USA
Immigration
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. For decades, American policy regarding those who reach our borders has been the subject of intense political disagreement, reflecting economic realities and cultural divides. What would a policy look like that meets both our labor and se...
Javier Zamora’s migration journey took him from El Salvador to the United States by foot at age nine, while Jamie Ford’s great-grandfather emigrated from China to Nevada to mine. Both authors reflect on the ways in which migration has shaped them, unpacking what it means to be American and exploring the meaning of home.
Drawing on decades of writing about the economy for The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Leonhardt offers a preview of his forthcoming book and examines the past century of American history, from the Great Depression to today’s Great Stagnation, in search of an answer.
Based on his extensive reporting on the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents, Soboroff, an NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, exposes both the details of the program and its devastating consequences. This unvarnished depiction of the conditions under which separated children were detained won him the 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for...
Beyond the everyday policy disagreements that have typically characterized Americans from blue states and red states, we seem more divided than ever about the fundamental direction of our nation. For the first time since the Civil War, our political disagreements erupted into violence at the US Capitol. And the pandemic has only made things worse, as our differences became...
If you assume things have quieted down on the US-Mexico border, think again. The chaos and questions that have plagued the region for decades are reaching fever pitch while tens of thousands of lives remain in flux. How did we get here? Where — and how — are the children who were separated from their families? Are the administration’s latest crackdowns making any progress...
The Aspen Challenge presents three high school teams from Louisville and one team from Dallas who developed innovative solutions to issues that have chronically impacted their communities. See these young change-makers take to the stage to prove that entrepreneurial community solutions can be created at any age. Learn how Justin F. Kimball and Central High School Magnet Ca...
Many Americans hold dear our identity as a “nation of immigrants” and the “land of opportunity.” But our immigration processes are convoluted, backlogged, and choked with would-be Americans desperate for a better life — while roughly 70 percent of US voters are opposed to increasing legal immigration levels. How should we decide who can come? Could our system be more respo...
Far too many students in the United States and around the world face challenges when seeking a quality education; this untapped potential is a waste of societal and economic resources. In this session, education and civil society leaders will talk about their efforts to engage underserved and refugee youth, and their successes and failures in helping those youth overcome b...
While Congress looks less and less likely to take on any meaningful move on comprehensive immigration reform, hundreds of thousands of people live in limbo every day. Many of them face daily trials, ranging from inconveniences to crippling uncertainty to, in some communities, hatred and outright danger. What’s it like to be at the mercy of our immigration system today?
As the US ceases to be a white majority country (a demographic milestone we’re expected to reach by 2020), how will we as a society define what it means to be American — and who gets to decide? With increasing backlash against those seen as not belonging, how do we advance a national dialogue on American identity that considers the increasingly diverse and complex makeup o...
What does it mean to be American, and how is that story best told and understood? New York Times columnist David Brooks sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas to discuss citizenship without certainty, ahead of the publication of Vargas's memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen. Brooks and Vargas will e...
The president of the Texas Civil Rights Project sits down with the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart to discuss human rights, legal precedent, and what is actually happening to families on the border.
More than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents at the Mexico/US border in recent weeks. Housed in tent camps, converted warehouses, and other shelters, they have had no idea when they will see their parents again. The Trump Administration may end the enforced separation by indefinitely detaining families together, but that is unlikely to eliminate enduring...
Latino evangelicals — a fast-growing population that is nearing 20 percent of American Latinos, and rising — exemplify the difficult positions many Christians find themselves in today, where social conservatism and deep Christian faith run headlong into hard questions about immigrants, refugees, the poor, and moral leadership. The Rev. Dr. Samuel Rodriguez exemplifies this...
As Latino Americans emerge as the majority minority and the new mainstream, representing 18 percent of the US population and approaching one-third by 2060, questions are emerging about where and how Latinos fit into the national narrative. Latinos are revitalizing rural communities, starting businesses, and entering the workforce and educational system at record rates, yet...
Join us for an interactive evening of presentations, small group discussions, performances, and opportunities to engage with other participants. Featuring Harold Green, Jonathan Greenblatt, Neal Katyal, Jon Lovett, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Manoush Zomorodi, and more. (Participants must be ages 14 – 24.) NOTE: Tickets are NOT available on aspenshowtix.com. Visit aspenideas.com...
This talk rethinks refugees as a potential economic benefit to the societies that host them, rather than simply passive victims of war and tyranny. Taking the audience on a research journey across continents, Alexander Betts, professor of forced migration and director of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, shows how refugees’ skills, talents, and aspirations c...
Most of us probably harbor preconceived notions about refugees. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding about what drove them from home. Or maybe it’s a lack of understanding about the lives they led before crises upended them. Or possibly, a failure of imagination about the talents and capacities they bring to their new host countries. How do our misconceptions about refugees keep...
As the threat of terrorist attacks collides with Europe’s worst migration crisis since WWII, anti-migration sentiments are at an all-time high. With the world closing its doors, the number of migrants is only set to increase. Experts predict upwards of 500 million people will be uprooted as a result of climate change—almost half of them from Sub-Saharan Africa. Invariable...