Immigration Research and Resources

Immigration is part and parcel of what we have been and have become as a nation. The conception of the nation as a refuge, as a land of opportunity, and as a country made great by the contributions of many groups of people is deeply imbedded in our self-image.

Despite their dubious accuracy, concepts and symbols like the "melting pot" and the Statue of Liberty sum up an ideal of humaneness characteristic of American society.

Immigration has been a major contributor to growth and development in the United States. The population, our cities, the economy, scientific endeavor, the arts, and American life and culture itself have been formatively influenced by immigration. Immigration has in turn been incorporated in the ideals and self-image of the country.

Learn more through your own research on immigration. Below are resources to get you started.

The Immigration Problem: A Bibliography - 1909

This bibliography is the second of a series upon American Social Questions prepared by the students of the Wisconsin Library School, Class of 1908, and submitted by them in fulfillment of the requirements for graduation.

A Brief of the Question of Immigration in Outline Form - 1915

This Brief was prepared in 1915 by Mary Katarine Reely, who compiled selected articles on Immigration as part of the Debaters' Handbook Series. It represents the arguments on both sides of the immigration question that reflect the immigration laws in effect as of March 1915.