The World from PRX

An immigrant ID card from the 1920s and 30s for Rosaura Piñera, who later became a US citizen at age 100.

Immigration Rewind

Immigration news today is often an echo of the past. We delve into the archives to bring you stories that matter now. Have a hidden history to tell us about? Submit your idea here.
Courtesy of Mónica Ortiz Uribe
A woman in a mask and gloves holds a sign reading "immigrants are essential NWDC is not"
Immigration
Xenophobia ‘takes its toll’ as Trump works to curb immigration
A mural of the Beatles
Music
How the Beatles created a sense of ‘place’ for this Argentinian American
A black and white image of a newspaper titled "La Amérika"
Immigration Rewind
I’m an American. But my family came to the US fraudulently.
A black and white photo of people going through immigration queues
Immigration
Cuccinelli’s ‘bootstraps’ line reflects historical amnesia of ‘public charge’
Musicians sit on a stage in blue lighting
Azoreans long for family abroad with this double-hearted instrument
(Left to right) Gwen Muranaka, Mikey Hirano Culross and Mario Reyes, in the newsroom of the last remaining Japanese American daily newspaper, the Rafu Shimpo in downtown Los Angeles, 2010.
Immigration
A Japanese American newspaper chronicles the ‘searing’ history of immigrant incarceration
A black and white historical photo of a uniformed man with his hand on a woman's shoulder while young boys look on.
Immigration
For centuries, migrants have been said to pose public health risks. They don’t.
black and white photo of three women and a man standing on stage
Immigration Rewind
60 years before BTS, the Kim Sisters were America’s original K-pop stars
A man and a woman fill out forms with Mexican passports in the frame
Immigration
Nixon and Reagan tried closing the border to pressure Mexico — here’s what happened
A fence strung with signs and paper cranes
Immigration
Immigrant detention centers are a grim reminder of Japanese American history
An artist rendering of European soldiers disembarking from ships being greeted by two Indigenous men
European colonization of the Americas killed 10 percent of world population and caused global cooling
Four black and white photos of a Korean baby in a row, with a file folder above.
Global Nation First Person
30 years later, this Korean adoptee finds ‘home’ again
A black and white photo of a large family
Global Nation First Person
For many, international adoption isn’t just a new family. It’s the loss of another life.
Black and white image of several people and a horse standing in front of teepees. A dog howls in the mid-foreground.
Immigration Rewind
Ignored and deported, Cree ‘refugees’ echo the crises of today
A black woman stands with a staff.
Amid 1619 anniversary, Virginia grapples with history of slavery in America
A couple is backlit against a stark stone fort interior.
Pirates brought enslaved Africans to Virginia’s shores. Where, exactly, is debatable.
An 1882 cartoon print shows an Irishman confronting Uncle Sam in a boarding house filled with laborers.
Immigration
Trump administration’s ‘public charge’ provision has roots in colonial US
A sunset with the silhouette of a mosque and man approaching
Immigration Rewind
How 16 Americans found family, faith and their immigrant roots — generations after their parents left their homelands
A woman in a hijab speaks into a microphone as dawn breaks in the clouds. An American flag waves in the distance.
Politics
Immigrants have a long history of taking their issues to the people — as political candidates
A solider with a rifle watches while men carrying suitcases line up next to a train.
Immigration
The US imprisoned Japanese Peruvians in Texas, then said they entered ‘illegally’
Glady Lee
Immigration
When it comes to family separation, healing can take decades
Boarding school
‘We’ve been there’: Native Americans remember their own family separations
Man in protective gear points large gun at man holding a toddler, at close range. Toddler is screaming.
Media
An iconic image challenged the politics of Cuban Americans
sepia toned image of young boy, with some damage to photo around edges
Immigration
For a child migrant, days feel like a lifetime when you’re imprisoned and alone
Black and white photo of woman at tabel, facing away from camera, bending over recording device
Music
In the 1930s, an ethnomusicologist tried to preserve the history of immigration in California — and combat anti-immigrant feelings — with song
A 1983 black-and-white portrait of Gordon Hirabayashi, left, Minoru Yasui, center, and Fred Korematsu.
Justice
As the Supreme Court considers Trump’s travel ban, some want justices to remember a case they decided 74 years ago
Border wall
This historian’s new book on Mexican migration is perfectly timed
Sepia-tone image of man in jacket, profile photo, in front of 1980s computers
Media
A news organization that insisted on inclusive journalism is closing its doors
Gijiu Kitazawa (left) started the Kitazawa Seed Company back in 1917. He had to restart the company after his family was sent to a prison camp for Japanese Americans during World War II.
Business
How a Japanese American business survived World War II and tied together two families
New citizens stand during the National Anthem at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization ceremony
Global Politics
The surprising history of the green card lottery
