A Marshallese girl in Springdale, Arkansas, where about 7,000 people from the Marshall Islands have relocated.

A Marshallese church service in Arkansas. Church life is a central part of many of the immigrants’ lives.

Church is essential to maintaining their culture; services in Springdale are very much like the ones back home, with music, dancing and singing along with the sermons.

Most Marshallese church services in Springdale are held in rented buildings.

Carmen Chong-Gum, the Marshallese consul general in Springdale, with a map showing where her fellow migrants now populate the U.S. It’s the only American city other than Honolulu to have a Mashallese consulate.

A church group in Springdale. Occasionally, the services have drawn complaints for being loud or for having too many vehicles crowd the streets.

A road sign leaves no doubt that Springdale is in the Bible Belt.

A classroom in Springdale, which has the second-largest school system in Arkansas. Today, 10 percent of the students are Marshallese.

Another Springdale classroom. “It doesn’t really matter whether a child comes from across the street or across the ocean,” says the local superintendent. “Once they get to our door, they are our children.”

Pastors Tom Thorne and Jim Handy at the First Congressional Church, Neosho, Missouri, scene of a gunman’s fatal attack in 2007.

April Brown and Albious Latior of the Micronesian Educational Initiative in Springdale, which seeks to improve Americans’ understanding of their new neighbors.

Kevin, Brittney, Brin and Oshen Rehobson at their Micronesian store in Springdale.

A Marshallese dental assistant, right, and a dentist at the Community Clinic in Springdale, Arkansas.

Micronesian employees at Twin Rivers Foods in Neosho, Missouri. Poultry factories employ many islanders.

Emeral Nena from Kosrae studied business administration and finance at Park University in Kansas City, Missouri, which has educated many Micronesian students over the decades.

Pastor Joe Enlet at his Chuukese church in Vancouver, Washington.

A Chuukese church service in Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. The region has become one of the hubs for Micronesian immigration.

Kianna Angelo, a Marshallese living in Vancouver, Washington, is the executive director and founder of the nonprofit organization Living Islands.

A mother has her hands full during a Chuukese church service in Vancouver, Washington.

Another Chuukese family at a Vancouver, Washington, church.

Virginia Luka, originally from Palau, works at Portland State University in Oregon.

Pingelapese Johnny Ezikiel and Waldis Clark Jr. (wearing cap) in Gresham, Oregon, a Portland suburb, sports a University of Oregon football jersey.

Watching a Ducks game in Gresham, Oregon, from left: Doreen Iehsi Clark, Thelma Solomon, Merlyn Yens, Yoko Ezikiel and Nihna Fred.

Johnny Fred, foreground, and Dedao Yens, two immigrants from Pingelap Atoll in Pohnpei, cheer for the the Oregon Ducks at Pub 181 in Gresham during the college football national championship game.

Charles Paul, the Republic of the Marshall Islands ambassador to the United States, at his embassy in Washington, D.C.

Asterio Takesy, the Federated States of Micronesia ambassador to the United States, in Washington, D.C. Like many Micronesian leaders, he is a graduate of Xavier High School in Chuuk.