The New Immigrants

A new wave of pioneering immigrants has rushed headlong into Arizona the last forty years. Mexican entrepreneurs, Asian market and restaurant owners, Indian software engineers, European winemakers, and African community leaders, have all thrived in a rich atmosphere of business opportunity. Anne Snowden Crosman interviewed hundreds of immigrants, from Flagstaff and the Verde Valley to Phoenix and Tucson. To each, she asked the question, "What is your secret of survival and success?' They all answered, "Hope, hard work, persistence, and determination." "And why did you come to America?" she asked. In unison, they replied, "For the happiness to live in a free country."

A new wave of pioneering immigrants has rushed headlong into Arizona the last forty years. Mexican entrepreneurs, Asian market and restaurant owners, Indian software engineers, European winemakers, and African community leaders, have all thrived in a rich atmosphere of business opportunity. Anne Snowden Crosman interviewed hundreds of immigrants, from Flagstaff and the Verde Valley to Phoenix and Tucson. To each, she asked the question, "What is your secret of survival and success?' They all answered, "Hope, hard work, persistence, and determination." "And why did you come to America?" she asked. In unison, they replied, "For the happiness to live in a free country."

Anne Snowden Crosman, an Arizonan and world citizen, writes about people and social issues. She is the author of YOUNG AT HEART: AGING GRACEFULLY WITH ATTITUDE, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award. She has been afternoon host of "All Things Considered" at KNAU, Arizona Public Radio in Flagstaff, AZ, and a CBS and NBC Radio Network correspondent in America and abroad. She lives in Sedona, AZ.