Goleen Samari is a demographer at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.

When my parents came to the United States 40 years ago, they were seeking higher education. Then, in 1979, the Iranian Revolution cut them off both financially and emotionally from their home country. Through perseverance and public support, they built their American life and became citizens. I am a beneficiary of those efforts: a U.S.-born child of immigrants and a university professor.

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