Source: The Chicago Sun-Times
http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel16.html
On April 16, 2004 The Chicago Sun-Times reported, "The PBS special 'The New Immigrants' is a cinematic masterpiece... a sensitive, compelling, irresistible collection of stories about immigrant families from Nigeria, Palestine, Dominica, Mexico and India -- both before they leave their native lands and after they come to America. The people are warm, likeable and very brave. Even the most truculent nativist immigrant hater will be won over by these young men and women...' Yet there is one major flaw in the presentation: The churches are left out. There is an occasional shot of Our Lady of Guadalupe or of the Palestinian women praying on her knees, but the series seems to ignore the critical role that churches play in the lives of immigrants. Sociologists have shown that the churches of the new immigrants have similar functions as did the churches of our ancestors a century ago... The local church (or synagogue or mosque or temple) becomes a community center around which people rally, especially when they face the struggles of the immigrant generation."