Introduction

Dear readers,

My interest in migration originated from two very different sources. Last year, as a freshman at the University of Rochester, I took ANT104, an introductory course that examined migration to the United States. We discussed refugees, documented and undocumented immigrants, different ethnic groups that have migrated to the US, and the resulting US backlashes. I was hooked. Since then, I have discovered that migration is one of my primary academic interests as an International Relations major (and Spanish minor).

At the same time, migration touches my personal life. I live in Blairstown, a small, rural community in northwestern NJ that embodies most of the cliches that you hear about small towns. Most of the surrounding area is similarly rustic; farms, not factories, predominate. Northwestern NJ is a far cry from Miami, or the southwestern border towns filled with maquiladoras, or even the crowded northeastern cities that have large migrant communities. Yet it is home to a new and growing migrant population. I don't know much about this community. But I have visited the new hispanic grocery store; enjoyed the food in El Paraiso, a restaurant run by a Dominican immigrant; heard the comments about the Indian students who attend my former high school (which was, according to the statistics, 99% white).

Through this project, I hope to explore and better understand my personal interest and academic passion. Who lives in the migrant community of Northern NJ? Where do they come from, and how do they live here? Most importantly, though, how do they perceive life in America?

Katie