9781422281000

Americans’ struggle continues, and some Asian Americans, whose families have been in America for generations, are the victims of current anti-immi- grant sentiment. Time changes both immigrants and America. Each wave of new immi- grants, with their strange language and habits, eventually grows old and passes away. Their American-born children speak English. The immi- grants’ grandchildren are completely American. The strange foods of their ancestors—spaghetti, baklava, hummus, or tofu—become common in any American restaurant or grocery store. Much of what the immigrants brought to these shores is lost, principally their language. And what is gained becomes as American as St. Patrick’s Day, Hanukkah, or Cinco de Mayo, and we forget that it was once something foreign. Recent immigrants are all around us. They come from every corner of the earth to join in the American Dream. They will continue to help make the American Dream a reality, just as all the immigrants who came before them have done.

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