History Fellow Mines Immigration Records for Forthcoming Book Chapter
By Angela Tudico | ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ News
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2023 β Dr. Randa Tawil, one of two 2022 , spent November 2022 here at the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘, researching Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) case files to explore the correlation between pregnancy and deportation for early 20th-century migrants to the United States.
To answer questions about mobility, gender, sexuality, immigration, and hardening border restrictions in the early 1900s, Tawil looked at how INS officials worked with doctors to enforce public charge laws against single pregnant women months after their arrival to the United States.
βI had never heard of women being deported so late in their pregnancy and for this reason,β Tawil explained. βThese women were not visibly pregnant when they arrived in the U.S. and subsequently sought medical care in hospitals for their pregnancies, and the government used that moment, simultaneously with the latest advances in the field of obstetrics, to decide when a woman became pregnant in order to enforce immigration restrictions. That was an interesting timeline that I wanted to delve into.β
Her findings will appear in the forthcoming chapter, βTime Difference: Pregnancy and Deportability in Early 20th Century United States,β that will be published in late 2024 in the anthology, βThe Hidden Histories of Unauthorized European Immigration in the United States,β edited by Deborah Kang and Danielle Battisti.
Tawil was already familiar with the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ and the INS case files prior to this project and was researching her book in progress, βRace in Transit: Mobilities Between Greater Syria and North America,β when she found a case file for a single pregnant European woman that did not fit with her research on Syrian migration, but which she said she felt compelled to pursue.
Tawil credits the fellowship for affording her the time and a community of support required to reveal the experiences of these female migrants, albeit filtered through the official government reporting available in the files.
Report to the United States Commissioner of Immigration, 1907. ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Photo courtesy of Randa Tawil.
βThese are government records so they appear complete and correct, but they donβt tell the full story of these women, and weβre never going to know that story fullyβthatβs history,β Tawil said. βBut some recovery and meditation on these glimpses into the past and making these marginalized people actually be the agents of history is something thatβs important.β
Tawil is an assistant professor of Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University. She earned her doctorate from Yale University and her bachelorβs degree from Wesleyan University, both in American Studies.
She is conducting her research as a 2022 recipient of the . Supported by the , the fellowships are awarded to early to mid-career historians, journalists, authors, or graduate students who perform and publish new research to elevate womenβs history using records held by the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘.
βThis fellowship is a testament to Cokie Robertsβ prescience,β Tawil noted. βThis history is important, and it might take more support to write it. But ultimately itβs producing some of the most interesting work out there.β
The fellowship launched in 2019 to honor noted author and journalist Cokie Roberts, who spent her career shining light on the stories of many women who had an impact on U.S. history.
βCokie was a leader on our board and a lifelong advocate for the Archives,β said Jim Blanchard, President and Chair of the ΝώΔαΛΉΘΛΣιΐΦ³‘ Foundation Board of Directors and former Michigan governor. βThese fellowships are a wonderful tribute to her ongoing inspiration to the field of womenβs history.β