Bojang, Espinoza and their multicultural mosaic of bosses and customers epitomize the profound transformation of Washington and its suburbs. More than 350,000 legal immigrants, a number greater than the combined populations of Alexandria and Arlington County, have arrived here or legalized their status since the early 1980s. From Cameroon and Cambodia, El Salvador and Israel, Bulgaria and Jamaica, this influx has rippled throughout the region, enriching most communities, their residents say, but also challenging governments, schools and American-born neighbors to adjust. At Thomas Jefferson High School, flags of students' homelands hang from ceilings. Only New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami draw more immigrants each year.
Immigration is the engine driving population changes in the region's inner suburbs.
In the District and Alexandria as well as in Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George's counties, most of the growth in new residents has come from immigrants. Nine in 10 of these newcomers settle first in the area's suburbs, seeking good schools and safe streets far from the city blocks where immigrants of decades past got their foothold in America. Those who remain in the District are often the poorest and least educated. The arrival of so many foreign-born has fueled tensions in some communities and imposed new, costly demands for services. In the District and neighboring school systems, for example, the number of students needing help with English has tripled in the last decade.