Lived experiences of diversity visa lottery immigrants in the United States

Abstract

Every year approximately 50,000 people immigrate to the United States through the avenue referred to as the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery. In this article, the authors present a literature review of immigration to the U.S. through the DV Lottery, reflect on their own immigration histories, and utilize phenomenology to investigate and describe participant feelings, expectations, and experiences as DV Lottery immigrants. Participants experienced mixed feelings, including high expectations prior to and difficulties after immigrating to the U.S. Findings presented include (a) life experienced in the U.S.; (b) access to learning and training opportunities; and (c) recommended support future DV Lottery immigrants. © 2012: Teleab Elos Hailu, Bernadette M. Mendoza, Maria K. E. Lahman, Veronica M. Richard, and Nova Southeastern University.