Immigration: American Experience

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 (Harvard University Library)
Collection of historical materials, archives, and museums that documents voluntary immigration to the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the onset of the Great Depression. Concentrating heavily on the 19th century, this website includes over 400,000 pages from more than 2,200 books, pamphlets, and serials, over 9,600 pages from manuscript and archival collections, and more than 7,800 photographs.

Caribbean Sea Migration Project (Duke University Libraries)
Materials related to Cuban, Dominican and Haitian maritime migration from 1965-1996, including camps at the U.S. Naval Station, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, 1991-1996.  

How the United States Immigration System Works (American Immigration Council)   
A fact sheet provides basic information about how the U.S. legal immigration system is designed. 

Immigrants and Refugees in the united States (Human Rights Watch)
Resources about migrants in the U.S.  who are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses. 

Immigrants in the United States (Center for Immigration Studies)
A profile of the foreign-born using 2014 and 2015 Census Bureau data (2016) 
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center "...the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has gone on to become the go-to think tank for the anti-immigrant movement with its reports and staffers often cited by media and anti-immigrant politicians. CIS’s much-touted tagline is 'low immigration, pro-immigrant,' but the organization has a decades-long history of circulating racist writers, while also associating with white nationalists."

Immigration (Library of Congress) 
Provides an introduction to the study of immigration to the United States. It is far from the complete story, and focuses only on the immigrant groups that arrived in greatest numbers during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The presentation was shaped by the primary sources available in the Library's online collection. 

The Obama Adminstration’s November 2014 Immigration Initiatives: Questions and Answers
(Congressional Research Service, 2014) Provides discussions for nine frequently-asked questions relating to such topics as the legal authority for the president’s actions, constraints upon executive discretionary authority, and who has “standing” to challenge the initiative.  

State Challenges to Federal Enforcement of Immigration Law: From the Mid-1990s to the Present   
(Congressional Research Service, 2016)  Reviews the history of litigation between various states and the federal government over immigration and the exclusion or removal of undocumented immigrants.  

Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues (Congressional Research Service, 2018)
Describes what conditions allow for temporary protected status for foreign nationals in the U.S., how many foreign nationals are currently receiving such status, and the specific concerns related to six countries including Syria. 

Coming to America : 50 Great Works of Immigration Literature (Open Education Database)   
Though mostly fiction, the following literary works offer up a valuable, varied glimpse into what life is like in America for immigrants and their families. Many of them emphasize familiar themes regarding balances between old and new, allegiances to family and the unique hardships faced once settled. Search ASU Library Catalog for titles.

Selected Reports 

• Chinese Immigrants in the United States (2017)
• Immigrant Women in the United States (2015)
• The Integration of Immigrants into American Society (2015)  
• Mexican Immigrants in the United States (2016)
• A Nation of Immigrants (2013) 
• Permanent Legal Immigration to the United States: Policy Overview (2018)
• The Rise of Asian Americans (2013)

Arizona Archives Online
Arizona Archives Online consists of text-based finding aids that describe archival collections held in Arizona. It provides finding aids for archival collections at repositories throughout Arizona, including ASU's Archives and Special Collections.

Refugee Admissions (U.S. Department of State) 
Refugee admissions & resettlement in the U.S. 

WRAPS (Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System) 
Refugee Admission Database to process and track the movement of refugees from various countries to the U.S. for resettlement. 

Additional immigrant & refugee organizations