News and Comments: Together with the interviews to political personalities we also introduce to you selected articles and news regarding immigration and integration issues     UK New Citizen brings you this wonderful address presented by Mayor Giuliani as his farewell message at the end of his successful career as Mayor of the City of New York (USA). These words have special meaning specially after the terrorist attacks of 11th September when the courage, decision and leadership demonstrated by Giuliani make him a hero and a symbol of the spirit of the city. Therefore, when Mr Giuliani states that the secret of the success for the most successful city in the world has been immigration, UK New Citizen wants to know more about it. How immigration is received in the USA? And equally important, how do immigrants integrate to the American society? From The New York Times we have selected some especially meaningful extracts of the address in our search for the answers.     December 27, 2001 / Text of Mayor Giuliani's Farewell Address (extracts) By THE NEW YORK TIMES       "It doesn't matter if you came here rich or poor, if you came here voluntarily or involuntarily, if you came here in freedom or in bondage. All that matters is that you embrace America and understand its ideals"     The key to our success as a city, the reason we are the most famous city in the world, and the reason why we really legitimately are the capital of the world, is really just one thing: immigration. We have never been afraid of people. We've never been afraid of people no matter what their colour, religion, ethnic background. We're a city in which our diversity is our greatest strength.  And keeping ourselves open to people. I think about my grandfather who left his family and he left the country of his birth, he left everything that was familiar, everything that was safe. He had to have seen the obstacles. He couldn't possibly have not seen the obstacles that faced him: a treacherous journey across a very dangerous ocean, coming to a place in which he didn't understand the language, couldn't speak it, wouldn't understand him. But somehow he and his wife and my other grandfather and grandmother made the choice to come here. Their hopes and their dreams and their optimism overcame their fears.   When I was given the manifest of the ship on which he went back to Italy to pick up his sister, there's one part of it that has always absolutely fascinated me: he had only $20 in his pocket. He didn't have any American Express Travelers Cheques hidden away. he didn't have a Mastercard. He had only $20. So how did he do it? How did he overcome all the fears that must have existed? It's very, very simple how he did it and how millions of other people did it and it's the reason we all have such strength. There were able to do it because they kept thinking about this idea in their head, this ideal of America, America, America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, this very, very special place that was probably romanticized. And by coming here they made even a more special place because they worked very hard to make this a better place for themselves and their children.   (And) when my grandfather's native country went to war against the country of his choice it was very, very simple for him: he was an American now and if you had to die for America that's what you were supposed to do. My grandfather, Rudolpho, and my uncle, Rudy, are just like your fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, aunts. You all have that in your background and in your families. It doesn't matter if you came here rich or poor, if you came here voluntarily or involuntarily, if you came here in freedom or in bondage. All that matters is that you embrace America and understand its ideals and what it's all about. Abraham Lincoln used to say that the test of your Americanism was not your family tree; the test of your Americanism was how much you believed in America. Because we're like a religion really. A secular religion. We believe in ideas and ideals. We're not one race, we're many; we're not one ethnic group, we're everyone; we're not one language, we're all of these people. So what ties us together? We're tied together by our belief in political democracy. We're tied together by our belief in religious freedom. We're tied together by our belief in capitalism, a free economy where people make their own choices about the spending of their money. We're tied together because we respect human life. We're tied together because we respect the rule of law. Those are the group of ideas that make us Americans.   Although I have to leave you as the Mayor (of the city of New York)soon, I resume the much more honorable title of citizen, citizen of New York and citizen of the United States. You get to be mayors and council members and congressmen and senators and governors and even presidents for short periods of time, but you always remain a citizen.       Back Home