A lot of parents struggle to talk openly about sexuality with their kid. For immigrant parents raising a family in a new country, that struggle can be amplified by unique stress factors that affect immigrant communities.

The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault has been holding discussion groups for young people with similar racial backgrounds and immigrant-parent upbringings, as a way to supplement traditional "sex ed" messaging that usually lacks cultural literacy.

One topic of focus: street harassment. 

Safia Chowdhury, an 18-year-old from Jamaica, Queens, told WNYC about a form of street harassment that she describes as very prevalent in the South Asian community:

"When we're walking down Jackson Heights or Jamaica, these heavily Desi populated areas, a lot of the uncles will—they won’t really say much, but they’ll stare. And those stares are just as annoying."

Safia, whose parents are both from Bangladesh, said a middle-aged man had been following her frequently. When she told her dad, he called the cops.

"My mom was like, 'This is just life, that’s just what’s going to happen, this happened in Bangladesh too, [it's] something you have to endure as a woman.'" Safia added. "And I’m like, okay, but I don’t want to hear that."

22-year-old Joeann Mathias, whose parents are from Haiti, said she and other black and Caribbean women have been made to feel like it's on them to not call attention to themselves on the street.

"As a woman of color, we have curves, sometimes at a young age," Mathias told WNYC. "It’s like we automatically are a target, and we don’t even know anything about sex or anything. We’re just walking in the street, and we have to always be on the lookout."

All this week on Morning Edition, we're exploring conversations between immigrant parents and their kids about sex, relationships and consent. You can listen to Monday's conversation about "The Sex Talk" here, Wednesday's segment with personal stories here, and Thursday's segment about challenging stereotypes here.

We want to hear from more of you: Immigrant parents who raised kids here, did you ever talk to your kids about street harassment? If you were raised here by immigrant parents, tell us what conversations you had, if any, about street harassment. Tweet @WNYC using #FirstGenSexTalk.