The history of America is the story of peoples from every part of the world struggling to forge a common destiny. Perhaps no nation has ever contained greater diversity—cultural, racial, and ethnic—than the United States. As the nation evolved, it found its strength in a constant reaffirmation of the value of pluralism, democracy, and tolerance, and in the capacity to benefit from the talents of its people, no matter what country or continent they came from, why they came, the language they spoke, or their beliefs and customs.

Yet at times there has also been an ambivalence toward this magnificent richness; at times our nation's willingness to cope with its diversity has been strained. Recent debates about America's civil rights agenda, incidents of racial conflict, and a new wave of immigrants suggest this is one of those times. It is also a time when the world is drawing closer together and many countries are facing challenges similar to those the United States has been struggling with since its inception. For more than forty years, the Ford Foundation's programs have addressed these issues.

BALANCING ASSIMILATION AND IDENTITY

Over the last two decades the United States has experienced one of the largest immigration flows in its history. An estimated 15 million newcomers have come to America during that time. And with recent legislation permiting the entry of 700,000 immigrants a year, we can expect that pattern to continue for the foreseeable future.

This new wave of immigration is occurring at a time when the country seems less certain of its ability to cope with legacies of past discrimination and when national fatigue in completing unfinished work on civil rights has caused some to question the country's commitment to inclusion. It is also a time when long-resident minorities are making more determined assertions of identity. All these factors are having profound effects on the nation's life, effects that are likely to intensify in the coming years.

In Los Angeles, where more than ninety foreign languages are spoken in the public schools, ethnic and racial "minorities" now compose the majority. The same is now true in New York City. But this is not merely a bi-coastal phenomenon. In Garden City, Kansas, minorities have doubled in number in the last ten years and now account for nearly 40 percent of the population— including Southeast Asian refugees, Hispanic immigrants, and American blacks. By the middle of the next century it is estimated that more Americans will trace their ancestry to Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands than to Europe.

Some longer-resident Americans see in these changes a threat to this country as they have known it. They fear that any further expansion will endanger the traditions and values that are at the heart of our national identity. Such reactions are understandable and to some extent to be expected. Rapid change, whether for an individual or for a society, is seldom welcomed without reservations. But we would do well to recall that America