The lovely Maira Kalman on discovery, citizenship, and migration in the story of American democracy.
One million people became citizens of the United States last year, compared to 660 000 in 2007; 2.4 million in total between 2006 and 2008.
I think that, buried in the immigration statistics compiled by the Department of Homeland Security, there must be enough individual stories of nightmares escaped and American dreams won (or lost) to keep a thousand Joseph O’Neills busy for the next thousand years.
Which puts this news in world-historical perspective.
