The changing face of America: the biggest immigratign boom in a century is transforming the way the nation looks, feels, and sounds. (Cover Story).

When Anya Kopylev was growing up in Russia, everybody in her school looked and sounded just like her. "If I saw a black person, it was a whole occasion," she says.

But since she arrived in New York City in 1995, everything has changed. Her fellow students have been not only African Americans but also people from India, Mexico, Korea, China, Pakistan, and many more countries. And she has become so accustomed to rubbing shoulders with people of different colors, religions, backgrounds, and languages that any other life would seem monotonous.

"Having lived here now, diversity doesn't seem at all strange to me," says Kopylev, 18. "Now I find the diversity around me a natural thing. I wouldn't really want to be in a state with just white people."

New York City, where students come from 162 different countries, may be the exception, but the rest of the country is catching up fast.

The 2000 census shows that the U.S. is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse than at any time in its history. And more than 20 years of sustained immigration has scattered that diversity beyond the traditional immigrant ports of entry, like New York and Los Angeles, and into heartland cities like Des Moines and the suburbs of Connecticut and Georgia.

"Immigration is transforming this country in ways we are just beginning to grasp," says Demetrios G. Papademetriou, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. "And the dispersion of immigrants will be a transforming event for the way we understand, study, and talk politically about immigration for years to come."

THE BIG DRAW: JOBS

The economic boom of the 1990s created jobs all over the country that drew the largest influx of newcomers in U.S. history. Cities such as Chicago, which had been losing population, now bustle with new residents. Non-Hispanic whites have become a minority in half of the nation's 100 largest cities. The Hispanic population surged by more than 60 percent over the last decade, putting Hispanics slightly ahead of blacks as the nation's largest minority group (see "Who Are We?" page 15). In New Mexico and California, they are the largest ethnic group, outnumbering non-Hispanic whites.

The changes are so deep and widespread you almost don't notice them, although they affect the way the country looks, feels, and sounds. Latin stars like Jennifer Lopez and Benicio Del Toro are everybody's stars. Alex Rodriguez, born to Dominican parents, is the highest-paid American baseball player, period. Chinese herbal medicines have made it into mainstream drugstores, while Hindu temples and Muslim mosques stand beside suburban shopping malls. At the drive-through, burritos are catching up with burgers, and across the country, politicians have begun to retool their strategies to account for the potential Latino vote--President Bush even delivered a recent radio address in Spanish.

NO MORE FAVORITISM

America has always been a land of immigrants (see "Destination: America," page 28). But its new diversity is the result of a change in national policy. After World War I, quotas favored immigrants from Western Europe. A 1965 law threw open the doors to newcomers from all over the world and a flood of Latin Americans and Asians responded.

Despite their own foreign roots, Americans have always shown ambivalence toward immigration. It continues today. Some states are actively courting immigrants to invigorate dying industries. In Iowa, for example, Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, says the state will need 567,000 new workers over the next decade to replenish the aging labor force. But while the Governor urges immigrants to come, state legislators are pushing to make English the official state language, a proposal that critics see as a thinly disguised anti-immigrant effort.

Latino day laborers who wait for work on street corners have drawn fire in many cities. And an ad campaign by the Coalition for the Future American Worker contends that immigrants rob Americans of jobs and depress wages, while other critics argue that they strain health and school resources.

CHASING THE: DREAM

But immigration advocates say newcomers revive U.S. cities, provide much-needed skills in high-tech businesses, and take jobs that Americans do not want anyway. They point out that new immigrants contribute to society just as the immigrant grandparents of today's native-born Americans did: They buy homes, open businesses, pay taxes, and add to the nation's productivity (see chart below).

In some places, they're also flexing political muscle. When Californians approved a ballot initiative (later overturned in court) that cut social benefits to illegal immigrants in 1994, angry Latinos mobilized against Republicans, who had backed the measure.

Inevitably, people have had to adjust. In Fremont, California, where Asians now represent 37 percent of the population, the police were upset that Indian Sikhs wanted their children to wear traditional swords, or kirpans to school. Eventually, the schools decided to allow kirpans only if they were concealed and their blades blunted.

Some U.S.-born students say they sometimes feel like strangers in their own schools. "It gets frustrating when you're in the minority," says Lindsey Johnson, a freshman at Mission San Jose High School. "My best friend and I are blond, light-eyed, and in honors classes. When we walk into the room, you can tell from the body language they're thinking, `Why are you in this class?'"

Despite their growing numbers, immigrants have yet to become a political force in most of the country. Many are not citizens, and therefore not voters. But that will change as the relatively youthful immigrants have children born in the U.S.

Political activism is already stirring. Michelle Kim is a 22-year-old, second-generation Korean-American whose parents' chief interest was getting their children into good colleges. Kim has further ambitions. "I see the need for somebody to be out there as a voice for the Asian community," says Kim, a junior at Rutgers University. "Somebody has got to do it, so it might as well be me."

