April 13, 2009

With one eye on the past waves of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and another on the new immigrants who come to the United States, Dr. Susan Martin, the Donald G. Herzberg Associate Professor of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service, sees similarities in attitudes and patterns of resistance.  She discusses the anxiety over English-only, and what is lost when immigrants lose their native languages.  She also expresses strong empathy for people who feel challenged and frustrated by immigration, and who express worries about religious and cultural traditions not their own.  In this multi-dimensional conversation, she considers the human side of what often becomes a policy debate.