Every year thousands of individuals and families pour into Western countries from faraway lands and far away cultures. As they are about to step on foreign soil, filled with both hope and anxiety, in all too many cases, their minds are filled with images seen on TV or in movies about rich lands and exciting cities where poverty is nowhere to be found, where abundant wealth is there for the taking.Unfortunately, those hopeful eyes will soon be confronted with many painful realities. Instead of the large suburban houses, many will end up in crowded apartment buildings filled with criminals, schools packed with young people that will be too self-absorbed to care about them and who all too often see them and treat them as inferiors.The parents will often go from hopeful to deeply disappointed. The jobs they hoped for will be unavailable to them, and they will have to settle for the scraps that locals do not want and pays that will barely suffice to keep them afloat.I and my family have been there. We have felt the hope and we have shared in the dreams.

I, personally, have felt the abuse - often hate-filled abuse - mentally and physically.I have seen the hopefulness turn to helplessness in my parents and the temporary discouragement which led to questioning the decision to emigrate and the temptation to go back home where all was so simple, so familiar and so much less challenging.But I also saw things change. As adaptation took place; as perseverance set in, I saw things improve and I witnessed the benefits multiply - greatly. As I look back today as an older man from Calabria, in Southern Italy, I remember that all the disappointments, all the challenges, all the anxieties gradually were replaced with surprising adaptation, amazing successes and finally the reaping of wonderful benefits for my parents, who refused to give in, for me who became a successful educator, a psychotherapist and author and for my three children, also successful professionals, who are now part of the fabric of "America," who have at their grasp the many opportunities of this blessed land. All this took place because when things looked bleak and overwhelming their grandparents and father did not give in, and did not give up.I hope that readers who have recently come to "America" will read and be encouraged not to give in, not to give up, not to allow the feelings of despondency win over their minds, but to go on and continue fighting; for victory and success are ahead, if they only persevere and never allow feelings of hopelessness have their destructive way.