“Huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

The immigration debate took a backseat a while ago and hasn’t returned since.  Still, found this interactive map from the New York Times very interesting.  Be sure to explore by country of origin, and then by decade.

My grand parents emigrated from Russia and Czechoslovakia during WWII, and I found the changing immigrant population from those countries over time very interesting.

Navigating the map is thought-provoking.  Hopefully simple and informative informational tools such as this one will remind policy makers and Americans alike of our great immigrant past.  We don’t need to provide comprehensive and free social services for everyone who ends up in America, but we do need new comprehensive immigration policies that include a legal path to citizenship and bring the millions of people in our country out of the shadows.

We owe it to them to make America a place where the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” can call home.  Selfishly, we owe it to ourselves to live in a country from no one fears calling emergency services or visiting a hospital for fear of deportation.  And that’s for our own good.

Came across this map via Twitter from @jaredpolis.  Starting to like Twitter more as it keeps me updated on people’s lives, gives me the inside story on some politicians (see @clairecmc as an example, although it’s debatable that this is really her all the time), and most important, delivers the news (Twitter seems first on the scene for all plane crashes) and highlights the most interesting material in the sea of information out there on the web.  Also, this map led me to find other interactive tools on the NYT site.  See this one for the “Geography of a Recession.”

NYT Interactive Immigration Map

Explore posts in the same categories: America, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration, National Security

Tags: Czechoslovakia, Immigration, Immigration Debate, Mexico, NYT, Russia, Twitter, WWII

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