IIR's Immigrant Stories Project Adds Essential Workers in Retail and Scientific Research

IIR's Immigrant Stories Project Adds Essential Workers in Retail and Scientific Research

The Institute for Immigration Research's Immigrant Stories project now includes profiles of immigrant essential workers. You can now read about the contributions immigrant workers have made during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metro areas. We begin with a focus with two essential industries: Retail and Scientific Research and Development.

Each Immigrant Story includes fact sheets with demographic data about the immigrants working in these industries, as well as analyses of the data. The Immigrant Stories also include interviews with immigrants working in these two industries: Carlos Castro and Mason's own Dr. Alessandra Luchini.

Carlos CastroCarlos Castro was born in El Salvador. He is the owner of two very successful Latin grocery stores, Todos Supermarkets, which are located in Virginia. In addition, to being a great leader for his team during the COVID-19 pandemic and serving his customers in a time of crisis, he also actively works with policymakers to ensure the voices and concerns of his employees are heard when they make decisions about the retail and grocery store sector. 

Read the full interview with Carlos Castro here.

Dr. LuchiniDr. Alessandra Luchini was born and raised in Italy. She is a Biosciences Ph.D. Program Director at the School of Systems Biology and an Associate Professor at the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) at George Mason University. After finishing her doctoral studies, she won a research fellowship sponsored by the Italian government to do cancer research, and whe moved to the United States in 2005. She has also received many teaching awards and is currently still working on the fight against cancer.

Read the full interview with Dr. Alessandra Luchini here.

Check out all of our Immigrant Stories here.