Immigration is often said to be an entrepreneurial act, a gamble taken with the expectation of a future reward for the up-front risk. Victor Alarcón, Sr., followed his sisters-in-law to the United States even though he had no contacts there and spoke no English.

Over the next twenty years he learned English, taught himself new skills, worked in a variety of jobs, and even went into business for himself. He passed his energy and entrepreneurial drive on to his sons, who grew up in Fairfax County, Virginia, surrounded by other immigrants. Álvaro’s closest friends in high school were two other young immigrants, one from Pakistan and one from Korea.

The 9-11 terror attacks and the rise of Islamist extremism as a U.S. security threat meant that Muslim immigrants in the United States were often viewed with suspicion. The Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, where many Muslim immigrants worshipped, came under special scrutiny.

Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was born in the United States to immigrants from Yemen, served as an imam at Dar Al Hijrah and later advocated violent attacks on Americans. He came to the attention of FBI investigators after it became clear that he had met some 9-11 hijackers. Awlaki had impressed Esam Omeish, one of the lay leaders at the mosque, as a moderate.

His case illustrated how difficult it sometimes was to determine who and why some Muslims became radicalized.

A 1965 law made immigration to the United States possible for people around the world who previously would not have qualified for admission to the country.

Among those who benefitted was Nak Man Seong, who immigrated with his wife Jeom Chul and their children in 1976. Nak Man and Jeom Chul were brought to the United States to work at a chicken processing plant, in menial jobs that native-born Americans had spurned.

They lived frugally and saved as much as they could and were able to send their children to college. Their daughter Gyeong, who took the name Alex in America, became a lawyer and later married Mark Keam, whose family had also immigrated from Korea. Mark and Alex settled in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Find out more about this immigration story and many others in Tom Gjelten’s A Nation of Nations.

Like thousands of other non-European immigrants who came to the United States after the 1965 immigration reforms, Esam Omeish and his family settled in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 1970, Fairfax County was more than ninety percent white, with an African-American minority population that was just overcoming decades of segregation and prejudice.

Over the next forty years, the county was fundamentally transformed by immigration. By 2015, nearly one out of three county residents were foreign-born, and the demographic change had political as well as cultural implications. In 2009, Omeish ran for the Virginia House of Delegates. He was defeated by another immigrant, Mark Keam.