This article offers a new approach for deepening our understanding of the immigrant experience.
It describes how and explains why a historically grounded cohort analysis brings to the fore
aspects of émigré views and involvements, including within a single immigrant generation, other
approaches leave undocumented and unexplained. Differences in pre-migration experiences are
shown to shape both how immigrants adapt to their new country of settlement and how they
relate to their homeland. The utility of the approach is illustrated by contrasting the experiences
of different cohorts of Cuban immigrants: how they have adapted here and the nature of their
transnational ties.