Alfred Molina: Hard Working Immigrant

Alfred Molina says he learned his work ethic from his mother, a hotel housekeeper from Italy who raised him in England. His father, an immigrant from Spain, waited tables. "I consider the most important thing they taught me to be the virtue of hard work," he says in an interview in this week's TVNotas. "From my mother I learned to be proud of an honest day's work."

Molina, who now lives in Los Angeles as an American citizen, is a long way from the working class neighborhood where he grew up in London's Notting Hill. It all began with a viewing of Spartacus at age 9 that convinced him to pursue a career in acting.

"I like being an American citizen. The United States has been very generous to me. Somehow, I feel I'm living the dream of many immigrants who want to come here and succeed in this country. That's why I wanted to be American."

A recent study from the Pew Center for Immigrant Studies showed that immigrants tend to be harder working in lower pay jobs. Other studies have shown that communities high in immigrant populations tend to have lower crime. A fact not lost on Molina who was raised by two immigrants himself. When asked about immigration reform in the United States, he was quick to say that we need some real changes

"We need not only a comprehensive immigration reform is approved but includes all who have made America their place of residence. Although at this time there is much confusion in which are the most appropriate solutions, we must do to resolve the situation of millions of people."

Source: TVNotas, Print Edition, August 10, 2010