A 1923 Ku Klux Klan parade in Albany is pictured
Conflict
In the shadow of a racist past, Portland still struggles to be welcoming to all its residents
Former barrack turned into a house in nearby town of Parker, Arizona.
Conflict
Japanese Americans weren’t the only US citizens housed in camps
Image of old report card with black and white photo of young girl
Culture
There hasn’t been a Japantown in Chicago since the 1980s, but this exhibit is bringing the community back together
Street scene, colorized old photo, vendors, people in top hats, carriages
Global Politics
Another time in history that the US created travel bans — against Italians
An untitled piece by Martin Ramírez, (Train and Tunnel). Ramírez used crayons and glued together pieces of paper to make his drawings.
Arts
An anonymous psych patient is now acclaimed as a master artist of the immigrant experience
Large screen show grainy footage of woman in sari, man in turban. A silhouette of a man standing in front.
Music
Why this musician wants to understand xenophobia today by remembering the past
Hana, as a young girl in Prague, is surrounded by her mother, grandmother and great grandmother
Culture
Why telling my grandmother’s story helped me better understand today’s refugees
A man stands outside holding a photograph in front of a white sheet
Justice
One legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act? Secrecy.
Back of agent looking over river
Justice
This underground railroad took slaves to freedom in Mexico
black and white photo of people holding up signs of location names
Justice
New immigration policies are convincing more Japanese Americans to engage in the radical act of remembering
Two men in suits walking down New York steet
Justice
Mr. Trump, I would be dead today if this country had not let me in
Black and white photo of man at table, with books
Education
How a Lebanese immigrant helped pave the way for the study of Islam and Muslim culture in the US
Woman on street holds sign showing farmworkers marching in black and white photo
Justice
50 years later, protesters re-enact a farmworker strike that is scarcely mentioned in the history books
Conflict
The slave-trade roots of US private prisons
A group of children jump and reach for a ball on a volleyball court at a refugee camp in Germany after World War II
Conflict
It’s not just the Olympics. Sports have been important in refugee camps for decades.
Technicians raise balloons
Global Politics
Convention drama is hardly an ‘unconventional’ part of US history
The gate to Louisiana State Penitentiary, pictured here, is a simple two-lane entry and exit way. Before the entrance is a brick wall that says "Louisiana State Penitentiary, Burl Cain, Warden"
Conflict
Slavery’s long shadow looms over the deaths of victims of police violence
Candidates for citizenship in the United States
Justice
The US has come a long way since its first, highly restrictive naturalization law
One man and three women hold signs that say "DAPA now!" and "DAPA Ahora!" before a wall covered with a mural, barely visible.
Justice
While the Supreme Court considers deportation policy, the roots of deportation itself come from a much earlier case
When thousands of activists marched last May Day in Los Angeles, they chanted a message that advocates have articulated time and again in US history: immigrants’ rights are human rights.
Justice
How immigrant rights activists fought — and won — a battle against unjust laws and deportations
A man sits on a crate to weigh vegetables in a field, black and white photo
Justice
A lesson from history about protecting migrant workers
Two men point and look at a map, in black and white
Conflict
During WWII, European refugees fled to Syria. Here’s what the camps were like.
A couple stands in front of a replica of a small mosque
Culture
More American than apple pie, Muslims have been migrating to the US for centuries
A cartoon of businessmen who are denying entry to a new immigrant, who is exiting a ship
Conflict
An anti-immigrant political movement that sparked an election day riot — 150 years ago
A soap advertisement from the 1880s, sub-titled 'The Chinese Must Go'
Global Politics
Long before anxiety about Muslims, Americans feared the ‘yellow peril’ of Chinese immigration
New York City's ‘Little Italy’. Mulberry Street, Lower East Side, circa 1900
Justice
A brief history of America’s hostility to a previous generation of Mediterranean migrants — Italians
Newly arriving Jewish refugee from the Nazi Holocaust wave from the ship "S.S. Awarea" as it pulls into Haifa port on April 6, 1948.
Global Politics
America was just as reluctant to shelter Jewish refugees
Bruce Kaji, shaking the hand of Japan's Crown Prince who had just landed in Los Angeles on a US Air Force airplane, in 1961. "In our family, we call this photo, The Prince and the Pauper.," says Bruce's son, Jon.
Business, Economics and Jobs
Toyota built Torrance into the second-largest home of Japanese Americans. Now, it’s leaving
Bruce Kaji, shaking the hand of Japan's Crown Prince who had just landed in Los Angeles on a US Air Force airplane, in 1961. "In our family, we call this photo, The Prince and the Pauper.," says Bruce's son, Jon.
Business, Economics and Jobs
Toyota built Torrance into the second-largest home of Japanese Americans. Now, it’s leaving
Cesar Chavez, June 1974
Business, Economics and Jobs
What’s the legacy of Cesar Chavez?