For centuries, people from all over the world have made their way to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their families. How has migration in turn shaped American life and culture? Part of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series, historian Mae Ngai, in conversation with Judge Denny Chin, discusses how immigration has transformed the country, and why it has become one of the most divisive issues in American politics.
 
Mae Ngai is an immigration historian and professor of history at Columbia University. She is the author of Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America and writes on immigration matters in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other publications. Denny Chin (moderator) is United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit.

Presented by the New-York Historical Society as part of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series.