The Huddled Masses And The Myth Of America
In this podcast, the modern debates about immigration in the presidential race and elsewhere often draw upon our ideas about past waves of immigration. We sometimes assume that earlier generations of newcomers quickly learned English and integrated into American society. But historian Maria Cristina Garcia, whose family came to the United States from Cuba, explains how these ideas are often false. Among other things, she discusses the demands on generations of immigrants to assimilate and the myth that previous generations of immigrants assimilated while contemporary ones failed o do so. The notion of “illegal” versus “legal” immigrants is a relatively new phenomenon with migration to the United States relatively easy for much of U.S. history.
KJ