Menu
Idea

immigrant stories

77
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Chinese workers standing in the streets.

The Long Shadow of the Chinese Exclusion Act

The true cost of the immigration policy can be measured in the generations of Chinese Americans who were never born.
by Jane C. Hu via The New Yorker on January 23, 2025
Young people running through the streets of Taipei; a middle aged businessman in Houston.

Texas’ Hotbed of Taiwanese Nationalism

For decades, Houston families like mine have helped keep the flame of independence burning.
by Josephine Lee via Texas Observer on November 25, 2024
Illustration of a figure sitting and playing a guitar, in front of an image of a cross

Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution

Describing the experiences of radicals who lived in, traveled to, or found themselves in Mexico between 1910 and 1920.
by Christina Heatherton via Boom California on October 12, 2022
Actor Eugenio Derbez at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Spanish 'Dracula' Finds New Blood, More Than 90 Years After Its Release

In 1931, an entire new cast and crew reshot Dracula in Spanish on the Universal Studios lot.
by Mandalit del Barco via NPR on September 19, 2022
A picture of the author as a teenager with his parents, in his bedroom decorated with rock music posters.

My Dad and Kurt Cobain

When my father moved to Taiwan, a fax machine and a shared love of music bridged an ocean.
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on August 15, 2022
Dr Elhamy Khalil and Attorney Awny Barsoum's arrival in New York in 1963

Egyptians in New York: The Untold Stories of Early Immigrants to America

When the US relaxed immigration restrictions in the late 50s, a small Egyptian population emerged. Their early experiences are now available via a new archive.
via Middle East Eye on November 24, 2021
A young woman poses outside a wooden house covered with tar paper, wearing a bonnet and reading a book.

The 21-Year-Old Norwegian Immigrant Who Started Life Over by Homesteading Alone on America’s Prairie

In 1903 Mine Westbye moved to North Dakota to live a life "so quiet you almost feel afraid."
by Sigrid Lien via What It Means to Be American on December 15, 2019
Image of Hassan, a Syrian-American man

Syrian in Sioux Falls

In the 1920s, Syrian-Americans were compelled to prove their worth in a society where nativism was on the rise and citizenship often meant being considered white.
by Chris Gratien via Ottoman History Podcast on November 5, 2018

Take an Immigrant’s Journey

Follow the paths of eight immigrants, whose stories are based on real laws and historically documented scenarios.
by Grainne McEvoy, Dan Zedek, Yan Wu via Experience on October 24, 2018

Donald Trump's Grandfather Came to the U.S. as an Unaccompanied Minor

President Trump's grandfather made the choice to leave his German family for the U.S. all the way back in 1885.
by Kristine Phillips via Retropolis on June 27, 2018

The Old West’s Muslim Tamale King

How a South Asian immigrant became a Wyoming fast-food legend and received American citizenship - twice.
by Kathryn Schulz via The New Yorker on June 6, 2016
Pages from Eve Adams' Polish passport.

Deported From the U.S. for Publishing 'Lesbian Love,' She Was Later Killed by Nazis

Eve Adams was imprisoned for disorderly conduct and obscenity, then sent back to Europe, where she became a target of the Holocaust.
by Kellie B. Gormly via Smithsonian Magazine on June 26, 2025
A newspaper drawing of St. Louis from above.
partner

German Radicals vs. the Slave Power

In "Memoirs of a Nobody," Henry Boernstein chronicles the militant immigrant organizing that helped keep St. Louis out of the hands of the Confederacy.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via HNN on May 21, 2025
Mottled photographs of immigrants set against the Statue of Liberty.

The American Dream 100 Years After the National Origins Act

How a clerk on Ellis Island at the dawn of the 20th century documented discrimination through photography, and what that tells us about today’s malaise.
by Yousef O. Bounab via New Lines on February 17, 2025
Von Trapp family from "The Sound of Music," (1965).

How the Family From Everyone’s Favorite Musical Actually Came to America

And why so many people remember the tale so differently.
by Rebecca Brenner Graham via Slate on January 26, 2025
A drawing of two parents and a child running at a border, their silhouettes being sliced by a chainlink fence.

