One Day University

America is a nation of immigrants. While different ethnic and racial groups have signaled separate waves of immigration, the immigrant experience over the last 385 years has been strikingly similar — often defined by paranoia, bigotry, hatred, and ultimately assimilation. The Protestants arrived in 1620, and the Irish Catholics arrived 200 years later. In the 1880s came legions of Russian Jews, and Italian immigrants, but by 1920, the open door of immigration was officially closed. Nonetheless, the highest rate of illegal immigration in U.S. history took place in 1954. Professor Gittleman examines a nation that is utterly defined by immigration, putting historical perspective and context to a centuries-old fiery debate.