"Post 9/11, this is a very different time for immigrants in this country," said [George Springer], who, in the 1950s came to Connecticut as a young man to study education at Central Connecticut State University. "There is this feeling that immigrants are looked at as though they might be terrorists. But immigrants are not terrorists."

Ana Alfaro, Irene Bensoff, Andre Blaszczynski, Edward R. Bona, Carlos Hernandez Chavez, Clodomiro Falcon, Lazar Grabarnik, Rashid Hamid, Wyns Lee, Dr. Lukas Konandreas, state Rep. Carlo Leone, Vanessa Logan, Alfonso L. Lopez, Yuriy Masalimov, Rabbi Henry Okolica, Natalia Paciorkowski, Yuhan Rong, Nicolas Savic, Cantor Pamela Siskin and Tina Tran.

PAMELA SISKIN of West Hartford, a cantor, and Rabbi Henry Okolica of New Britain talk before the sixth annual Connecticut Immigrant Day ceremony at the state Capitol. They were two of the 22 Connecticut residents, born outside of the U.S., honored this year for their contributions to their communities or their professions.