and she recently got out of an abusive relationship. All of that is happening in the background as she attempts to promote her business as an undocumented person.

“I can’t do a lot because I don’t want to cross the line at all and, you know, do anything that I’m not supposed to do,” Jo said. That’s caused a sense of fear. “I didn’t know how far I could go.”

But working for herself has turned out to be a form of freedom.

“To create boundaries for myself, and the freedom of going above and beyond on my own terms,” Jo said, have been the benefits she’s gained as an entrepreneur. “I can help as many people as I want, or I can not help as many people as I want. But I want to do it if I can. Versus if I were working for someone, they would tell me as far as we can go.”

“They say America is the land of opportunity, and I wanted to try. I’m a doer.”

Jo also cited her undocumented status as a barrier to growing her business. She’s left out of a lot of options other small business owners have access to, especially capital. She’d like some day to move her business out of her home and into a storefront, and to be able to be a “one-stop shop” for her clients, offering even more services like business cards or websites.

In her personal life, Jo is looking forward to living with less fear. She’s physically safer since leaving her past relationship, and the pandemic has eased some of the economic uncertainty she experienced, but her identity and where she lives in the city keeps her on edge.

“For a few years I have been living in fear and fearful of being in trouble or being deported, or you know, just having run-ins with the cops, or being shot — because you know Philadelphia is getting crazy,” Jo said. “Last year was a hard year for me, because I was really struck down.”

But 2023 is going to be different, she said. In these fearful moments, Jo leans on her faith in God to feel that things will work out. She extends this thinking to her daughter, who’s had trouble at school with bullies. Jo also works with New Sanctuary Movement, a grassroots organization aiming to empower Philadelphia’s immigrants with legal aid, and community. Jo said she aims to be a voice or lend a hand to anyone who’s in a situation like hers.

“I didn’t have a person like me, so I can be that person for my community,” Jo said.

Jo said she doesn’t think she’s thriving yet — she’s just started going out and socializing more in the last year or so. The fear is hard to shake. But she’s optimistic about the future of her business, what she can offer clients and her and her daughter’s life in Philadelphia.

“I’m like a hidden gem,” she said. “I can’t wait to just thrive out the door into somebody’s arms who really needs a gem in their life.”

Rosa Flores, 36, Mayfair: ‘This is my dream’

Thirty-six-year-old Rosa Flores has spent the last four years in Philadelphia after immigrating from Honduras. Though she’s a florist now  — and yes, she knows how well-aligned her name and profession are — she came to the United States after a career in law.

Flores was beginning to study for her master’s degree but her financial situation and the lack of safety at home pushed her to come to Philadelphia in 2019 to join her mother and siblings here. She couldn’t speak any English, so she began working in a Mexican restaurant, where she’s learned some of the language. (Technical.ly used a translator for this interview.)

Rosa Flores. (Courtesy photo)

After departing Honduras, she started to consider something she’s always loved — flowers — as a career. She’s launched a floral business, and has been picking up customers here and there. Business has picked up recently, after Flores vended at the Wedding Expo at the Convention Center in January, and customers have been finding her through her website. Churches have been a main source of business, she said, and though her business faces challenges, the incoming requests keep her going.

“I feel very, very motivated because people started calling me asking me for my services,” Flores said.

Her days in the US have a slower pace compared to when she lived in Honduras. There, she’d practice law in the morning, prepare lunch for missionaries over lunch, pick up her daughters from school in the afternoon, help her father with his safety business and work in a restaurant at night. But she says working for herself has always been a priority.

“I love our culture and this is my dream.”

“Since an early age I have been in the entrepreneur world,” Flores said.

Her access to resources as an immigrant is the most challenging part of getting her business off the ground now, Flores said. She struggles to find capital, an essential if she wants to move into a space where she and her family can live and she can use as a retail space. And not speaking English fluently has added another barrier.

But Flores calls herself a dreamer, saying the challenges don’t “dampen my spirits.”

She often misses home as well as her work helping others as a lawyer. But she’s grown to love Philadelphia as another home. It’s where she met her husband, and where her young daughters are flourishing. They have more opportunities in their lives through education here, she said.

