Welcome to the Newsfeed.

This week we shared some of the origins of immigration in Washington.

We asked the people we talked to about their families' personal stories of migration to the Pacific Northwest and why they stayed here.

Here's what they had to say.

My first relative who came here actually came during the 1920s, and his name was Pio DeCano.

He came simply because when Americans took over the Philippines, he was working for an American family.

And they asked him, hey, do you want to go to America?

We'll help send you there.

He established himself here as the first labor contractor in Seattle.

So literally when you got off the boat from Asia, if you wanted to find a place to live, get a job, you would go to him.

Why did I decide to stay here?

My family became so well-established and well-connected in the fabric of Seattle that it almost became not a choice.

The benefits that we had created for ourselves were so strong and positive that pursuing life in another place wasn't as beneficial as staying here.

I don't know if they were seeing in the wind what was going to happen with anti-Semitism.

The oldest brother was looking out for the family because my dad was an orphan.

I don't have the exact date, but he was here by the 30s, 17 years old.

He first came to an elementary school to improve his English.

but he hated being in an elementary school.

So he went to sleep with a dictionary and wrote an essay to impress the teacher and that got him into the high school.

I was born in Seattle at Columbus Hospital.

I went to college at the University of Washington.

Yeah, he enjoyed my cooking.

When I wrote a thesis, I dedicated it to my dad, who would always say, no matter what people take away from you, they can never take away your education.

My father's father was a young boy who was dragged to Kauai to work on a plantation by his father, my great grandfather.

My great grandfather was trying to keep his sons out of the Japanese army.

My mom's dad wanted to make a fortune.

And so he started as a houseboy and then learned how to be a dairy farmer.

And he married my grandmother, who was a picture bride.

Meaning they didn't really know each other except through the exchange of pictures.

So she came to Hawaii, married him.

They raised eight children, and did very well for themselves.

Most immigrants had the idea that they would make their fortune and go back to Japan.

but World War Two got in the way.

I felt that living in Hawaii was a great experience as a child, but it was very isolated out in the middle of the Pacific.

I really wanted to go to the continental United States and explore this great country of ours.

I worked in California, Oregon and came to Washington largely because my then fiancee was raised here.

So this was an ideal place to put down roots.

I'm Paris Jackson, thanks for watching.

To see this week's stories on the history of immigration in the PNW, visit CascadePBS.org/TheNewsfeed.