April 2022: Immigration History

Latin American Migration 

1. Mexican Immigration to the United States, by Kelly Lytle Hernandez (Magazine of History, Oct. 2009) 

• This essay provides a compact history of Mexican immigration to the United States. There are many ways to tell this history, but the basic framework of what follows is a story of uneven capitalist economic development and U.S. foreign policy in the making of international labor migration. 

2. U.S. - Latin American Relations, by William Kamman (Magazine of History, Sept. 1992) 

• A history of the various stakes, contingencies, and policies for both sides in U.S.-Latin American relations from the Colonial era forward. 

3. The Origins and Evolution of Latino History, by Virginia Sanchez Korrol (Magazine of History, Jan. 1996) 

• An article analyzing the evolution of a Latino consciousness and its historical role in US History through the 20th century. 

4. Mary E. Mendoza on the U.S. - Mexico Border Fence Construction, by OAH Blog Staff (Process History, Aug. 2015) 

• An interview with Mary E. Mendoza on her transnational dissertation about the U.S.-Mexico border construction. 

5. Borderlands, Diasporas, and Transnational Crossings: Teaching LGBT Latina and Latino Histories, by Horacio N Roque Ramírez (OAH Magazine of History, March 2006) 

• This article sits at the intersections of LGBT, Diaspora, and Latine studies and gives teacher instructions, notes on language, and student objectives for covering these topics in the classroom.

6. Latine Rebellions and Why They Matter,  by Llana Barber (The American Historian, December 2021)

•  An essay that discusses on the immigration of Latines into urban areas and the uprising that followed. These uprisings "show us the shape of systemic racism and the struggle against it. In addition, they illustrate the ways that racism and resistance interwove with U.S. intervention abroad, im/migration, and complex processes of racial formation and identification."

Asian American Migration

1. Cambodian Refugees in the NYC Hyperghetto, by OAH Blog Staff (Process History, March 2016) 

• AN interview with Eric Tang about his book on Cambodian Refugees in the Bronx. 

2.Historians Put Immigration Executive Order in Historical Context, by Process History Editorial Staff (Process History, Feb. 2017) 

• A panel discussion with Alan Kraut, Jana Lipman, and Carl Bon Tempo responding to the executive order restricting Syrian Refugees from entrance into the United States. 

3. Asian Migrants, Exclusionary Laws, and Transborder Migration in North America, 1880-1940, by Yukari Takai (Magazine of History, 2009) 

• An analysis of various laws affecting Asian Migrants in North American history from 1880-1940. 

4. "Why So Many? Filipino Nurses & the COVID Frontlines," by Catherine Ceniza Choy, (Intervals, Aug. 18th, 2021). 

• Catherine Ceniza Choy is professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of the book, Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History (2003), which explored how and why the Philippines became the leading exporter of professional nurses to the United States.

5. Out of These Transitions: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to the Sunbelt, by Uzma Quraishi (The American Historian, December 2021)

• This article discusses Pakistani and Indian immigration to the Sunbelt in the 1950s and 1960s and how these immigrants navigated a post-Jim Crow South.

European American Migration 

1. Immigrant Women in Tampa: The Italian Experience, 1890-1930, by Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta (Magazine of History, March 1990) 

• A microhistory of Italian Women in Florida and their history as Immigrants. 

2. Foodways of Immigrants, by Jim Madison (Talking History, Oct. 2002) 

• Talking History's Jim Madison talks about ethnic food in America with Hasia Diner, author of Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration.

3.“Moving Beyond Rags to Riches,” New York’s Famine Irish Immigrants and Their Surprising Savings Accounts, by Ed Linenthal and Tyler Anbinder (JAH Podcasts, Dec. 2012) 

• Ed Linenthal, editor of the Journal of American History, speaks with Tyler Anbinder, Professor of History at George Washington University and author of “Moving Beyond Rags to Riches,” New York's Famine Irish Immigrants and Their Surprising Savings Accounts. His work appears in the December 2012 issue of the Journal of American History. 

Lesson Plans and State of the Field Resources 

1. The New Migrants from Asia: Vietnamese in the United States, by Hien Duc Do (Magazine of History, June 1996)

• A lesson plan for teaching an overview history of the Vietnamese-American experience through the lens of Immigration History. 

