Iyow - in your own words

One of the things that gets lost in the immigration debate with all of the special interest group politicking is that it’s not just residents of host countries that feel ambivalence: Immigrants are also conflicted by this decision. Aside from war refugees, immigration is usually motivated by economic pressures on both sides. Immigrants make a better wage by immigrating; host countries get skilled or willing labor that is scarce among its citizens.

I have a bit to say on this subject of immigration and choices made, and if you do too, let us know. The risks and rewards for integration amongst people of difference races, cultures, values, are richer and more complex than any sound bite. _This piece is Part One of ‘A Long Way Home,’ a series on immigration we began in April 2006_.

My immediate family (parents and uncles/aunts) trickled to the United States from Taiwan over a span of time from the late 1960s to early 1980s. My parents, the first in both of their families to emigrate, came on academic graduate scholarships – a well-worn path to the American Dream for many East and South Asians. They came to fulfill the promise of their intelligence in a country that prides itself on providing opportunities to the able. By and large, they did, earning multiple graduate degrees in their second language; climbing the corporate ladder and providing comfortably for their family; sharing in all the mundane yet real pleasures of suburban Midwestern life in the U.S. And on my father’s part, they also came for the adventure.

America benefits enormously from the skills and willing efforts of people like my parents: For their entire careers, they both worked in industries that fuel economic growth, and my father did his fair bit for technological innovation, garnering 18 co-authored patents and seeing his inventions in wide use in the packaging industry and the military. And this is the true exchange of the American Dream – the chance to be of use and to gain a little wealth – not the more ephemeral realm of one’s heart’s desires and hopes. It can be a lonely exchange.

I can’t speak for them, but I’m glad that they came here and gave their best shot at something new and terrifying. It’s given my sister and me a very rich foundation from which to draw, the experience to try and create connections between the disparate cultures that we come from. I feel the rewards of that are better than anything else in the world. And at the end of the day, I think they understand that feeling too.