Children of Immigrants Make Headlines

I read different newspapers and blogs every day and it doesn't fail to amaze me how often there are stories about children of immigrants and immigration. It's not always about illegal immigration and "anchor babies." Most often, the stories are about contributions to American life that have been made by people who have come to this country from another place on the globe or about their children, many of whom are now adults and working in a variety of jobs. I see them every day including my hair stylist, my doctor, his assistant, and the list goes on and on.

In the Contra Costa Times reccently, there was an article with the headline, "Quality of Life Fuels Rapid Growth of Immigrants in the East Bay Suburbs." This story was about approximatley nine thousand immigrants who had moved to the California suburb of Antioch from places like Mexico, Central America, the Phillippines, South Asia and West Africa. The article notes, "With about 2,000 Nicaraguan-Americans, about half of them immigrants, Antoioch now boasts Califorian's fifth-largest Nicaraguan community - behind Los Angeles, San Francisco, Daly City and San Jose."

Every American city and its surrounding regional area are mirroring the trend of what this country's history portrays - immigrants and their children living here and trying to make better lives for themselves while also contributing to the United States.

I never tire of reading these kinds of articles because the numbers reveal the changing face of this country and because they focus on people who often work hard as they try to fufill their own Amercian dreams. Many succeed and we all benefit from that.