CLA: Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration

By Haven Hawley, Acting Director and Program Director, IHRC

The spread of a particularly virulent influenza strain in Mexico has rung a public health alarm bell because of similarities to the deadly flu pandemic of 1918. It's far too early to predict that the 2009 experience could be as devastating, but a new historical source based on fraternal association records at the IHRC may help researchers in modeling responses to today's situation.

Continue reading "A Cause for Concern and Study: The Flu Today and in 1918" »

Posted by Elizabeth Hawley at 6:33 PM | Permalink

By Haven Hawley, Acting Director and Program Director, IHRC

The spread of a particularly virulent influenza strain in Mexico has rung a public health alarm bell because of similarities to the deadly flu pandemic of 1918. It's far too early to predict that the 2009 experience could be as devastating, but a new historical source based on fraternal association records at the IHRC may help researchers in modeling responses to today's situation.

Continue reading "A Cause for Concern and Study: The Flu Today and in 1918" »

Posted by Elizabeth Hawley at 11:15 AM | Permalink

By Taehohn Lee

These are hard times. As of February 2009, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.6% in Minnesota.

Continue reading "The Financial Crisis and Refugees" »

Posted by Elizabeth Hawley at 11:36 AM | Permalink

By Debra Kay Markert

There have been many articles in the papers about the raids that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has carried out in the name of national security. But instead of focusing on the criminals and terrorist suspects, ICE is targeting those that are relatively easy to find. They are finding them hard at work in the meatpacking plants.

Continue reading "How Is Deporting A Meat Packer Keeping America Safe?" »

Posted by Elizabeth Hawley at 1:20 PM | Permalink

By Halyna Myroniuk, IHRC Senior Assistant Curator

Many Ukrainians who came to the United States after the Second World War as Displaced Persons were survivors of Holodomor, the great famine of 1932-1933. Some came as children with memories; others heard about it from their parents or the elders in their respective communities.

Continue reading "Ukrainian Americans commemorate 75th Anniversary of Holodomor" »

Posted by wakef009 at 2:03 PM | Permalink

By Donna Gabaccia, IHRC Director (on sabbatical)

Immigrants have been making music in the United States for over 200 years. So why is it that no journalist writing recently about Osmo Vänskä’s jazzy clarinet-playing at New York’s Avery Fischer Hall referred to the Finnish-born Vänskä, director of the Minnesota Orchestra since 2003, as an immigrant? To reporters, he’s a Finn who happens to live in the United States.

Continue reading "Is Osmo Vänskä an Immigrant?" »

Posted by wakef009 at 1:36 PM | Permalink

By Haven Hawley, Acting Director

During my first year as IHRC program director in 2007-2008, I became aware of how my work expresses continuity with the partnerships and programs initiated and sustained by Donna Gabaccia, Rudi Vecoli and their predecessors in the “Minnesota School of Immigration History.�

Continue reading "IHRC's Activity Builds on "Minnesota School of Immigration History"" »

Posted by Elizabeth Hawley at 4:41 PM | Permalink

By Molly Rojas Collins, Senior Teaching Specialist, Post-Secondary Teaching & Learning

Immigrant and refugee students face a challenging path at the University – a place that often treats their multilingual and multiculturalism as a deficit.

Continue reading "Immigrant & Refugee Students Face Challenges, Bring Strengths" »

Posted by wakef009 at 1:09 PM | Permalink

By Sonia Cancian, University of Minnesota Visiting Scholar Spring 2008
The love letter, with its expressions of love, longing and desire written between confidants and lovers living apart, is a document that for centuries has been regarded as the ultimate form of the art of letter-writing.

Continue reading "Love Letters and Migration" »

Posted by Cynthia Herring at 3:50 PM | Permalink

Rudolph J. Vecoli, long-time director of the Immigration History Research Center, died on Tuesday, June 17. The entire IHRC community mourns his loss and extends deepest sympathies to his family. Rudi will long be remembered for his trenchant critiques and contributions to the field of immigration and ethnic history. The IHRC is Rudi's legacy to the community, the university, and the historical profession. A memorial service celebrating Rudi's life and work will be held in Andersen Library on Wednesday, July 9, 6 - 8 p.m. Please read obituary in the New York Times.

Posted by Daniel Necas at 10:42 AM | Permalink

The IHRC enjoyed the company this year of three gifted postdoctoral scholars with widely ranging interests. In a final column, they reflect on what “time� means in their respective studies.

By: Sonia Cancian, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at the IHRC, Ania Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdansk, Kosciuszko Foundation Fellow at the IHRC, and Matteo Pretelli, Fulbright Research Scholar at the IHRC

Continue reading "Postdoctoral Scholars Blog: "Time and Immigration"" »

Posted by herna130 at 6:14 PM | Permalink

By Joel F. Wurl, Former Head of Research Collections & Associate Director, IHRC
The evolving dynamics of immigration and its impact in this area are fascinating to observe. Taking a ride on the local bus system in Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, or Annandale is like shuttling between events at the United Nations.

Continue reading "Near the Beltway and Beyond" »

Posted by herna130 at 7:29 PM | Permalink

By Matteo Pretelli, Fulbright Scholar Researcher at the IHRC
The Latino vote will be very influential in the election for the next President of the United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/us/politics/10hispanics.html; http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20080303/young-latino-voters-on-the-rise.htm; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/us/07immig.html?scp=13&sq=immigration&st=nyt

Continue reading "The 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidates’ Stances On the Reform of Immigration Law" »

Posted by herna130 at 5:43 PM | Permalink

Lisong Liu is a PhD Candidate in the History Department at the University of Minnesota

In recent years American media have paid a lot of attention to the surging public interest in the Chinese language and the increasing Mandarin Chinese language programs in the US.

Continue reading "Chinese language programs and immigrants: new opportunities and challenges" »

Posted by herna130 at 10:06 PM | Permalink

Dan Detzner, Professor College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota

Researchers, policy makers, immigration lawyers, and social service providers often focus on the issues confronting individual immigrants while overlooking how embedded each individual is within communally oriented transnational families, tribal groups, and clans.

Continue reading "Families and Immigration" »

Posted by herna130 at 5:36 PM | Permalink