European Emigration and Immigration Bibliography

Much has been written about immigration and emigration. Some book-length migration studies are broad general treatments, such as:

  • Roger Daniels' Coming To America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life (Princeton, New Jersey: Harper Perennial, 1990)
  • Thomas Sowell's Migrations And Cultures: A World View (New York: Basic Books, 1996)

Others deal with specific nationalities or ethnic groups, such as:

  • Robert R. Swierenga's Faith and Family: Dutch Immigration and Settlement in the United States, 1820-1920 (New York, New York: Holmes and Meier, 2000)
  • Gloria Totoricaguena's Basque Migration and Diaspora Transnational Identity (Reno, Nevada: The Center for Basque Studies, 2005)

Some studies focus on a specific group that has come to a specific place, such as:

  • Richard N. Juliani's Building Little Italy: Philadelphia's Italians Before Mass Migration (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998)
  • George Sanchez's Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)

An even larger number of journal articles about migration focus on small groups immigrating to specific states, counties or even towns.

The Immigrant Ancestors Project faculty and staff have found excellent immigration material — unfortunately, rarely consulted — produced at the local or regional level in both countries of origin and destination.

This bibliography contains an ever-growing list of secondary literature, books, articles and internet sites dealing with immigration. The staff and faculty of the project continually look for new materials about immigrants. Their work goes beyond broad international or national overviews of the immigration story to search for internet links, journal articles and materials produced at the local or regional level. This is not intended to be an edited list of those works that are the most analytical or best written; the goal is the most comprehensive inclusion possible. The Immigrant Ancestor Project hopes that researchers will use these materials to study migration and also to enrich studies of individual immigrants and their families, by providing historical context for specific immigrant experiences.

Each researcher must decide the value of specific material for a particular research project. Only those items that are annotated have been reviewed by Immigrant Ancestors Project staff, who encourage additional suggestions as to articles, books or links that might be included in the Bibliography. These can be sent to iap@byu.edu.