The Crime of Human Movement

Two recent books about our immigration system reveal its long history of exploiting vulnerable individuals for financial gain.
by Coco Fusco via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024
Letter from Wong Gin Fu to Wong Kim

Sadness of the Paper Son: The Travails of Asian Immigration to the U.S.

Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act, about 300,000 Chinese gained admission to the U.S. between 1882 and 1943. How did they do it?
by Ryan Reft via Tropics of Meta on October 3, 2024
Person holding tree marked with carvings of various symbols, made by Basque herders.

Arborglyphs – Basque Immigrant Sheepherders Left Their Marks on Aspen Trees in the American West

Herders carved names, slogans, nude silhouettes and more into the trees around them. Now, researchers rush to find the arborglyphs before they disappear.
by John Bieter, Cheryl Oestreicher, Iñaki Arrieta Baro via The Conversation on June 20, 2024
Book cover of "In the Shadow of Liberty," featuring city scenes and barbed wire.

Intended to Be Cruel

On Ana Raquel Minian’s “In the Shadow of Liberty.”
by Sara Campos via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 2, 2024
Books, diaries and poetry collections from the Issei Poetry Project.

Issei Poetry Between the World Wars

The rich history of Japanese-language literature challenges assumptions about what counts as U.S. art.
by Kenji C. Liu via High Country News on March 1, 2024
A family of Greek immigrants disembarking on Ellis Island.

For We Were Strangers in the Land of America

Comparing the struggles of Mexican and Greek immigrants to the United States.
by Paul Apostolidis via New Lines on January 24, 2024
Cuban refugee children.

When the U.S. Welcomed the ‘Pedro Pan’ Migrants of Cuba

Cold War America resettled unaccompanied minors as an anti-communist imperative. Today, the nation forgets this history.
by John A. Gronbeck-Tedesco via Zócalo Public Square on January 8, 2024
Martial arts fighting scene from Warrior.

Bruce Lee’s “Warrior,” and the Politics of Kung Fu

The Max series makes a radical argument for what constitutes American history.
by Jasper Lo via The New Yorker on September 12, 2023
Lebanese auto worker Eva Habib in her work coveralls in 1929.

Arab American Labor

On the centrality of the working classes to the Arab American immigrant experience and the pivotal roles Arab Americans played in American labor.
by Akram Khater, Chelsea Lundquist-Wentz, Nicole Ackman, Ginni Leeman, Lindsey Waldenberg via Khayrallah Center For Lebanese Diaspora Studies on September 4, 2023
Cover of Dreamland book.

Undocumented and Irish

The actual, and mythic, roles played by Irish immigrants in New York now fed the imaginations of the young Irish immigrants carving space for themselves in the 1980s.
by Carly Goodman via UNC Press Blog on July 26, 2023
Syrian children, possibly in Little Syria, Manhattan.

Remembering New York’s Little Syria

The ethnic enclave in Lower Manhattan was home to refugees fleeing civil war and entrepreneurs taking advantage of a globalizing economy.
by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on April 25, 2023
The men of the Dawahares family, a Syrian immigrant family who founded a clothing business in Kentucky.

Moses of Cairo (Illinois)

The idea that non-white immigrants are, generally speaking, new to the Midwest could not be further from the truth.
by Edward E. Curtis IV via Belt Magazine on April 23, 2023
A phot taken by Corkey Lee of an Asian woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty in front of a diamond store with a Statue of Liberty mural.

Corky Lee and the Work of Seeing

Lee's life and work suggested that Asian American identity did not possess—and did not need—any underlying reality beyond solidarity.
by Ken Chen via n+1 on January 25, 2023
Brooklyn Bridge with the city skyline in the background.

When Panama Came to Brooklyn

“For those Afro-Caribbean Panamanian who had lived through Panama’s Canal Zone apartheid, Brooklyn segregation probably came as no surprise.”
by Kaysha Corinealdi via Public Books on November 30, 2022
A 1907 photograph of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.

What I Don’t Know

At the heart of my family tree are only questions and mysteries.
by Lynne Sharon Schwartz via The American Scholar on April 14, 2022
View More
30 of
77

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History