While we're celebrating Independence Day in July, we also are celebrating the vital role immigrants have played and continue to play in the shaping of our nation. In health care, immigrants have played an especially vital role in the discovery of what causes, cures, and treats diseases.
As Sophie Paczesny notes in her excellent piece on the contributions of immigrants to biomedical research, "Of the Americans who have won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Medicine, and Physics (often regarded as the highest achievement in research), 35% were immigrants. This number may be an underestimate, as it does not include winners who immigrated to America after receiving their prizes, such as Albert Einstein. This trend has accelerated over the years; from 1901 to 1959, nine immigrants to the US won Nobel Prizes in Medicine compared with 29 immigrants from 1960 to 2019." (See https://www.jci.org/articles/view/148994).
Emory Radiology team members reflect on what it means to be an immigrant, or the child of immigrants, or colleagues of those who were not born in the US but who contribute so much to our efforts in clinical care, education, and research.
As Sophie Paczesny notes in her excellent piece on the contributions of immigrants to biomedical research, "Of the Americans who have won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Medicine, and Physics (often regarded as the highest achievement in research), 35% were immigrants. This number may be an underestimate, as it does not include winners who immigrated to America after receiving their prizes, such as Albert Einstein. This trend has accelerated over the years; from 1901 to 1959, nine immigrants to the US won Nobel Prizes in Medicine compared with 29 immigrants from 1960 to 2019." (See https://www.jci.org/articles/view/148994).
Emory Radiology team members reflect on what it means to be an immigrant, or the child of immigrants, or colleagues of those who were not born in the US but who contribute so much to our efforts in clinical care, education, and research.

Nadia Vance
Senior Graphic Designer
I am happily married to another immigrant: my husband is from Venezuela. With both of us being immigrants, we can understand each other’s daily challenges, life priorities, and ways of living in the US really well. We prioritize different aspects of our heritages through languages, music, books, food, holidays, traveling, and, of course, through surrounding ourselves with various kinds of people. We are raising our daughter trilingual and with the understanding that the world is her home, not one particular country.
For me, being an immigrant means belonging to several cultures at the same time but not belonging to any particular one fully. This concept is hard to comprehend at first, as many immigrants try really hard to assimilate into the culture of their new home country. I did too. But as the years passed, I started seeing that I still do not fully blend into the US, and no longer belong to Russia either. Since then, my place is in-between, in the middle. Dual citizenship, dual thinking, friends from all over the world. It’s a challenging but exciting life.
I’ve trained myself to not pay attention to questions with unintentional microaggression, but sometimes it still hurts hearing, “Well, I’m sure you’re so happy you’re here and not in Russia!” I’d love for people to know: not all immigrants escape from their home countries, or dislike them, or want to hear how lucky they are they got out. A lot actually go back and visit often, love their motherland friends and families, really enjoy cultural aspects of life there. In the past, being an immigrant was almost always an escape from regimes, poverty, inequity, wars. This is unfortunately still true about some countries. But there are also new common reasons for immigration: desire to explore, choice to life change, multicultural relationships/families, better opportunities for certain job types in different countries, etc.. I’d love for everyone not to make assumptions based on media. Every person is unique and their situation is unique.
Working at Emory Radiology, I see layers of diverse people among our faculty and staff. Many are like me, immigrants from all over the world; others are first or second generation of immigrants. So many stories, so many destinies and life paths. When I see true diversity around me, it makes me feel accepted and allows me to be myself, and this means everything! When one doesn’t have to waste the energy on assimilating and thinking of how others see them, they can be their best selves – productive, true, and creative.
Sometimes I fear being labeled or identified as Russian because there are so many labels and stereotypes created by movies, media, and news, that instead of me, Nadia, people may instantly and sometimes subconsciously see an illegal immigrant / mail order bride / Russian mafia member / Russian hacker / communist or escapee from communism/ Putin supporter or hater/ lover of vodka (the list can go on and on). All those preconcepts almost always result in microaggression towards me (through pretty simple questions, normally) and definitely interfere with my further communication/interaction with those people.
I care about diversity, equity, and inclusion because I believe that everyone has a right to be whoever they are or want to be without fear, need of explanation or threat of non-acceptance. The world is a big place and it should be friendly to all of us, and it’s up to every single living human to make it possible.
Senior Graphic Designer
I am happily married to another immigrant: my husband is from Venezuela. With both of us being immigrants, we can understand each other’s daily challenges, life priorities, and ways of living in the US really well. We prioritize different aspects of our heritages through languages, music, books, food, holidays, traveling, and, of course, through surrounding ourselves with various kinds of people. We are raising our daughter trilingual and with the understanding that the world is her home, not one particular country.
For me, being an immigrant means belonging to several cultures at the same time but not belonging to any particular one fully. This concept is hard to comprehend at first, as many immigrants try really hard to assimilate into the culture of their new home country. I did too. But as the years passed, I started seeing that I still do not fully blend into the US, and no longer belong to Russia either. Since then, my place is in-between, in the middle. Dual citizenship, dual thinking, friends from all over the world. It’s a challenging but exciting life.
I’ve trained myself to not pay attention to questions with unintentional microaggression, but sometimes it still hurts hearing, “Well, I’m sure you’re so happy you’re here and not in Russia!” I’d love for people to know: not all immigrants escape from their home countries, or dislike them, or want to hear how lucky they are they got out. A lot actually go back and visit often, love their motherland friends and families, really enjoy cultural aspects of life there. In the past, being an immigrant was almost always an escape from regimes, poverty, inequity, wars. This is unfortunately still true about some countries. But there are also new common reasons for immigration: desire to explore, choice to life change, multicultural relationships/families, better opportunities for certain job types in different countries, etc.. I’d love for everyone not to make assumptions based on media. Every person is unique and their situation is unique.
Working at Emory Radiology, I see layers of diverse people among our faculty and staff. Many are like me, immigrants from all over the world; others are first or second generation of immigrants. So many stories, so many destinies and life paths. When I see true diversity around me, it makes me feel accepted and allows me to be myself, and this means everything! When one doesn’t have to waste the energy on assimilating and thinking of how others see them, they can be their best selves – productive, true, and creative.
Sometimes I fear being labeled or identified as Russian because there are so many labels and stereotypes created by movies, media, and news, that instead of me, Nadia, people may instantly and sometimes subconsciously see an illegal immigrant / mail order bride / Russian mafia member / Russian hacker / communist or escapee from communism/ Putin supporter or hater/ lover of vodka (the list can go on and on). All those preconcepts almost always result in microaggression towards me (through pretty simple questions, normally) and definitely interfere with my further communication/interaction with those people.
I care about diversity, equity, and inclusion because I believe that everyone has a right to be whoever they are or want to be without fear, need of explanation or threat of non-acceptance. The world is a big place and it should be friendly to all of us, and it’s up to every single living human to make it possible.