WORLD REPORT EDITION

  January 30, 2004

Coming to America

The nation's newest immigrants share a time-honored dream

The United States is a nation built by immigrants. In the 1840s, the first wave came from Ireland, England and Germany to dig waterways and lay railroad tracks. From 1890 to 1924, a second wave crashed over Ellis Island, the historic immigration station in New York Harbor, from countries such as Italy and Russia. These newcomers toiled in factories and built mighty cities.

Now, a new wave of immigrants is coming to America. By the most recent count, some 31 million immigrants live in the U.S. They make up 11.5% of the population. Like those who came before, these immigrants arrived hoping to build their own version of the American Dream.

A NEW ERA WITH NEW CHALLENGES

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, America has been rethinking its immigration policy. Some people want to limit the number of new immigrants to 300,000 a year. New rules were made to keep out foreigners who intend to harm us. All foreign visitors face new delays, including high-tech screening and longer waiting periods. On January 7, President Bush proposed a plan to make it easier to track the 8 million illegal immigrants in the country. Still, some 3.3 million new immigrants have arrived since January 2000.

Once here, immigrants need help. "Family is always the first resource," says Lily Woo, the principal of Public School 130, in Manhattan, where many Chinese newcomers attend school. Extended immigrant families help one another find housing and work. Other support groups, like churches and community centers, are not as strong as they once were. As a result, nearly 25% of today's immigrant households receive government assistance, typically for health care and school for their children. Some 30% of immigrants have not graduated high school, and many have low-paying jobs.

Early immigrants quickly took on all aspects of American culture, says Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies. "Italian immigrants would claim Thomas Jefferson as an ancestor," Camarota says. With cell phones and the Internet, it's now easier for newcomers to keep in touch with the country they left behind.

"I'm the luckiest kid in the world," says Prudence Simon, 10, who now lives in New York. "I have two homes, Trinidad and the U.S.A."

Only the future will reveal how the new immigrants will build their American Dream. But one thing is certain: They have a rich history on which to lay a foundation.

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