April 2007 Archives

By Donna R. Gabaccia, Professor of History and Director, Immigration History Research Center

These days, the “Dream Act� dominates news coverage of immigrant education issues. But while legislators debate the pros and cons of offering in-state college tuition to young immigrants without papers (as ten states already do), educators around the nation face the more mundane, everyday tasks of educating the millions of children--in primary and secondary schools—whose education firmly remains a right. What are their concerns?

By Andy Urban, PhD candidate in History at the University of Minnesota. IHRC Affiliated Faculty

“Still Present Pasts,� open at the Intermedia Arts gallery and sponsored in part by the University’s Institute for Advanced Study, takes on the problematic legacy of the Korean War. In the United States the Korean War’s legacy for many is that of a “forgotten� war. Although nearly as many American soldiers died during the conflict on the Korean peninsula as they would in the following decades in Vietnam, because of the ambivalent outcome of the war, it largely faded from American memory. For the Korean population, which suffered an enormous toll from the war, it impacted their lives in almost every conceivable manner.

By Erika Lee, Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies, IHRC Affiliate,

The public's focus on immigration for much of the past year has been on
reforming national laws targeting foreigners as they enter – or try to enter
– the United States. Little attention has been paid to how the United States
deals with immigrant detainees who are already in the United States. And
since the federal government changed its illegal immigrant policy in the
summer of 2006 from "catch-and-release" to "catch-and-remove," immigrant
detention has grown exponentially.

By Erika Lee, Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies at University of Minnesota, IHRC Affiliate,

We understand migration as a global phenomenon; people are on the move in
every part of the world and have been for centuries. We think less about how
the global migration of people also informs global debates and policies
about migration. This week's news gives us an opportunity to look at a few
common issues from around the world and to consider how they are connected
to each other.