Iowa is home to over 180 languages, and residents from across the world as a result of a range of migration waves. On this edition of Talk of Iowa, we explore the factors that draw people to Iowa as well as the challenges they may face here aspart one of our "Iowa Week: Is This Home?" series.
Visit a naturalization ceremony for new U.S. citizens with IPR Producer Matthew Alvarez, and hear the thoughts of new citizens about their ties to Iowa and thoughts about the state. Then, learn more about why we have the population in the state that we do.
University of Northern Iowa Professor Michele Devlin says Iowa has experienced similar patterns of migration to other nearby, rural states in the past 10 years. There has been an influx of refugees recruited by companies for labor, commonly in the agricultural processing or meat packing industries. Iowa now has a sizeable population of people from Myanmar, Congo, Bhutan, Central America, and the Horn of Africa, she says.
Then, we hear from historian Timothy Walch, who explains historical waves of migration to Iowa as well as the perpetual prejudice many different types of people have experienced here, and Joshalyn Johnson, author and co-host of North End Update, who talks about her family's movement during the Great Migration, which was the relocation of millions of black Americans from the south to the north from 1916 to 1970.
Guests:
· Michele Devlin, University of Northern Iowa professor of global public health and emergency medical technician in the department of health, recreation
· Timothy Walch, historian, author, and former director for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
· Joshalyn Johnson, author and co-host of North End Update
