By Sarah Kyo, Public Affairs Assistant

A woman resting her head on her clasped hands

Kelly Lytle Hernandez

Photo of man with his head resting on his clasped hands

Andrew Lam

The Indian diaspora, international migration and immigrant workers were a few of the topics discussed at the Immigration Symposium, sponsored by the Silicon Valley Center for Global Studies.

Presenters, including SJSU professors and alumni, spoke at this conference April 12 and 13 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library. This was the fourth symposium within the last five years. This year’s theme was “Immigration: Policy and Reality.”

“The center tries to maintain ongoing discussions about immigration-related issues by hosting conferences and symposiums regularly,” said Yoko Baba, a justice studies professor who coordinated the event. “The symposium attempts to bring academics, practitioners and community members together to have meaningful dialogues and conversations about these issues.”

Andrew Lam, author and editor of New America Media, and Kelly Lytle Hernandez, a history professor at UCLA, provided keynote addresses. Lam recently wrote a collection of personal essays titled “East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres.” Hernandez’s book, “MIGRA! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol,” is the first scholarly study of the U.S. Border Patrol, according to the Immigration Symposium program.