Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration

By Erika Lee, associate professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota. IHRC Affiliated Faculty

Ellis Island and Angel Island were both in the news in recent weeks. And the
stories about these two sites where immigrants from around the world were
admitted into the United States tell us a lot about which immigration
histories get remembered and celebrated and which ones do not.

In the New York Times, a story about the genealogical search for the
descendants of fifteen-year old Annie Moore, the first immigrant to arrive
at Ellis Island, graced the front page. Born in County Cork, Ireland, Moore
landed in New York on January 1, 1892. It was opening day for the
immigration station, and Moore's arrival was met with pomp and circumstance.
The superintendent of immigration for the port of New York himself presented
Moore with a $10 gold piece, and Moore was featured in the local news.
Although Ellis Island fell into disrepair after it closed in 1954, renewed
interest in European immigration and its role in "making" America
contributed to the station's massive renovation and celebrated reopening as
a National Monument in 1990.

Consequently, Moore has been celebrated in "story and song" as the first of
12 million immigrants to arrive at Ellis Island. A bronze statue of Moore,
with suitcase in hand and holding her hat in the harbor breeze, graces the
grounds of the island and is passed by 2 million visitors to the site each
year. See "First Through Gates of Ellis I., She Was Lost. Now She's Found"
and the tribute to Moore on the Ellis Island website

Although another Annie Moore had long been considered to be the iconic
immigrant, recent genealogical research uncovered the true identity of the
famous woman. And the details of her life have only increased the mythology
surrounding her. She lived the "typical hardscrabble immigrant life," a
genealogist explained. "She sacrificed herself for future generations." The
professions of her descendants, who include an investment banker and a
Ph.D., are cited as proof that Annie's family was able to achieve the
American dream.

Across the continent, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about Hisayo
Yoshino, another immigrant woman pioneer, who arrived at Angel Island as a
picture bride from Japan in 1912. Yoshino was not the first person to arrive
at Angel Island. That person remains a mystery. Historians are just
beginning to research the rich and diverse history of immigration through
Angel Island, where over one million immigrants from around the world
arrived in the United States. Indeed, the story in the Chronicle reported on
efforts by historians (including myself) and the Angel Island Immigration
Station Foundation to recover the stories of immigrants who spent time on
the island. Angel Island is just now undergoing a massive renovation and
preservation effort, twenty years after Ellis Island was similarly
preserved. See "An effort to keep memories alive; Angel Island: Future museum puts out the call for information about the West's second-largest immigrant group -- 60,000 Japanese"

Reading these two different newspaper stories about Ellis Island and Angel
Island raises a number of questions for me. Why is there so little known
about Angel Island in comparison to its counterpart in New York? Why are
immigrants like Annie Moore memorialized in song, guidebooks, and statues
while we are just beginning to learn about the experiences of someone like
Hisayo Yoshino?

Much of the answer lies in the fact that Ellis Island has largely come to
represent America's history of welcoming and integrating European
immigrants. The museum itself ­ reborn during a period of ethnic revival in
the 1970s and 1980s ­ is a celebration of white ethnic identity. Visitors
can research their immigrant ancestry and contribute to the immigrant "wall
of honor."

On the other hand, the two largest groups of immigrants arriving on Angel
Island during its operation from 1910-1940 were Chinese (175,000) and
Japanese (60,000). Like other Asian immigrants, both groups were targets of
race-based immigration laws that prohibited or largely restricted their
admission into the United States. While the vast majority of immigrants
arriving at Ellis Island spent only a few hours in the processing center,
Asians were subjected to much greater scrutiny, often leading to detentions
that numbered in the days and weeks. Hisayo Yoshino was detained in the
medical hospital on Angel Island for three weeks. She left the island to
enter a life of hardship on the farms of California. During World War Two,
she and her family were forcibly evacuated and interned with other Japanese
Americans. These hardships, combined with the knowledge that they were not
welcomed in the United States, discouraged many Asian immigrants from
sharing their stories of Angel Island, even with their children and
grandchildren.

In short, Angel Island's history, is a hard pill for Americans to swallow.
Instead of reminding us of America's promise, like Ellis Island often does,
it forces us to confront American racism. Yet its story is just as important
for us to remember.

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Erika Lee
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of History
University of Minnesota
614 Social Sciences Building
267 19th Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
work: 612/624-9569
fax: 612/624-7096

Visit us on the Web: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu
To receive email notices about events at the IHRC: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/about/e-notice.htm

Posted by Sylvie Thao at 10:16 AM | Permalink

By Erika Lee, associate professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota. IHRC Affiliated Faculty

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 mark a definitive turning point in many aspects of American life. We tend to think in terms of "before 9/11" and "after 9/11." On the morning of the attacks, I was getting ready to teach my Asian American history class at the University of Minnesota. I can't remember what the prepared lecture for the day was, but I do remember abandoning the lesson plan and instead spending the next hour talking with students about what we knew and what might happen. Given the subject matter for our course, we were highly aware of America's history of racial profiling, race-based immigration restriction, and incarceration. Many of us wondered aloud if Muslims or Arabs might experience similar treatment that many Asians did before and during World War Two.

