Widely considered a wellspring for US greatness, immigration has also been a source and expression of our deepest conflicts. Immigrant diversity made the United States different from other countries in ways that have been essential to the nation’s development, bringing valuable experiences and contributing to American liberty. Today we celebrate our immigrant roots but also find challenges in competing beliefs about how immigration shapes our country and to what ends and by what means we should admit or exclude newcomers. The resources provided here include essays, primary sources, videos, lesson plans, and timelines on immigration history that have been developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute over the past twenty-five years.
