Carnegie Corp. celebrates immigrants, including 8 Asian Americans

The Carenegie Corporation honors this year's 20 Great Immigrants.

Sometimes, some Americans, especially Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant minion Steven Miller, have to be reminded that the United States is a land of immigrants.

Carnegie Corporation of New York announces the 2025 Class of Great Immigrants, Great Americans, recognizing 20 distinguished naturalized American citizens whose contributions have enriched our society and helped to strengthen our democracy. Eight of the 20 honorees are from Asia.

“The US is a nation of immigrants, and our ongoing support of nonpartisan organizations that help establish legal pathways for citizenship continues to enrich the very fabric of American life,” said Dame Louise Richardson, president of Carnegie, who is a naturalized American citizen born in Ireland. “We applaud this year’s 20th class and the hundreds of ‘Great Immigrants, Great Americans’ before them.”

The 2025 Class of Great Immigrants is comprised of naturalized citizens from 16 countries who are leaders across academia, the arts, business, journalism, medicine, philanthropy, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

Every Fourth of July since 2006, Carnegie has celebrated the exemplary contributions of immigrants to American life, as part of its focus on reducing political polarization and strengthening democracy.

The Asian Americans honored by Carnegie this year are:

• Akiko Iwasaki (Japan) Professor of Immunobiology, Dermatology, and Epidemiology, Yale School of Medicine

• Maz Jobrani (Iran) Comedian, Actor, and Author

• Michele Kang (South Korea) Businesswoman, Sports Team Owner, and Philanthropist

• Shahid Khan (Pakistan) President and CEO, Flex-N-Gate

• Manjusha (Manju) P. Kulkarni (India) Executive Director, AAPI Equity Alliance

• Priyamvada Natarajan (India) Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Yale University

• Manoochehr Sadeghi (Iran) Grand Master Musician and Educator

• Yuan Yuan Tan (China) Former Prima Ballerina, San Francisco Ballet

The rest of the 2025 Class of Great Immigrants are:

• Tope Awotona (Nigeria) Founder and CEO, Calendly

• Moungi Bawendi (France) Professor of Chemistry, MIT

• Helen M. Blau (England) Director, Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, and Professor, Stanford University

• Roger Cohen (England) Journalist and Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times

• Simon Johnson (England) Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management

• María Teresa Kumar (Colombia) President and CEO, Voto Latino

• Tania León (Cuba) Composer, Conductor, and Educator

• Sandra Leisa Lindsay (Jamaica) Vice President, Public Health Advocacy, Northwell Health

• Luciano Marraffini (Argentina) Professor, The Rockefeller University, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• Kareem Rahma (Egypt) Comedian, Artist, and Musician

• Raúl Ruiz (Mexico) U.S. Congressman, California, District 25

• Avi Wigderson (Israel) Professor of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study

The White House, under the second Trump administration, has implemented several significant policies and actions related to immigration, including border security, enforcement of immigration laws, and restrictions on certain types of immigration. 

The Trump administration's harsh deportation policy that is supposed to focus on violent undocumented immigrants has swept immigrants who have green cards or are in the US legally but may have minor infractions. In so doing, the impression given the rhetoric and actions of the administration has spread to the negative image of all immigrants, even those who are here legally.

Naturalization and the legal integration of immigrants are part of the foundation’s overarching goal of reducing political polarization for a strong democracy. According to the American Immigration Council, a Carnegie grantee whose research is cited in the new comic book, there are 48 million immigrants in America, about half are naturalized US citizens, and more than seven million are eligible to apply for citizenship. Among Fortune 500 companies, 230 were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants, and among business owners, one in four is an immigrant.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Great Immigrants, Great Americans tribute, Carnegie has commissioned a free comic book featuring more than a dozen inspiring stories as told by naturalized U.S. citizens. 

        FYI: Read the stories of this year's Great Immigrants

In recognition of immigrants who, says Vartan Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, “infuse our society with energy, talent and renewed belief in all of cherished our institutions,” the foundation has run a full page advertisement in the New York Times Independence Day issue celebrating women and men who have become “Americans by choice.”

The advertisement declares:

"The United States of America remains a land of immigrants. Andrew Carnegie, who founded Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1911, was an immigrant from Scotland. We at Carnegie Corporation salute his legacy, along with the contributions of the millions of other immigrants who have made, and continue to make, our nation strong and vibrant. We are committed to helping immigrants become integrated into the civic fabric of our nation because enlightened citizenship is the everlasting strength of our democracy. Our national motto, E pluribus unum— 'out of many, one' — continues to be an ideal we can all aspire to and a true guiding light for our nation."

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