Recommended websites related to immigration.
Caribbean Sea Migration Project. Materials related to Cuban, Dominican and Haitian maritime migration from 1965-1996, including camps at the U.S. Naval Station, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, 1991-1996. Courtesy of the Duke University Libraries.
Coming to America : 50 Great Works of Immigration Literature. Open Education Database. Immigration debates flood news sources today, but the realities experienced by those who flee their homes in search of new opportunities — even political asylum — oftentimes end up shoved to the margins. Though mostly fiction, the following literary works offer up a valuable, varied glimpse into what life is like in America for immigrants and their families. Many of them emphasize familiar themes regarding balances between old and new, allegiances to family and the unique hardships faced once settled. 50 samples.
ELDIS Migration. This development site covers many topics, but contains a nice page on migration issues.
Forced Migration Online. A growing collection of resources relating to refugees and forced migration. All our resources are available for free. FMO is designed for use by students, academics, practitioners, policy makers, the media, forced migrants or anyone else interested in the field of forced migration. By bringing together these useful and time-saving resources, we aim to support research and policy making in the field. The website is run by a small team based at the Refugee Studies Centre, in the Oxford Department of International Development at the University of Oxford.
History of U.S. Immigration Laws. Thumbnail sketches of immigration-related legislation adopted between 1790 and 1990. More detailed information on the most recent legislative changes, beginning in 1952, are also available separately. Federation for American Immigration Reform.
How the United States Immigration System Works. U.S. immigration law is very complex, and there is much confusion as to how it works. The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA), the body of law governing current immigration policy, provides for an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, with certain exceptions for close family members. Lawful permanent residency allows a foreign national to work and live lawfully and permanently in the United States. Lawful permanent residents (LPRs) are eligible to apply for nearly all jobs (i.e., jobs not legitimately restricted to U.S. citizens) and can remain in the country even if they are unemployed. Each year the United States also admits noncitizens on a temporary basis. Annually, Congress and the President determine a separate number for refugee admissions. Immigration to the United States is based upon the following principles: the reunification of families, admitting immigrants with skills that are valuable to the U.S. economy, protecting refugees, and promoting diversity. This fact sheet provides basic information about how the U.S. legal immigration system is designed. Overview by the American Immigration Council, August 12, 2016.
The Immigrant American Dream: Student Resources in Context (Gale) - short introduction to the Jewish American Experience and the East Indian American Experience. Immigration debates flood news sources today, but the realities experienced by those who flee their homes in search of new opportunities — even political asylum — oftentimes end up shoved to the margins. Though mostly fiction, the following literary works offer up a valuable, varied glimpse into what life is like in America for immigrants and their families. Many of them emphasize familiar themes regarding balances between old and new, allegiances to family and the unique hardships faced once settled.
Immigrants in the United States, 2010: A Profile of America's Foreign-Born Population
Immigration: Challenges for New Americans. Teacher Guide from the Library of Congress.
Immigration in the United States: New Economic, Social, Political Landscapes with Legislative Reform on the Horizon. Migration Policy Institute (MPI), 2013.
Immigration Policy in the United States. A paper prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, February 2006.
In Motion : The African American Migration Experience. In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience presents a new interpretation of African-American history, one that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment. Their survival skills, efficient networks, and dynamic culture enabled them to thrive and spread, and to be at the very core of the settlement and development of the Americas. Their hopeful journeys changed not only their world and the fabric of the African Diaspora but also the Western Hemisphere. Courtesy of the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture.
The Integration of Immigrants into American Society. Discusses aspects of life which improve and others which decline for immigrants as they try to become integrated into U.S. society. From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
Italian American History and Culture courtesy of the U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), formerly INS.
