I Know Them as People, Not as Figures: Narratives and Images of American Immigration

U.S. foreign-born population reached 44.4M in 2017, 13.6% total—highlighting stories over statistics.

According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 44.4 million in 2017 with immigrants accounting for 13.6% of the U.S. population. While numbers are important in understanding immigration policy, they do not tell the whole story. The story of immigration is a collection of individual life stories, not figures. Each story of immigration is a personal one. The phrase “I know them as people, not as figures” is taken from a letter written by Japanese émigré Tsuyoshi Matsumoto while detained in Alabama in 1942 and preserved at the Amistad Research Center.