“On the other hand, I love flowers. I love crafts. I love our culture and this is my dream,” Flores said. “It’s this flower shop, maybe it’s because of my name — my name is Rose Flowers, Rosa Flores.”

Manuel Castillo, 37, Northwest Philadelphia: On ‘creating something together’

Manuel Castillo, a 37-year-old Northwest Philadelphia resident, also changed careers when he came to the US. Castillo immigrated from Chile last year to be with his wife, Kate, in Philadelphia, and left his job as a history teacher behind.

He started working with The Welcoming Center to get connected to peers, make friends and practice his English. (Castillo spoke to Technical.ly with some translation provided.)

After he spent a few months at the organization, Director of Community Engagement Manual Portillo spotted Castillo’s ease for the community-focused work that the center provides, and asked him to join the team. Castillo now works at The Welcoming Center as a support educator for an incubator group of women who are developing a cleaning cooperative. They are drafting cooperative ideals, lessons on starting a business and how to work in community toward the same goal. Castillo said the cooperative is unique in that instead of working for someone or something, they work together as a collective unit.

Manuel Castillo. (Courtesy photo)

“It’s in contrast to the way many people have experienced work,” he said.

Although every immigrant has different reasons for coming to the US, Castillo said many of the people he works with at The Welcoming Center immigrated to the US because of unsafe situations in their home countries, either from crime or from political structures. Many also come seeking better economic opportunities.

The work Castillo does at The Welcoming Center is based in South Philadelphia, and he finds a sense of connectedness with other recent immigrants in that neighborhood.

“You always see someone you know,” he said, “And it’s a really amazing feeling of community.”

Castillo said in his current work, he gets to use a lot of the skills he had from being a history teacher, like teaching autonomy and community organizing, but with an adult group. Learning English is one of his biggest barriers right now, as part of his work at The Welcoming Center is connecting with other immigrant-serving institutions in the Philly area.

But the work is his definition of thriving, he said, as his happiness, peace and joy comes from investing in other people. His ultimate goal is to continue to do work that challenges systems of inequality.

“It’s a lot of joy to see this kind of community of people creating something together,” he said.

Anthony and Theresa Mami, 50s, Lansdowne: ‘A different world’

Community is also at the center of Anthony and Theresa Mami’s pursuit of happiness and meaning. The married couple has been in the US since the 1990s, after immigrating separately from Sierra Leone to Maryland and Pennsylvania. Theresa, 50, attended college in Montgomery County, and Anthony, 53, moved to the area after they met to be with her.

The pair have built a life here — four kids, heavy involvement in their parish, and their Kingsessing-based business, Mossmart, which sells African food, clothing and accessories. The biggest challenges the family faces right now are financial, they said. The local business corridors struggled in 2020 through the pandemic, and many business owners experienced damage to their storefronts throughout protests. Last year, the Mamis were denied for a small business loan, they said, without much reason.

The Mami family. (Courtesy photo)

It can feel challenging to weather storms as Black immigrants, especially, the Mamis said.

“Everyone has this perspective when we’re home that America is such a golden place. I mean, everything gold, the streets are gold,” Theresa Mami said. “To the contrary, right? Because I quickly learned that there’s nothing here that’s free. You have to work hard. But then there’s this roadblock for some of us, even though we work hard we’re not getting anywhere, financially. We’re grateful to take care of our family. [Yet] compared to what we were thinking, it’s quite a different world.”

In the early 2000s, the couple said they had an easier time. They had just moved to Philadelphia, and the job market worked in their favor. They felt like their money stretched a lot farther than it goes these days.

But their cup feels full when they reflect on their personal and faith lives. Their four kids are growing and thriving, as they prepare for their oldest to graduate college next month. They contribute to their parish, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at large. They also got involved with AFRICOM-Philly, a nonprofit advocating for and organizing with African and Caribbean immigrants in the region.

Their experience in America is reflective of what Technical.ly heard often in reporting this story: They came to the US seeking more freedom and financial opportunities, and while they’ve found community, they’ve also faced more roadblocks than expected. But for the Mamis, their life in the US has become fulfilling in the personal goals they’ve been able to set and meet.

“We are growing our personal life, but not financially,” Anthony said. “In life, we believe in the higher being, so we look forward to that, we don’t have to be wandering around because it’s always about belief. That’s where we thrive.”