Very often Americans perceive themselves as the center of migration processes. The migration narrative is constructed accordingly: Europeans moved to America in search of better lives for themselves and their offspring. Sometimes we include Africans coming over involuntarily as slaves, and we may consider Chinese laborers who came to work on the railroad. Usually we conclude that people came and stayed because they liked it better "over here" than "over there." By the same token we might think that migrants left homogenous cultures behind and came to the U.S. with only one national identity, carrying only one piece of cultural baggage. Only while assimilating into U.S. society, we might believe, did they learn to live in a multi-ethnic environment. Last but not least, we might assume that migration was a consequence of modernization, culminating in the second half of the nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth.

Just as Alice Kessler-Harris demonstrated a decade ago that "women have always worked," this issue of the OAH Magazine of History seeks to show that "people have always migrated." From the People's Migration in the first millennium to the globalization-induced labor and refugee migration at the end of the second, people in all parts of the world have migrated for many and varied reasons. In this issue, we aim to demonstrate that in the course of these long-term migration processes the United States is just one element in the system, albeit an important one.

The articles in this issue approach migration history from a global and interdisciplinary perspective, utilizing a systems approach which Dirk Hoerder outlines in the introductory essay. He introduces us to new paradigms and concepts in migration studies, advocating four large transnational migration systems with which to study worldwide migration in general and the peopling of North America in particular. Within these systems, we assume that migration processes are induced, structured, and shaped by the individuals who participate in them. These people:

• bring their desires, aspirations, needs, incentives, skills, and experiences to the event;
• incorporate their gender, class, and generational background;
• rely on informal channels of information developed through friends or kin;
• evaluate their gains and losses, their resources, assets, and costs within culturally defined units of reproduction and consumption, such as households or families; and
• negotiate between the global and the local, being influenced as much by global developments and capital penetration as by local decision making processes.

Donna Gabaccia then takes us on a trip around the world, following Italy's workers to north and south Africa, North and South America, Australia and northern Europe. In each of these regions Italians experienced migration differently, participated in the development of the receiving culture, and maintained close relationships with home. To analyze these factors, Gabaccia employs the concept of "diaspora"--defined here as the worldwide migration of a people who form global networks while maintaining contacts with the homeland.

Suzanne Sinke focuses on the relationship between migration and family formation, an aspect of migration that has not yet received much attention. She points out four key variables that influence this particular relationship: demographics, legal policies, cultural perceptions, and technology. All women who migrated confronted choices related to family formation and marriage partners. Either women left because local marriage options were restricted, or most prospective marriage partners had already left "for America," or the women chose to emigrate in order to earn money to enhance their potential on the marriage market. Because of the prospects of migration, women were better able to assert agency in the family formation process.

Through no particular planning, both Sinke and Hoerder refer to the same woman while trying to exemplify their theories and concepts. Rosa Cavalleri--the Italian woman who told her story to a Hull House social worker--has become the prototypical migrant whose experience lends itself to new concepts in migration research. Her voice adds depth and clarity to researchers' theories.

In the last essay, I look at the startling complexities--or shall we say muddle--of today's immigration policies in Europe. All of these policies have historical, social, and political dimensions, and they create environments for migrants that are almost impossible to untangle. Thus, migrants' identities and their prospects in the receiving culture are shaped more by their relationship to policy than by ability. Europe's attempt to facilitate movement within its boundaries makes entry from the outside much more difficult.

Kerstin Otto demonstrates the multicultural reality of everyday life in Europe by reporting on an Internet project where high school students exchange their migration stories. She provides valuable insight on how to organize such a project and suggests resources for further guidance. The lesson plan by Anja Schwalen puts Sinke's theme of marriage migration to work, encouraging students to think of past and present matchmaking processes in conjunction with changing gender roles. The lesson plan by Dennis Townsend enhances Gabaccia's concept of diaspora by studying Italian migrants from a transnational perspective.

It has been a great pleasure to put together this volume and I want to thank all authors for their cooperation. I also want to thank Arnita Jones for giving me the chance to work as guest editor, and Michael Regoli and Susan Ferentinos for their assistance in turning a manuscript into a volume of OAH Magazine of History.

Christiane Harzig is an assistant professor of North American history at the University of Bremen in Germany. She is the author of numerous articles on women and migration. Her most recent publication is an edited volume, Peasant Maids-City Women: From the European Countryside to Urban America (1997). She is presently working on a comparative study of post-World-War-II immigration policies.