When Barack Obama Sr., father of the 44th U.S. president, left Kenya for the United States in 1959, he was part of a relatively small number of Black Africans immigrating to the United States at the time. On average, only 760 Africans were admitted into the United States each year in the [...]
When people arrive at state borders in search of sanctuary, one enduring question emerges across news headlines, in policy debates, and among scholars: Who qualifies as a refugee? This question remains timely because its answer has the power to provide some people with access to a territory, resources, and rights while hindering others from acquiring the same opportunities. Refugee recognition bes[...]
On January 30, 2023, my students at Dartmouth College organized a candlelight vigil as a response to the Monterey Park shooting, in which a gunman stormed a packed dance hall on New Year's[...]
A orillas del Río Bravo
[On the edge of the Rio Grande]
Hay una linda región
[There's a beautiful region]
Con un pueblito que llevo
[With a little town that I carry]
Muy dentro del corazón
[Deep inside my heart]
—Rigo Tovar, Mexican musician
Rigo Tovar sang about Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Rigo sang about the town I knew bef[...]
Maite, in her late 30s when I met her in 2013, has an infectious optimism about her. “This is a country of opportunity,” she tells me. It’s not hard to see why she feels this way. Despite the stress of managing both a sudden divorce and the pains of breast cancer treatment, she continues to steward a successful small business selling housewares door-to-door. Her older daughte[...]
Ten years ago, a New York Times article entitled “The Health Toll of Immigration,” summarized a key finding from decades of research on immigrants’ health in its opening line: “Becoming an American can be bad for your health.” The article highlighted the well-documented pa[...]
Footnotes, ASA’s quarterly member magazine, showcases sociologists’ perspectives on relevant and topical themes, and includes news and information related to ASA and the discipline of sociology.
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