Sean Oh
Esperanza Immigrants Rights Project
USA (Los Angeles)
My name is Sean Oh and I am a rising senior at NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. My concentration is “international law and long-term nation development,” focusing on a comparative study between Latin American countries and East Asian countries.
The human rights organization I will be working with this summer is the Esperanza Immigrants Right Project. I plan to work with the direct legal advocacy of unrepresented children, reuniting them with their families and working for their legal status to reside in the United States.
I chose this project for two primary reasons: I am an immigrant who once lost status to reside in the United States, and I believe that children are the light and hope of this world. While my experience will not correlate completely with the experiences of those I will be working with, I believe in the importance of intersectionally shared experiences, which I hope to leverage into my position. While I believe that greater institutional reform is necessary for immigration rights, currently we find ourselves in the situation that we are in and must work within it to maximize the justice we can hope to achieve.
Through this project, I hope to understand better the process of immigration and the types of institutional changes that may improve the system to be one of greater equity. What are the roadblocks that bar justice, and how do we dismantle the notion that immigration is a poison to this nation?
I anticipate a great deal of challenges. The battle for human rights always seems to be a difficult one, one constantly facing many and greater adversities. There will be institutional roadblocks and more logistical ones, since the organization I am working for may not have the proper faculties for the change that I hope to see. I recognize that these roadblocks exist but refuse to use them as an excuse not to try. I refuse to give in to complacency and I refuse to let injustice win. I am determined.