HIST2600: Historical Methods (History of Immigration Focus): Web-Based Digital Sources

The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. Through research and analysis, the Council promotes the development of fair and rational immigration policies that reflect fundamental American values. It produces a number of publications covering a wide variety of immigration topics and these are accessible from its web site. One example is the five-page Immigrants in New Jersey fact sheet.

Penn State Law School's Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic produces a number of publications, including policy reports, community and educational presentations, and legal practitioner toolkits, available from its web site.

The Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) is a multidisciplinary research institute at George Mason University. The IIR’s mission is to inform and refocus the immigration conversation among academics, policymakers, and the public — including the business community and the media — by producing and disseminating valid, reliable, and objective multidisciplinary academic research related to immigrants and immigration to the United States. Its publications cover a wide variety of immigration topics.

The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute seeks to improve immigration and integration policies through authoritative research and analysis, opportunities for learning and dialogue, and the development of new ideas to address complex policy questions. It provides accessible and timely data, information, and analysis on immigration and integration issues that cover the major issues on which policymakers and the general public need information. It also pursues research that fills major gaps of understanding around migration flows and immigration and integration policy.

Companion site to a documentary program "is divided into three primary areas where visitors can meet the immigrant and refugee families profiled in the program, learn about their diverse cultural traditions, and take a quiz on the myths and realities of immigration and its effects on American society. The section where visitors can learn about the diverse families profiled (such as the Ogoni family from Nigeria) is quite nice, and visitors can also find out how they are doing currently. The additional features on the site include resources for educators, a place for visitors to offer their own comments on the program, and a topically organized section of additional online resources on the experiences of immigrants and refugees in the United States." [Internet Scout Project]

"Created as part of the Open Collections Program at Harvard University, this online archive 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. By incorporating diaries, biographies, and other writings capturing diverse experiences, the collected material provides a window into the lives of ordinary immigrants. The collection also includes contextual information on voluntary immigration and quantitative data."

"This well-developed collection tells the story of Chinese immigration to California in the late 19th and early 20th century through approximately 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. This fine brocade of ephemera includes letters, business records, legal documents, cartoons, photographs, and original art. These materials cover everything from family life to inter-ethnic tensions. San Francisco's Chinatown is the subject of special attention as well. First-time visitors should consider the Topical Overview area, which features galleries and essays such as 'Anti-Chinese Movements and Chinese Exclusion' and 'San Francisco's Chinatown-Business and Politics.' Additionally, visitors can browse the materials by subject, name, title, group, or theme. [Internet Scout Project]

The Bracero History Archive collects and makes available the oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the Bracero program, a guest worker initiative that spanned the years 1942-1964. Millions of Mexican agricultural workers crossed the border under the program to work in more than half of the states in America. The archive currently contains over 3,200 items, including images, documents, oral histories, and other materials.

"Immigrant Oral Histories presents a collection of over 360 oral history interviews conducted between 1967 and 2012 with recent immigrants to Minnesota and their American-born children, including both streaming audio and written transcripts accessible online in digital formats. These interviews are a unique source of contemporary history through the experiences of the newest Americans, in their own words. New oral history projects will continue to be added to this site as they are completed."

"The Immigration History Research Center Archives (IHRCA, or IHRC Archives) is a renowned archives and library for the study of immigration, ethnicity, and race. It selects sources documenting a broad range of immigrant and refugee experiences, and strives to connect history to today’s experiences. It works closely with the Immigration History Research Center, and is part of the Migration and Social Services Collections in Archives and Special Collections (ASC) in the University of Minnesota Libraries. The collections' strengths are first and second generation immigrants and displaced persons who came to the USA from central, eastern, and southern Europe; the eastern Mediterranean (formerly called the “Near East” region of the Middle East and North Africa); and late-20th and early 21st century immigrants and refugees. The collections vary from print to manuscript to born-digital. They include personal papers as well as organizational records of ethnic and immigrant-formed groups, and of social service providers."

"The Arab Immigration Oral History Digital Collection project aims to make available through Oral History interviews the life and professional experiences of Arab immigrants who have settled in Florida after leaving their homelands. The interviews are recorded digitally in Arabic and English and are also transcribed into English and available as PDFs. The collection is intended to help scholars, researchers, students and the general public to understand the reasons why certain Arabs immigrate to Florida. These interviews reveal specific life and professional experiences these immigrants have had and how they have created a new home for themselves in Florida."

This collection explores the subject of immigration in U.S. history with particular attention to the two and a half decades from 1890 to the start of World War I. The documents here approach the history of immigration and citizenship from several different angles: national and personal identity, the experience of immigration, immigrant life in the cities, and political debates over immigration.

DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of the materials found through DPLA—photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so much more—are free and immediately available in digital format.

The Library of Congress' ongoing digitization projects now include over 340 different collections covering a wide array of of historical and other topics. All collections can be searched or browsed.