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HarvardScience is a publication of the Harvard Office of News and Public Affairs devoted to all matters related to science at the various schools, departments, institutes, and hospitals of Harvard University.
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Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco are looking into the ways children respond to their new world. "Either they do very well -- many valedictorians are the children of immigrants -- or they slip through the cracks too quickly."

Photo by Kris Snibbe

Immigration experts focus on attitudes of children

Too many young immigrants looking into 'toxic mirror'

February 24, 2000

Too many immigrants in the United States are staring into what Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco call "a toxic mirror" that seriously compromises the self-image of children who will grow up to be part of American society. The husband-and-wife team, who co-direct the Harvard Immigration Project, believe it's time for society to remake the image in that social mirror. The two are working to reshape a national immigration dialogue that they feel has been focused too long on immigration levels and on economic costs and benefits. The children of today's immigrants will be our teachers, our police, and our business and political leaders, say the Suarez-Orozcos. In short, America is and will continue to be what it always has been – a country of immigrants.

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