immigration

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  4/18/2021
  

  My Grandfather Fled the Nazis. I Moved to His Old Neighborhood

  by Laura Moser

  The writer reflects on the meaning of her journey as an American Jew to first claim German citizenship and then move to the town her grandfather had fled. 

• 
• 4/18/2021
  

  What Do John Dewey's Century-Old Thoughts on Anti-Asian Bigotry Teach Us?

  by Charles F. Howlett

  A century ago, the American philosopher and educator took a sabattical to China and concluded that, if encouraged to learn about other cultures, White Americans could be brought to acceptance of Asian Americans and other immigrants as equal participants in democracy. COVID-inspired bigotry shows this dream remains unrealized.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/11/2021
  

  How Should the US Treat Migrants when American Policy Affected the Countries They Fled?

  The Temporary Protected Status designation, which has allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States, originated because of the massive human rights abuses of the US-supported dictatorship in El Salvador.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/5/2021
  

  America Never Wanted the Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses

  by Caitlin Dickerson

  Historian David Romo says that racist nativism is "ingrained in the culture and in the laws that are produced by that culture," but concealed by myths of a nation welcoming to immigrants. Also cited: Rose Cuison-Villazor, Daniel Tichenor, Mae Ngai, Donna Gabaccia and Adam Goodman. 

• 
• SOURCE: Mother Jones
  3/30/2021
  

  One Man’s Quest to Crack the Modern Anti-Immigration Movement—by Unsealing Its Architect’s Papers

  John Tanton donated 25 boxes of documents related to his work with anti-immigration advocacy organizations beginning in the 1960s. The gift stipulated that much of the collection be sealed until 2035. An immigration advocate says that Tanton's connections to right-wing anti-immigrant groups and the pro-eugenics Pioneer Fund means the university should unseal the papers now. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  3/23/2021
  

  The Greater the Disaster, the Greater the Profits

  by Todd Miller

  Believe me, the forces that shaped our southern border over the decades have been far more powerful than Donald Trump or any individual politician.

• 
• SOURCE: National Trust for Historic Preservation
  3/12/2021
  

  Settlement Houses: Sites of Service, Access, and Connection for Women

  by Tamar Rabinowitz

  "Progressive Era settlement houses fostered the activism and intellectual creativity, as well as the conflicts, that would profoundly shape American modernity in the 20th century."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/24/2021
  

  There’s No Migrant ‘Surge’ at the U.S. Southern Border. Here’s the Data

  Three political scientists argue that the recent media narrative of a "border crisis" is political hype and not supported by data about historical migration patterns. Looking at month-to-month fluctuations distorts the situation and leads to bad policy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Heather Cox Richardson
  3/13/2021
  

  Letters From an American, March 13, 2021

  by Heather Cox Richardson

  What are the historical underpinnings of the immigration system, and what do politicians really mean by invoking a "border crisis"? 

• 
• SOURCE: NextCity
  3/8/2021
  

  Why Only Multiracial Solidarity and Restorative Justice Can Solve Racial Attacks on Asian Americans

  Activist Margaretta Lin reflects on the post-immigration reform history of Asian American communities and argues for rejecting anti-Black framing of recent attacks on Asian Americans. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/24/2021
  

  A Path to Citizenship for 11 Million Immigrants is a No-Brainer

  by A. K. Sandoval-Strausz

  The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act showed the effectiveness of a large-scale amnesty for undocumented immigrants and reflected a reasonable and pragmatic approach to normalizing the status of immigrants as workers and community members. It should be remembered as a success and a model. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  2/22/2021
  

  My Brother’s Keeper

  by Ada Ferrer

  Historian Ada Ferrer offers her own family history of separation and reunification around the Cuban revolution. 

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  2/19/2021
  

  As American as Child Separation

  by Rachel Nolan

  Laura Briggs's new book on child separation policies links the treatment of contemporary migrants to other historical cases including Native American boarding schools and the sale of enslaved children, showing that the assertion of control over children and families has been a core component of racial nationalism and even genocide. 

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  2/11/2021
  

  Immigration Enforcement and the Afterlife of the Slave Ship

  by Ryan Fontanilla

  Since Ronald Reagan's executive order introduced the Haitian Migrant Interdiction Operation, the U.S. Coast Guard has been in an undeclared war against the 120,000 Haitian asylum-seekers it has interdicted, who are labeled "economic" rather than "political" refugees, as though the poverty they are fleeing is not political in nature. 

• 
• 2/14/2021
  

  Immigrant Families are the Second Casualty of War

  by Elliott Young

  If truth is the first casualty in war, immigrants follow as a close second. During the first and second world wars, tens of thousands of immigrants in the United States were locked up in prisons as part of a geopolitical game beyond their control.

• 
• SOURCE: Bitter Southerner
  2/9/2021
  

  Houston Hip-Hop and Chinese Chicken

  by Alana Dao

  The story of a restaurant run by Chinese immigrants in Houston is the story of the growth of the diverse Gulf coast metropolis and its fusion of ethnic cultures.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/26/2021
  

  Trump Began With His ‘Great’ Wall. He Ended With It, Too

  by Geraldo Cadava

  His legacy will be the divisions he has sown between Americans.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/27/2021
  

  Lives Derailed: Notes from Migration Encounters

  by Anita Isaacs and Anne Preston

  "The contributions of immigrants, and the human toll of anti-immigrant policies should take center stage as we renew our national conversation on immigration."

• 
• 1/24/2021
  

  Misremember the Alamo

  by Douglas Sackman

  Like most Americans, when Trump tries to "remember the Alamo," he gets it all wrong. His recent visit to Alamo, Texas was 240 miles south of the mission so holy to many Texans, but it was closer in spirit than Trump probably realized. 

• 
• SOURCE: LA Progressive
  1/17/2021
  

  Immigrants, Trump, Pope Francis, and Two Films

  by Walter G. Moss

  Two recent films evoke Pope Francis's message opposing insular nationalism, a stance which echoes the inclusionary nationalism of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.