U.S. IMMIGRATION

..."Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door"
-- from The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

The New Americans @ PBS
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/newamericans/
For the new Americans of the 21st century, the attempt to forge a better life is a daily struggle filled with immigration red tape, separation anxiety, and cultural ignorance found in their adopted country -- no easier than for those who came before them. Yet, they still come. This PBS series follows Ogoni refugees, a Palestinian bride, Dominican baseball players, a Mexican laborer, and an Indian tech worker as they learn what it takes to become American.

See the For Educators section for resources and lesson plans:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/newamericans/foreducators_index.html

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Teacher & Student Resources
http://tinyurl.com/7n5kxxv
Immigration and related subjects are included in the curricula of most elementary schools, studied again in middle schools and then in greater depth in high schools. The purpose of this section is to support those efforts by helping teachers and students identify relevant information.

Close Up Foundation: U.S. Immigration Policy
http://www.closeup.org/default.aspx
The debate over immigration offers a modern-day reading of the principles that many people think America was founded on— providing newcomers with freedom from oppression and the opportunity for prosperity...

Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty National Monument @ The National Park Service
http://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm
Ellis Island was incorporated as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument on May 11, 1965. Between 1892 and 1954, approximately 12 million steerage and third class steamship passengers who entered the United States through the port of New York were legally and medically inspected at Ellis Island.

Immigration -- The Changing Face of America
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/immigration/ and
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/immigration/
Provides an introduction to the study of immigration to the United States. It is far from the complete story, and focuses only on the immigrant groups that arrived in greatest numbers during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The presentation was shaped by the primary sources available in the Library's online collections.