NH's Immigration Story

Airs Friday (5/24) at noon, and Saturday (5/25) at 4 p.m.

We conclude our series on New Hampshire’s Immigration Story.  Over the past year, we’ve examined our immigrant past -- from that first encounter between Native Americans and Europeans to how newcomers shape our communities today… their contributions, their struggles, and the conflicts that come up.  We’ll look at what we’ve learned…and how our immigration story is still being written.

Guests:

Eva Castillo: Coordinator for The New Hampshire Alliance of Immigrants and Refugees, a part of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. Eva first came to America from Venezuela in 1976 and moved to New Hampshire in 1983.

All week we are playing excerpt of the documentary, New Hampshire's Immigration Story, which airs this Friday at noon. Today, Keith Shields looks at the story of the Palmer Raids and how local and federal authorities rounded up and arrested 260 Russians, Poles and Lithuanians, all in one night in 1920

Every group that has arrived here has experienced some conflict – whether between newcomers and long-time residents…or, within new immigrant groups themselves.  As part of our series on New Hampshire’s Immigration Story, we’ll look at what difficulties tend to come up, again and again – also, how different people draw the lines between assimilation and maintaining their culture. 

Guests: 

Salaam Odeh works as a medical and legal interpreter and translator throughout New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. She is a community activist and recently served as a State Commissioner on the Status of Women. She was born and raised in Jordan as a Palestinian refugee.

All this week, we're playing excerpts from the documentary, "New Hampshire's Immigration Story" which airs this Friday at noon. In this installment, Keith Shields looks at the growth of the Amoskeag mill and how mill owners across the state would travel overseas trying to convince new immigrants to move to the Granite state and make specialty products for their companies.

North Country representatives split along party lines in voting Tuesday on a bill that would allow towns and cities to have a one-year moratorium on having refugees settle in their jurisdictions.

Seven were in favor. Seven against. Two were excused from voting.

As NHPR has reported the bill previously passed the House but had trouble when it reached the Senate.

The Associated Press is reporting the bill was revived: