The immigration lawyer who hid her undocumented past
Qian Julie Wang arrived in the US as an undocumented child migrant. It was a secret she kept for years. When she began working on deportation cases, her past started to haunt her.
Qian Julie Wang arrived in the United States from China at the age of 7. Her family didn’t have permission to be in the country and so she always told people she’d been born there. But after fulfilling her ambition to become a lawyer, her secret became harder to bear. She was often working on immigration and deportation cases, and found it painful and conflicting to make judgements when she’d been in a similar situation. She then faced an agonising dilemma: to keep her secret or come clean. She knew that either decision could potentially mean the end of her career. Beautiful Country is by Qian Julie Wang.
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com
Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Katy Takatsuki
Picture: Qian Julie Wang
Credit: Ryan Muir
Podcast
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The Outlook Podcast Archive
True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives
