Day 78: How We Got Here, on Substack

Photo of Lillian Russell from Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy.com

This April, I started a weekly newsletter on Substack, called How We Got Here. I was tired of all the polarized discussion of immigration, from both sides - the Republicans referring to refugees and displaced people as “an invasion,” but also Democrats refusing to grapple with the economic and social changes that a large group of newcomers can bring about.

Every morning, I spend a few hours reading and writing about the history of people coming to this country (all people, including those who came from western Europe), and it gives me a different perspective. When I really look up close at the stories of immigration to this country, what I see is not platitudes but humanity - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I started How We Got Here to share those human stories, up close, with others. I write books about the stories I find, but it’s a long time between books. I wanted to share the stories every week, in a way that disrupts the narrative of left and right, right and wrong.

I’m a lawyer, so I focus a lot on the laws and the people who made them. But often that sends you off to look at the people whose migration - or whose resistance to others’ migration - set off the whole thing in the first place.

Every week, I post a story on How We Got Here. You can read this week’s by clicking on the image above, or get weekly emails by adding your address in the footer here on this page.