Celebrating 100 Years of Stories

Welcome to the eighth installment of our series “100 Years of Welcome: Commemorating IINE’s Boston Centennial.” The previous installment, “1975–1984: Refining Refugee Resettlement,” described the International Institute of Boston (IIB)’s resettlement of refugees of the Vietnam War and the increased government partnership and scaled up services made possible by the Refugee Act of 1980, including stronger legal services and new programs addressing mental health challenges. 

The previous installment, “1965-1974: Welcoming the World,” described how hard-won reforms to the U.S. immigration system allowed the International Institute of Boston (IIB) to welcome a more diverse population of immigrants and refugees from throughout the world.

Welcome to the sixth installment of our series “100 Years of Welcome: Commemorating IINE’s Boston Centennial.” The previous installment, “1954-1964: Refugee Relief Over Quotas,” described how the International Institute of Boston (IIB) found ways to circumvent and lobby against the discriminatory federal “quota system” introduced in 1924, which set caps on the number of immigrants admitted to the US from designated countries. 

Welcome to the fifth installment of our series “100 Years of Welcome: Commemorating IINE’s Boston Centennial.” The previous installment, “1944-1953: A Home for the Displaced,” described how the International Institute of Boston (IIB) worked to resettle and integrate more than 10,000 people displaced by the Second World War and served hundreds of refugees fleeing communist dictatorships. Further into the Cold War period, IIB successfully transitioned into an agency focused on the needs of refugees while also making significant strides in the fight against the biased immigration policy.

Welcome to the fourth installment of our series “100 Years of Welcome: Commemorating IINE’s Boston Centennial.” The previous installment, “1935-1944: ‘Don’t Condemn— Understand’,” described how the International Institute of Boston (IIB) found every opportunity available to welcome and support immigrants during the Great Depression and the Second World War, including through reintegrating Japanese Americans freed from internment.  

The International Institute of New England is thrilled to share the first installment of our new series, “100 Years of Welcome: Commemorating IINE’s Boston Centennial.” The series will begin in 1910 and guide us to present day, chronicling the founding and growth of IINE’s Boston programming, Boston’s history as a city of immigrants, and how the two are deeply entwined. We begin during a period of record immigration in Boston—and increased backlash, as a result—as International Institutes were beginning to take shape across the country.