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White South Africans who support Donald Trump in front of the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, 2025.
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The History of White Refugee Narratives

The Trump Administration's reasons for resettling Afrikaners echo early U.S. debates about Haiti's independence.
by James Alexander Dun via Made By History on June 9, 2025
US and Mexican immigrant rights activists march through the Arizona desert to draw attention to unjust immigration policies.

What the Birth of the Sanctuary Movement Teaches Us Today

The birth of the sanctuary movement some 45 years ago can teach us a lot about how to respond to today’s attacks on immigrants.
by Kyle Paoletta via The Nation on April 10, 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
Migrants discuss their journey in 2018, using a map posted inside a sports complex in Mexico City.
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Biden’s Announced Asylum Transit Ban Undermines Access to Life-Saving Protection

Similar bars have been marshaled against Central Americans since the late 1980s — severely undermining access to asylum.
by Yael Schacher via Made By History on January 23, 2023
Illustrated person in prison garb running away from a burning prison.

Cold War Flames on US Soil: The Oakdale Prison Riot

In the 1980s, Cold War tensions led to thousands of Cubans languishing in American prisons, unable to be released or repatriated. Uprisings followed.
by Mark Atwood Lawrence, Antonio Matheus, Michael Welch, Ethan A. Klingsberg via JSTOR Daily on November 17, 2022
Utica, New York

How Utica Became a City Where Refugees Came to Rebuild

Utica became a refugee magnet by accident.
by Susan Hartman via Literary Hub on June 9, 2022
Drawing depicting different groups of refugees. Above, a white woman carries an infant and holds the hand of a young child. They are wearing yellow and blue--the colors of Ukraine. They are standing on a red carpet, and it is being rolled out for them--an easy entrance amidst barbed wire. Meanwhile, at bottom right, other refugees are obscured in shadow, and covered by a thick red line (potentially another carpet). They are non-white refugees, and their faces are turned away from the viewer.

United States to Refugees: Don't Give us Your Tired, Your Poor!

Putting out the welcome mat for white Christians—while slamming the door in the faces of other migrants—is an American tradition.
by David Nasaw via The Nation on May 9, 2022
A group of migrants standing behind a chain-link fence with barbed wire in El Paso, Texas, trying to seek asylum.

The Long History of the U.S. Immigration Crisis

How Washington outsources its dirty work.
by Ana Raquel Minian via Foreign Affairs on March 15, 2022
Afghan refugees at Dulles Airport

The Status of Refugees

Seventy years after the UN Refugee Convention, the United States should refresh its commitment to displaced people.
by Linda K. Kerber via Dissent on August 25, 2021
Refutees carrying their possessions prepare to board a truck

Finding a Home for the Last Refugees of World War II

What happened to the last million Eastern Europeans in refugee camps in Germany, who refused to return home, or who had no home to return to.
by David Nasaw via Literary Hub on September 15, 2020
Portrait of young Bundists seated and standing

My Great-Grandfather the Bundist

Family paintings led me to a revolutionary society my mother’s grandfather was a member of and whose story was interwoven with Eastern European Jews.
by Molly Crabapple via New York Review of Books on October 6, 2018

Refugee to Detainee: How the U.S. is Deporting Those Seeking a Safe Haven

Since the 1994 Crime Bill signed into law by Bill Clinton, refugees have been deported in droves. And Southeast Asians are being targeted.
by Thi Bui via The Nib on June 13, 2018
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How the Haitian Refugee Crisis Led to the Indefinite Detention of Immigrants

It wasn't always this way.
by Carl Lindskoog via Made By History on April 9, 2018

The Real Refugees of Casablanca

When it came to gathering refugees, the waiting room of the US consulate was probably the closest thing to Rick’s Café Américain.
by Meredith Hindley via Longreads on November 23, 2017

Frederick Douglass, Refugee

Throughout modern history, the millions forced to flee as refugees have felt Douglass' agony, and thought his thoughts.
by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on February 7, 2017

A Twitter Tribute to Holocaust Victims

A conversation with the creator of a new social-media project that commemorates refugees the United States turned away in 1939.
by Russel Neiss, Candice Norwood via The Atlantic on January 27, 2017

How American's Rejection of Jews Fleeing Nazi Germany Haunts Our Refugee Policy Today

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it's important to remember why America welcomes refugees.
by Dara Lind via Vox on January 27, 2017

Anne Frank and Her Family Were Also Denied Entry as Refugees to the U.S.

Historian Richard Breitman tracked the efforts of Anne Frank's family to seek refuge in the US while immigration rules and public attitudes towards immigrants were changing.
by Elahe Izadi via Washington Post on November 24, 2015

Anti-Syrian Muslim Refugee Rhetoric Mirrors Calls to Reject Jews During Nazi Era

The fears that were conjured by nativists 80 years ago are chillingly similar to what we're hearing today.
by Lee Fang via The Intercept on November 18, 2015

When People Flee to America’s Shores

We are a nation of immigrants and refugees. Yet we always fear who is coming next.
by Jamelle Bouie via Slate on November 17, 2015
Black men stand on trains derailed by Sherman's destruction of infrastructure.

The Other Side of Sherman’s March

The general’s campaign through the South is known for its brutality against civilians. For the enslaved who followed his army, though, it was a shot at freedom.
by Scott Spillman via The New Yorker on January 29, 2025
Drawings of refugees arriving at Fort Monroe.
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Expect Freedom Upon Arrival

On the slow path to federal action on emancipation during the Civil War.
by Bennett Parten via HNN on January 22, 2025
Frances Perkins

How the First ‘Madam Secretary’ Fought to Save Jewish Refugees Fleeing From Nazi Germany

Frances Perkins’ challenged the United States’ restrictive immigration policies as FDR’s Secretary of Labor.
by Sara Georgini, Rebecca Brenner Graham via Smithsonian on January 21, 2025
Police officer in front of a playground and school.

The Historical Precedents to Trump’s Attacks on Haitian Immigrants

An expert on white nationalism explains how such demonizing rhetoric incubates and spreads—and what sets this particular episode apart.
by Kathleen Belew, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on September 18, 2024

They Settled in Houston After Katrina — and Then Faced a Political Storm

The backlash against an effort to resettle 200,000 evacuees holds lessons for future disasters.
by Jake Bittle via Grist on August 27, 2024
Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift applying for permanent resident status.
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Trump's Asylum Rhetoric is Rooted in the Mariel Boatlift

By suggesting that those seeking asylum in the U.S. are dangerous, Trump echoes the often false narratives around the 1980s Mariel boatlift.
by Mauricio Castro via Made By History on August 26, 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
Street sign for Emancipation Ave.

The Border Patrol and Asylum Exclusion

Border Patrol has abused its authority and mistreated migrants in countless ways. Yet its role as the frontline force in asylum exclusion has only grown.
by S. Deborah Kang via Public Books on May 30, 2024
Woman holding belongings and a teddy bear.
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As Red States Send Migrants to Blue States, Sanctuary Cities are Crucial

A very old concept remains a key part of navigating the United States' broken immigration system.
by Domenic Vitiello via Made By History on March 20, 2024
Jewish activists demanding ceasefire in Gaza.

When ‘Nice Jewish Boys and Girls’ in the US First Took up the Palestinian Cause

According to Geoffrey Levin’s ‘Our Palestine Question,’ divides over Israeli policy aren’t new – they existed before American Jews fully embraced Zionism.
by Geoffrey Levin via The Times Of Israel on February 5, 2024
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