ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608190142
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
EAST OF the Blue Ridge, many Virginians still think all Southwest Virginia is a rural backwater. They might be surprised to learn that Montgomery County is among the state's "hot spots" in attracting immigrants.
And welcome the immigrants are, too. They help give the New River Valley a cultural diversity ordinarily associated with large cities and, in the commonwealth, the Washington suburbs and exurbs of Northern Virginia.
Such diversity can be a boon - for economic development, and also for broadening the horizons and fostering the pride and enjoyment of an area for its home folks.
Montgomery's designation as an immigration ``hot spot'' in Virginia was made by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank that rated more than 3,100 counties in the nation on the basis of significant impact by those from foreign countries. Montgomery was the only county in Southwest Virginia so designated.
The obvious magnets are the New River Valley's universities, Virginia Tech and Radford. Between them, they have about 1,700 international students from more than 100 nations.
In past years, a third of Tech's graduate students have been foreign nationals, and because these graduate students usually have families, the Montgomery schools tend to have an international flavor. One-fourth of the pupils at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School, for example, are foreign-born, with children from Asian nations the largest contingent among them.
The immigrant youngsters are a plus. They are usually education-minded, and their parents are usually supportive of efforts to improve the schools.
The more such attitudes rub off on the rest of us Southwest Virginians, the better off we all are.
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