2. Welcome to the Settlement of the New World: A Brochure for Newcomers, by Sonia Yvonne Escobedo (Magazine of HIstory, June 2000) 

• A Lesson plan for teaching about Indigenous people, Borderlands, Texas Frontier, and Spanish Colonialism through the lens of the immigrant experience of Canary Islanders. 

3. On the Trail of Migrants: A Global Approach to Migration History, by Christiane Harzig (Magazine of History, Sept. 1999) 

• This is the introduction to a special issue on migration in the OAH Magazine of history. This article preempts the analysis that people have always been in migration. 

4. From Immigration to Migration Systems: New Concepts in Migration History, by Dirk Hoerder (Magazine of History, Sept. 1999) 

• A Historiography article on the state of the field and trends in migration history before the 21st century. 

5. Immigrant Women, by Donna Gabaccia and Steven Rosenfeld (Talking History, March 1999) 

• Historian Donna Gabaccia discusses Immigrant women, and there is an Op-ed by Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Steven Rosenfeld on the suffering of civilians in the many wars that have plagued the world during this century. 

6. Lessons on Judicial Interpretation: How Immigrants Takao Ozawa and Yick Wo Searched the Courts for a Place in America, by Steven C. Teel (Magazine of History, 1998) 

• A Lesson PLan for teaching Immigrant history through the Supreme Court Case Yick Wo v. Hopkins. 

7. Migration for Labor, Migration for Love: Marriage and Family Formation across Borders, by Suzanne Sinke (Magazine of History, Sept. 1999) 

• Sinke discusses familial relationships and how transnational migration due to a labor market might have complicated or enhanced family ties.  

8. Immigration after 1965, by Sarah R. Coleman (The American Historian, December 2021)

• This essay discusses the legal and social history of immigration after the passage of the Hart-Cellar Act.

Internal Migration 

1. The Great Migration, by Joe William Trotter, Jr. (Magazine of History, Oct. 2002) 

• An analysis of the Great Migration that wishes to push for the narrative of a Long Twentieth Century. 

2. How Maps Reveal, and Conceal, History, by Susan Schulten (Process History, Sept. 2018) 

• This article analyzes various maps that track immigration and are used to conceal history if not looked at critically. 

3. Finding Runaway Slaves: Freedom on the Move and the Databasing of Fugitive Slave Advertisements from North American Newspapers, by OAH Blog Staff (Process History, June 2016) 

• Joshua Rothman, Mary Niall Mitchell, and Edward Baptist take a look at primary source materials to provide a greater picture of Fugitive Slave Advertisements. 

4. Evangelicals and Immigration: A Conflicted History, by Ulrike Elisabeth Stockhausen (Process History, March 2019) 

• An analysis of the role of evangelicals in the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act as well as evangelicals' complicated relationship to refugees. 

5. Runaway Slaves, by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger (Talking History, Feb. 2000) 

• A talk with historians John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger about their book Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. This program contains no op-ed.

6. Citizens of Nowhere: Fugitive Slaves and Free African Americans in Mexico, 1833-1857, by Ed Linenthal and Sarah E. Cornell (JAH Podcasts, Sept. 2013) 

• Ed Linenthal, editor of the Journal of American History, speaks with Sarah E. Cornell, author of “Citizens of Nowhere: Fugitive Slaves and Free African Americans in Mexico, 1833-1857”. Her article appears in the September 2013 issue of the JAH.

7. Austria’s Freedom Party, by Anson Rabinbach and Edward O’Donnell (Talking History, April 2000) 

• Including for the feature: The program contains an op-ed by Edward O'Donnell on the calls for immigration reform throughout history.

8. “Have We a New Sex Problem Here?” Black Queer Women in the Early Great Migration, by Cookie Woolner (Process History, Oct. 2017) 

• An analysis of Black Queer lives in Chicago in the early 20th century. 

9. “There isn't no trouble at all if the state law would keep out”: Indigenous People and New York's Carceral State, by Christopher Clements (Journal of American History, September 2021)

• Christopher Clements examines the history of racialized policing practices, jurisdictional disputes, and tribal governance in and around reservation communities in New York. Focusing primarily on the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, which straddles the U.S.- Canada border, he asks how carceral state development affected Indigenous people and lands and how carcerality intertwined with settler colonialism during the first half of the twentieth century.