After he flew into a vicious rage during a family holiday, I knew I needed to get away for good. My mother helped me flee India and start a new life abroad

I was lost when I learned that the customs, references, and, most significantly, attitudes of the British class system did not translate across the pond

The pain of being split up without knowing whether we would be together again was immense. I don’t think we’ve ever healed from that

I was quite happy to stay living in Bangalore. But when the opportunity to pursue my writing arrived, I couldn’t turn it down

I’ve had neighbors who thought I didn’t deserve to live because of where I came from. But that won’t stop me from opening up to strangers

Because I am an undocumented immigrant, I fear I will have to leave the only country I have ever known if the Republican candidate is elected

I’m a Muslim immigrant from Mali. But, Mr Trump, that doesn’t stop me from loving America and all that goes with it: football, basketball and James Brown

It’s hard to explain why I don’t want to go back, but I love it here. I have never felt more free

Republicans didn’t always spurn immigrants. When we were asylum-seekers from Poland, GOP politicians helped us stay here

Though I mastered the French language and most of the cultural codes, people often reminded me that I was not exactly ‘French’. That doesn’t happen here

I own guns, drive an ice-cream truck and live with the love of my life: a redhead with steel-grey eyes. What more could I want?

There wasn’t a future for me back in Kuala Lumpur. But when I met an American man, I found a country where my background was not an obstacle

In high school I became conscious that I was an immigrant – but that I didn’t conform to people’s stereotypes

When I think back to that day in the court in California, I still don’t know why he didn’t deport me

I gave the patient emergency medicine donated through Islamic alms-giving. I didn’t know they were only meant for Muslims

By all definitions, I’m a successful scholar and teacher, although I still shrug off puzzled questions about why I don’t work on Indian history

When John F Kennedy was killed, I wondered what kind of country this was. Then I kept being asked if we had TV in England and what language we spoke

I was born in Pakistan and had lived in America for over a decade, without feeling like I belonged – but that changed when I wept for the country in 2004

Despite living in Russia for my first 20 years, I don’t call myself Russian-American. My country of birth never accepted me, so why should I accept it now?