How immigration via Ellis Island was ‘simpler’ than today
America’s history is, in part, a “history of immigration,” says sociologist Nancy Foner.
That history includes “people coming here to make a better life for themselves and their families, in some cases to flee persecution, so that immigration is really in the lifeblood of America,” she told PBS News’ Judy Woodruff.
Foner, the author of “Immigration: How the Past Shapes the Present,” added that every time the United States has had large waves of immigration, there’s also been a “negative reaction among some parts of the population.”
Foner joined Woodruff for her series, Crossroads: America at 250.
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