Sculptors in Ancient Rome by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Ancient Rome: A City of Immigrants

A neighborhood beyond the Tiber became home to generations of Jewish and Syrian migrants who reshaped the imperial capital.
Woman in fancy dress costume balancing yogurt container on hat, smiling

How America Reinvented Yogurt

The journey from immigrant staple to diet snack reveals how yogurt took on a distinctly American identity.
A stateless teenager wipes a table clean at a restaurant on May 23, 2024 in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia. Many stateless teenagers and children find jobs to help support their families, but are often paid a fraction of what Malaysian nationals can earn.

Born Without a Country

In Southeast Asia, colonial legacies and citizenship policies continue to leave hundreds of thousands without legal nationality.
From the cover of Vietnam: The Boat People Search for a Home

How 1980s Children’s Books Framed Vietnamese Refugees

Children’s books introduced Vietnamese refugees to US readers, often simplifying their histories and experiences.
A sad child sitting on the floor

The Emotional Cost of Parental Deportation

A study of US citizen children shows how immigration enforcement and family separation affect mental health and stability.
Basque sheep herder in Adams County, Idaho, photographed by Dorothea Lange, 1939

The Racial Myth of the Basque Sheepherder

How ideas of ancient tradition shaped labor and immigration in the American West.
Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbul, 1792

Hamilton’s Real Immigration Story

The popular musical poses Alexander Hamilton as a symbol of the value of immigrants brought to America, but over time, his party became increasingly xenophobic.
An Indian bistro in New York City

The Shrewd Business Logic of Immigrant Cooks

Savvy observers, immigrant restaurateurs operate as amateur anthropologists who analyze their potential customers to determine how to best attract them.
Immigrants View The Statue Of Liberty, 1887

Birth of A National Immigration Policy

Until the Civil War, regulating immigration to the US was left to individual states. That changed with Emancipation and the legal end of slavery.
Pat McCarran

The End of Asian Exclusion, the Beginning of Caribbean Exclusion

The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act allowed first-generation Japanese American immigrants to become US citizens while keeping African Caribbean immigrants out.