Immigration Research in the United States: Social Origins and Future Orientations

Abstract

This paper presents and analyzes findings from the first National Survey of Immigration Scholars (NASIS), designed specifically to inquire into the social origins and research orientations of scholars who specialize in immigration studies and who are most responsible for producing our scholarly knowledge base. The NASIS sample consists of immigration scholars in a wide range of disciplines and at all stages in their careers. Unlike the nascent scholarship on immigration at the turn of the 19th century, the present era has seen many immigrants themselves become leading scholars of immigration in certain disciplines, and children, and especially grandchildren of immigrants are prominent immigration scholars in others. The finding that almost half of today's immigration scholars are themselves of immigrant stock, including the majority of the sociologists and more than a third of the anthropologists and historians, underscores the profound impact of immigration on the field itself. Simply put, immigration is producing many of the scholars who study it and who will tell its story.

Keywords: immigration, social origins and research orientations of immigration scholars, ethnic insiders and outsiders