The Challenge and Promise of Past-Present Comparisons

NANCY FONER

IN LOOKING TO THE FUTURE of U.S. immigration and ethnic history, one direction seems clear. Future research should build on and extend the comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives that already have begun to influence the field. I say this, of course, as a social scientist who has been deeply engaged in historical comparisons of immigration and whose own work has been characterized by a strong interdisciplinary thrust. But beyond my own intellectual inclinations, I believe that past-present comparisons, which inevitably involve going beyond disciplinary boundaries, can enrich and invigorate the field of U.S. immigration and ethnic history by raising new questions, offering new insights, and providing a way to evaluate, and perhaps further develop, theoretical perspectives that guide research.