From the Ganges to the Hudson

From the Ganges to the Hudson: Indian Immigrant Families in New York City by Johanna Lessinger is a part of the New Immigrants Series, and one of the books I had to read this past Spring for my Anthropology of Migration class. As with the other from the series that I've read, Changes and Conflicts, this book is rather short (only 159 pages), but also both interesting and informative. Through Lessinger, we can get an insight into the experience of immigrants to the U.S. (specifically, of course, to New York City) from India - both the first generation immigrants (those who were born in India and immigrated as adults) and the 1.5 and second generation immigrants as well (respectively, those who were born in India but immigrated as children, and children who were born in the US to first generation immigrants). The communities they create here are rich with their native culture, and there is not so much a loss of native language as was widely the case with immigrants from Europe in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.

Changes and Conflicts: Korean Immigrant Families in New York

Changes and Conflicts: Korean Immigrant Families in New York by Pyong Gap Min is one of the books I had to read for my Anthropology of Migration class this past semester. It is one of the books in the New Immigrant Series, and while we only had two of the books in the series assigned for class, I would definitely pick up any others I might come across, because they were both great books.

Changes and Conflicts focuses on the experience of immigrants from Korea to New York, and also discusses the experience of many second-generation immigrants (the American-born children of those people who came from Korea) - however, many of the challenges they face are also experienced by Korean immigrants to other parts of the United States, as well. In fact, it is interesting to note both the similarities and differences between immigrant groups when reading this book, because there are quite a bit of both.