It is now clear that U.S. immigration policy is dramatically different than it was before the attacks. President Bush had identified immigration reform as one of his top priorities upon his inauguration in January, 2001. He even traveled to Mexico to discuss immigration with President Vicente Fox in February, 2001. Just seven months later, however, the terrorist attacks "exposed major holes" in immigration enforcement, and immigration became IHincreasingly identified as a national security issue. There would be no support for immigration reform until 2006. "Migrant reform: 9/11's role debated" (Arizona Republic)

While Congress has not passed any major new immigration laws in the past five years, several changes have been put into place at the administrative level. The government's surveillance of immigrants already in this country has increased. In December of 2002, the Justice Department implemented SEVIS – the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System – which requires all international students and exchange visitors to register with the federal government with their names, addresses, majors, course load, graduation date, etc. and update that information regularly. The Immigration and Naturalization Service undertook a separate registration of men from 24 (mostly Muslim) countries. They are required to be fingerprinted, photographed, and interviewed by the government annually. At the same time, deportations increased. This year, the Department of Homeland Security sharply increased the number of workplace raids. "Immigration Movement Struggles to Regain Momentum Built in Spring Marches" (New York Times)
Equally dramatic was the transfer of all immigration services and border enforcement procedures to the newly-created Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 2003, a move that critics argued would result in the conflation of all immigration as a security threat.

Within this context, the debate over immigration policy flared up again in 2005. The concern over the lax enforcement that allowed terrorists into the country was transferred to Mexican immigration. In December, 2005, the House passed an immigration bill that increased border security and also made illegal residence in the country a federal crime rather than a civil infraction. The bill inspired hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters to call for comprehensive immigration reform, including the legalization of illegal immigrants. See
"Democracy at Work" from the IHRC blog, March 30, 2006.
The Senate negotiated a bi-partisan comprehensive immigration reform bill that included a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship in addition to tighter border security.

But as we enter mid-term elections, comprehensive immigration reform is all but dead, and analysts are questioning whether the "fledgling immigrant rights movement" can transform itself into a political force. While labor day rallies failed to garner an expected high turnout, House Republicans announced that they would "move swiftly to pass legislation…to build 700 miles of fencing along the Mexican border" to stop illegal immigrants. See "House Republicans Will Push for 700 Miles of Fencing on Mexico Border" New York Times. and "Immigration Overhaul Takes a Back Seat as Campaign Season Begins" New York Times.

On the five-year anniversary of 9/11, America has been split into two camps on immigration once again. And it seems as if the camp that views immigration as a threat is currently winning.

______________________________________

Erika Lee
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of History
University of Minnesota
614 Social Sciences Building
267 19th Ave South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
work: 612/624-9569
fax: 612/624-7096

Visit us on the Web: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/
To receive email notices about events at the IHRC: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/about/e-notice.htm

Posted by Sylvie Thao at 10:47 AM | Permalink

By Donna R. Gabaccia, Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota

How fortunate that the U.N. released its report on the state of world population 2006 as domestic commentators were pronouncing the death of immigration reform.

This accident of timing enabled its big news about women migrants to make the headlines. That, in itself, is big news for a world that often ignores migrants’ gender.

The U.N. Report is available online and it’s well worth reading. So are the follow-up reports that link local stories around the world to the report’s main themes: http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2006/english/introduction.html

Specialists have long known about the “feminization” of migration worldwide. Once less than a third of the mobile, women today make up almost half the total of the 180 million people who live outside their countries of birth. While many women work for low wages in service jobs or in factories, about a third are instead highly educated participants in a global market for professional and technical workers.

What is surprising about the U.N. report is the upbeat view it takes of this change. While acknowledging problems such as women’s invisibility to policy makers and the problems of trafficking and low wages, the U.N. report portrays women migrants as major economic players in the global economy.

The report suggests that the savings that women send home collectively constitute important international investments. These remittances far surpass the amounts rich nations offer poor nations as development aid. And remittances—some economic historians now tell us--explain how over the course of a century some of the most important countries of emigration (such as Ireland and Italy) now number among the global rich.

That’s not the portrait of immigrant women or remittances we’ve typically seen recently in either U.S. or European debates about migration.

In the U.S. both restrictionists and advocates consistently view immigrant women and their children as poor. For restrictionists, they are drains on welfare, health and education services not threats to American women’s jobs. For more sympathetic observers, immigrant women need greater protection to prevent their abuse, whether by criminal traffickers or exploitative employers.

In Europe, reports about immigrant women also focus on abuse but more often focus on their vulnerability to male tyrants, especially in Moslem families, and especially in the form of “honor killings” of daughters who reject arranged marriages. See for example: Deaths of South Asian women highlights tensions with immigrant communities in Italy


This week, California newspapers generally responded to the U.N. report by locating and speaking with immigrant women who work hard for low wages and who send remittances home to support their children.
Immigrant women make up 95 million of total migrant population
Report: Female immigrants earn less, but send more home

Predictably, the women interviewed were all poor Mexican women--not female engineers from Iraq or Bulgaria. Still, their individual voices were confident and clear. These are among the most detailed and upbeat portraits of articulate and savvy female immigrants to appear in the American media in quite some time.

Is the future economic development of the world increasingly in female hands? The immigrant women interviewed, unsurprisingly, are mainly concerned with their own children and their own families. Still, it’s a possibility worth pondering.
________________________________________________________________

Donna R. Gabaccia Director, Immigration History Research Center 311
Elmer L. Andersen Library 222-21st Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455
612-625-5573 612 625-4800 FAX: 612-626-0018 Email: drg@umn.edu Visit us on
the Web: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/ To receive email notices about events at
the IHRC: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/about/e-notice.htm

Posted by Sylvie Thao at 10:56 AM | Permalink