Milwaukee history is inextricably linked to immigration, from the first German, French, and English immigrants who shaped the city’s founding, to Polish and Irish immigrants that helped build it into an industrial powerhouse, to the Latino immigrants that have redefined the near south side.
But more recent waves of immigrants - from places like Myanmar, Somalia, and Laos - are also making their mark on Milwaukee. And, as Barbara Miner writes in the current issue of Milwaukee Magazine, they’re likely to continue to influence life here, regardless of the political winds in Washington. Miner talks with Lake Effect’s Joy Powers about what immigration in Milwaukee looks like today.