Part I: Broad Perspectives
Then and Now or Then to Now: Immigration to New York in Contemporary and Historical Perspective

NANCY FONER

THE TITLE OF THIS ARTICLE—"Then and Now or Then to Now"—hinges on a conjunction and preposition: "and" and "to." Two very simple words, but whether we use one word or the other makes a world of difference in how we understand and analyze immigration and the immigrant experience in the United States over time. In what follows I focus on what difference it makes and on the benefits and drawbacks of both the "and" and "to" approaches. Or to put it another way, I consider the relative merits of comparing immigration "then and now," on the one hand—that is, a comparative approach—and, on the other hand, analyzing changes over time in a "then to now" manner, what one might call a historical "becoming" approach.