ABSTRACT
Derived from Latin origins, the term ‘immigration’ denotes not only the movement of people, but also the process of change, of crossing boundaries, of overcoming, even of trespassing. While etymological origins are not always useful indicators of current meanings, in the case of immigration they clearly reflect the term's multiple connotations. Immigration means more than physical relocation. It means packing up and leaving, saying good-bye, breaking with the past, starting over again. Implicit in the migratory process is the questioning of all given relations, traditions, practices and positions. This shared experience of displacement, Oscar Handlin wrote in his classic study The Uprooted (1951), made immigration a quintessentially American experience. Immigrants, he noted, ‘were on their way toward being Americans almost before they stepped off the boat’.