Migration Information Service. This invaluable, scholarly, text-rich, and graphic-enhanced Web site provides an instant access lifeline for hunters of information on migration. The product of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a nonpartisan research center founded in 2001 in Washington, D.C., it discloses a genuine empathy for immigrants. The international focus of MPI's board of advisers and linguistically skilled staffers is reflected in the Web site. Although it offers frequent feature stories, the site highlights reflective reports rather than daily news stories, which readers can better find elsewhere on the Web. Users are encouraged to interact with MPI staff members, whose telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and specialties are provided on the Web site. There are dispassionate, in-depth, background country profiles (with a notable US in Focus link), and an archives and glossary that are a boon to those relatively new to the field. The breadth and authoritativeness of MPI's outside links to sites such as the US Census Bureau, US Department of Labor, International Monetary Fund, numerous UN bureaus, and nongovernmental sources such as the European Migration Information Network, US Committee for Refugees, and Urban Institute are impressive. The site brings to the fore hot topics such as the English-language abilities of the foreign-born US population. These informational links serve as prompts, although users can direct unstructured questions to this site as well. MPI has created probably the best one-stop shopping venue for all levels of researchers on immigration both in the US and abroad. -- F. J. Augustyn Jr., Library of Congress, Choice, April 2003
Migration Policy Institute : MPI provides analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national, and international levels. It aims to meet the rising demand for pragmatic and thoughtful responses to the challenges and opportunities that large-scale migration, whether voluntary or forced, presents to communities and institutions in an increasingly integrated world.
Migrinter. A thematic, multidisciplinary database accessible on the Internet since 1996. Contains twenty-two thousand some bibliographic records on international migration and ethnic relations. Items included are periodical articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, theses, and research reports, some of which have links to the full texts for free here. The languages of the material are French (primarily), also English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese. The materials originate primarily from Europe but also Africa. The database is produced at the University of Poitiers in France, where they have a physical library that patrons can come into and do research in. There there are many more materials, such as pamphlets and other gray literature on the topic of migration that are not digitized.
National Immigration Forum. "Established in 1982, the National Immigration Forum is the leading immigrant advocacy organization in the country with a mission to advocate for the value of immigrants and immigration to the nation. "
The Obama Adminstration’s November 2014 Immigration Initiatives: Questions and Answers. Provides discussions for nine frequently-asked questions relating to such topics as the legal authority for the president’s actions, constraints upon executive discretionary authority, and who has “standing” to challenge the initiative. From the Congressional Research Service, posted by the Federation of American Scientists
Refugees and Asylees: 2014 . Reports on the number of people who were admitted to the U.S. during the year and the leading countries of nationality. Also covers age, sex, and marital status of refugees and their state of residence. From the Office of Immigration Statistics of the Department of Homeland Security
State Challenges to Federal Enforcement of Immigration Law: From the Mid-1990s to the Present Reviews the history of litigation between various states and the federal government over immigration and the exclusion or removal of unauthorized aliens. From the Congressional Research Service, posted by the Federation of American Scientists.
Strengthening Communities by Welcoming All Residents: A Federal Strategic Action Plan on Immigrant and Refugee Integration. Report of a presidential task force on a federal plan to improve existing pathways to naturalization, protect new American workers, expand opportunities for linguistic education, and generally strengthen federal immigrant and refugee integration infrastructure. From the White House Task Force on New Americans
Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues. Describes what conditions allow for temporary protected status for foreign nationals in the U.S., how many foreign nationals are currently receiving such status, and the specific concerns related to six countries including Syria. Congressional Research Service, reposted by the Federation of American Scientists
A Timeline of Immigration Policy in the United States. As the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday begins readying a sweeping bipartisan immigration bill for floor action, it's worth remembering why the issue stirs up such heated emotions in the U.S. Congress. A look at some of the landmark legislation enacted over the past century shows that the nation has spent much of its history arguing over who should be allowed to become an American. Courtesy of the Sunlight Foundation, May 8, 2013.
USA Immigration History. People flock to America from other countries for many reasons. Some come as tourist and stay long enough to visit and take in the sites; while others come to the United States for business purposes, educational opportunities and then return to their home lands when vacations, schooling and business transactions are completed. However, there is another group of people who come to the United States not to visit temporarily, but they come with the intentions of relocating or moving here permanently. These people are immigrants seeking a better life. Just like the birds that migrate to the south when winter conditions approaches, foreigners migrate to get away from difficulties, hardships and unsatisfactory living conditions that have become intolerable or inhuman. For these immigrants escaping their difficult conditions, the United States offers them hope and a chance to improve their personal situations and to rise above their difficulties in a land that holds promise, progress, stability and opportunity when all else fails at home.
