What Is the Point of Our Emigration System?

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Emigration is a fascinating question that, unlike many things in modern life, i don't really havea coherent argument about. It's interesting to think of it not as a backwater, but as a secondary subject. At its worst, the idea of emigration can be kind of a dog whistle, a way of scaring people who are concerned about replacement theory and national security. And you know, it's such an emotional debate, and it always has been, that those answers can be eally hard to get to. That's why i've stuck with it because i feel like i understand it well enough to try to help us get to a better place.

Caitlin Dickerson is a staff writer for The Atlantic covering immigration. Her latest article, on the secret history of U.S. government’s family-separation policy, is ”An American Catastrophe.”

“Interviewing separated families, I’ve found, is just on a whole other scale of pain and trauma. I’ve watched people have really intense PTSD flashbacks in front of me. I never wanted to risk asking a family to open up in that way if I didn’t know that I’d be able to use that material. The worst thing you can do is waste someone’s time in a way that causes them pain.”

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