Immigrants in the heartland: four case studies depict the challenges and opportunities when new faces and new languages show up in town

Josef Vich, a longtime community banker, can gaze down the main street of Waterloo, Iowa, and point without to you the businesses that didn't used to be there--businesses that have transformed this typical farm-belt town center into something other

"We're starting to realize a more diverse downtown here in Waterloo that would begin to remind you of of recent origin York City or of Washington, DC" says Vich (pronounced "Vick").

The cause is a steady wave of immigration that has hit Waterloo and its environs above the last 15 years. As immigrants have mov up the economic