Contemporary Conversations on Immigration in the United States: The View from Prince George's County, Maryland (Anthropology of Well-being: Individual, Community, Society)

Contemporary Conversations on Immigration in the United States: The View from Prince George’s County, Maryland contextualizes the narratives of international migrants arriving to Prince George’s County, Maryland from 1968 to 2009. The life course trajectories of seventy individuals and their networks, organized chronologically to include life in the country of origin, the journey, and settlement in the county, frame migration as social issue rather than social problem. Having internalized the American dream, immigrants toil to achieve upward social mobility while constructing an immigrant space that nurtures well-being. This book demonstrates that an immigrant’s experience is grounded in personal, social, economic, and political spheres of influence, and reflects the complexity of migrants’ stories to help demystify homogenous categorization.

Judith Noemí Freidenberg is professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland and director of The Anthropology of the Immigrant Life Course Research Program.