Ray Suarez on the Immigrant Experience in Today’s America

Air Dates: July 22-28, 2024

Immigration has long-been a contentious issue in American politics. But legendary journalist Ray Suarez says immigrants keep coming to the United States, overcoming obstacles, working for better opportunities for themselves and their families, and all the while buying into the idea of America that binds us all together.

Suarez is a journalist and author who co-hosts “World Affairs,” produced by the World Affairs Council and distributed to public radio.  He also covers Washington for the English-language all-news network Euronews.  Since launching Brooklyn Boy Productions in 2019, he has created content for public radio and television, The Washington Post, The Independent London, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pew Research, Knowable, “America in One Room,” Hispanics in Philanthropy, Slate, The Nation, Hearst TV, AlterNet, CityPaper, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the American Communities Project, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, among others.  Suarez spent 14 years as a correspondent and anchor at public television’s nightly newscast, The PBS NewsHour, where be became chief national correspondent. During his years at The NewsHour, Suarez covered the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, four presidential elections, reported from the floor of seven party political conventions, moderated two presidential primary candidates’ debates, among hundreds of others.

On this episode of “Story in the Public Square,” Suarez dives into his new book, “We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century: an Oral History,” told through the voices of immigrants from across the world who have settled in the United States.

“Story in the Public Square” broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. A full listing of the national television distribution is available at this link. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Mondays at 2:30 a.m. ET on SiriusXM’s popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. “Story in the Public Square” is a project of the Pell Center at Salve Regina University. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.