Over the last century, tens of millions of people quit Eastern Europe for the United States. The push-pull factors were many—war, poverty, instability, persecution at home and opportunity, refuge, and liberty abroad. But manna didn’t simply fall from the sky in America. Immigrants from Eastern Europe confronted many of the same challenges migrants do everywhere—exploitation, hardship, and discrimination.
What pushed Eastern Europeans to leave for America? What did they discover when they arrived? How did they change and be changed by American society? What opportunities and challenges did they face to become “American”? And what can we learn about immigration today?
Thresholds is a seven-part REEES podcast series that grapples with these histories through interviews with scholars and immigrants’ personal profiles. Find this series and more on the Eurasian Knot podcast.
All Thresholds content is available here.
