Little Feet: Children Starting Over in America [rebroadcast]

BackStory

Education, History

4.5 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2015

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tens of thousands of refugees have been arriving in Western Europe, fleeing civil war and unrest in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of the migrants making these perilous border crossings are children. This is hardly the first time minors have made such treacherous journeys. This week, BackStory revisits our episode on the many paths of child migrants in our own country. Some were thought of as innocents to be saved, whether from the Nazi bombing of London or from overcrowded urban orphanages. Others were hailed as pint-sized heroes of the Cold War, or scorned as child savages in need of civilizing — a justification once used to tear Indian children away from their families.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is backstory. I'm Ed Ayers. Last month, one photo forced millions to see the Syrian
0:06.3	refugee crisis in a new light, as noted on MSNBC.
0:10.3	So it took a photo of the drown Syrian toddler washing up on the shore of Turkey to move the
0:14.8	hearts of world leaders. Action Network is working for children.
0:18.2	Now the Obama administration has pledged to receive 10,000 additional Syrian refugees,
0:23.5	many of them children. America's immigration story has always included tiny travelers.
0:29.5	Some have been more welcome than others, but many have found themselves pawns in the
0:34.2	games of adults.
0:35.7	The word kidnappings used originally to mean very specifically to steal a child, to sell
0:41.9	them in the new world.
0:43.7	Today on the show, a history of children starting over in America, from indigenous servants
0:48.0	to European refugees in World War II.
0:50.7	We had the hell bombed allos every day, three times a day, 11, four, and 11.
0:56.0	All that and more today on backstory. Don't go away.
1:01.3	Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment
1:06.0	for the Humanities, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, and the Arthur
1:10.5	Vining Davis Foundations.
1:13.8	From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, this is backstory with the American History
1:20.8	Guys.
1:24.3	Welcome to the show. I'm Brian Bellow, and I'm here with Ed Ayers.
1:28.1	Hey Brian, and Peter Onos with us.
1:31.1	Hey Brian.
	...

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