WHO ARE WE?

America in the new millennium is more diverse than
ever, with Latinos edging out blacks as the country's
largest minority group.

White Non-Hispanic     69.1%
Hispanic               12.5%
Black                  12.1%
Native American          .7%
Asian                   3.6%
Other                   1.9%

SOURCE: 2000 CENSUS

Note: Table made from pie chart.
WHERE ARE WE FROM?

Almost half of today's immigrants are Hispanic,
with more than a quarter of all immigrants coming
from Mexico. The next-largest group comes from
East Asia.

Mexico                 27.7%
East Asia              17.9%
Europe                 15.3%
Caribbean               9.9%
Central America         6.9%
South America           6.6%
South Asia              4.6%
Middle East             3.6%
Other                   7.4%

Note: Table made from pie chart.
Show Me the Money

Do immigrants contribute to the American economy? Or are they a drain on
resources? Here's a look at the numbers.

* Amount an average immigrant pays in taxes in a
  year:                                                 $5,313 *

* Cost of government benefits that an average
  Immigrant receives in a year:                         $4,732 **

* Percentage of immigrants who arrived in 1990s now
  living in poverty:                                    23.5

* Percentage of immigrants who arrived in 1980s now
  living in poverty:                                    15.2

* Percentage of immigrants who arrived in 1970s now
  living in poverty:                                    11.5

* Percentage of native-born Americans living in
  poverty:                                              11.2

* Average federal taxes paid by a family with a
  naturalized citizen (foreign born):                   $6,580

* Average federal taxes paid by a family with only
  U.S.-born members:                                    $5,070

* Estimated amount immigrant-owned businesses paid
  in taxes in 1997:                                     $29.2 billion

* Includes taxes paid by children of living
Immigrants.

** Includes services that go to all citizens, such
as public education, police, and transportation.
The most expensive government-paid benefit most
immigrants receive is the education of their
children.

REALATED ARTICLE: Rock en ingles?

Rock en espanol, bubblinq up from south of the border, may be poised to cross over with the immigrant influx.

The movement mixes Latin influences with rock and a sprinkling of punk, electronica, and hip-hop. Rock en espanol has gained exposure through MTV-S, the all-Spanish music channel aimed at 1 million U.S. Hispanic households, and in packed concerts in such ethnically diverse cities as New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.

It's the "en espanol" part, though, that might hold it back. Hispanic singers Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony struck mainstream gold only after recording CDs primarily in English. But Andrea Echeverri of Aterciopelados, one of the most popular rock en espanol groups, doesn't want to do an English CD. "I've heard English people singing in Spanish, and it's terrible," says the Colombian singer, citing Jon Bon Jovi for one. "I don't want to sound terrible. I think Spanish and the whole cultural thing is a very important part of our music."

One singer-songwriter trying to knock down the language barrier is fellow Colombian Shakira. With a style between rock and pop, the star in Latin America has yet to take off in the U.S. After studying to get a better mastery of the language, she plans to release her first English CD later this month. "My dream is that Americans who don't speak Spanish also can enjoy my music and understand my feelings," she says. "But I'm not going to stop writing in Spanish. That's going to always keep me attached to my people."

--Chris Tauber

RELATED ARTICLE: The push for color tv.

Not only does Friends still have no Hispanic friends, neither do Buffy, Malcolm, or Dawson. Though Latinos now make up 12.5 percent of the population, you'd never know it watching primetime TV. Only 2 percent of the characters last season were Hispanic, down from 3 percent the season before. "They remain the most invisible segment on network television," says National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts President Felix Sanchez.

The upcoming season doesn't look much better. CBS planned a show called American Family, a first-of-its-kind network family drama about middle-class Hispanics, but decided not to schedule it. PBS will air it instead. The only other Hispanic-centric drama is on cable: Resurrection Blvd. on Showtime (above right). On the major networks, Latinos are again left with minor roles and a short list of Hispanic actors playing non-Hispanic characters, including Dark Angel's Jessica Alba, who is part Mexican, and The West Wing's Martin Sheen, who was born Ramon Estevez to immigrant parents from Ireland and Spain.

One of the factors contributing to the TV "brownout" is money. TV advertisers pay millions to reach the people with the most buying power: whites, age 18-49. Latinos are often viewed as lower-class immigrants, and networks tailor shows for advertisers. Another factor is the lack of diversity behind the scenes. Predominantly white writers, directors, and studio executives lead to "write what you know" homogenous casts.

To call attention to the inequity, the National Hispanic Media Coalition is considering a TV boycott, much like the one the NAACP threatened to carry out in 1999 that led to more black representation at the networks. But in the long run, more economic clout and TV jobs for Latinos are critical if we ever expect to see a Manuel in the Middle.

--Chris Tauber

SUSAN SACHS covers immigration for The New York Times.