Immigration has long stirred America’s imagination of its past and of the enduring value of the Republic to the world’s oppressed masses. No other society, we have believed, has been more hospitable to foreigners than ours. The historical settlement of newcomers brings to mind poignant narratives of journeys from desperate places to the Golden Door of modern American society. What is remembered about immigration is influenced in part by the spectacular vista of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and the photographic images of seemingly roughly hewn people memorialized in Emma Lazarus’ famous poem. All the more, our sense of what it is like to be an immigrant, and what immigration has done to the nation, is influenced by the stories of the first steps taken here by forebears from European places that still seem distant.

Immigration has long stirred America’s imagination of its past and of the enduring value of the Republic to the world’s oppressed masses. No other society, we have believed, has been more hospitable to foreigners than ours. The historical settlement of newcomers brings to mind poignant narratives of journeys from desperate places to the Golden Door of modern American society.