MIchele is the author of LOCKOUT: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right, published by PublicAffairs Press in May 2006 (paperback August 2007), and of Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola (FSG/Hill & Wang, 1999/2000)

Michele lectures frequently at leading universities and policy fora on the subjects of immigration, cross-cultural conflict and conciliation, and Latin American politics. She has written for many U.S. and Latin American publications including The American Prospect, AmericaEconomia, Civilization, Forbes, Harper's, IntellectualCapital.com, Newsday, The New York Daily News, The New York Times Book Review, Texas Observer, Tikkun, Valor Economico, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Working Woman, Worth, and World Policy Journal. To read some of her articles, click here.

Michele appears frequently as a guest commentator on MSNBC and has been a source for major U.S. and international media including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald, Reuters, CNN, CNBC, National Public Radio and Public Radio International.  For links to her recent media appearances, click here. For upcoming lectures and readings, click here.

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Born in 1969 in Kansas City (Missouri), Michele grew up in Texas and Wisconsin and now lives in New York City.  She is a former staff reporter for The Milwaukee Sentinel, where she covered immigration, community government and police news, including the Jeffrey Dahmer case, until moving to New York City for graduate school. 

Until August 2001, Michele was Latin America bureau chief at International Financing Review, where she edited a biweekly magazine on Latin American capital markets and managed a real-time screen service on Latin American debt.  She has written extensively about emerging-market politics and economies for International Financing Review's on-line capital markets analysis service, for Dow Jones newswires and the Wall Street Journal, and for the magazine AméricaEconomia. She has served as managing editor of Lagniappe Letter, a biweekly newsletter on Latin American business and politics.

Michele holds a degree in French and policy studies from Rice University in Houston and a Master of International Affairs and Certificate in Latin American Studies at Columbia University's School of International Affairs. 

Why the Cocks Fight is based on research that began in 1988, when Michele traveled to the Dominican Republic and Haiti on a grant from Rice University to study the politics of language, a theme she chose after spending a summer with French-speaking relatives in Belgium, a country that is also divided by competing languages.  She returned to Hispaniola many times - to report on the 1991 Haitian military coup for the New York- based Dominican newspaper Listín USA (where she was foreign editor) and to cover political developments and immigration issues for U.S. publications including the Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, Newsweek, and World Policy Journal. 

While writing Why the Cocks Fight, Michele became interested in comparing the experiences of contemporary Dominican and Haitian immigrants with the immigration stories of her own ancestors, from Belgium, Germany, and parts of the former Austro-Hungarian empire. She discovered that much of what Americans learn about our own immigrant past contrasts with historical fact, and makes us think of new immigrants as far more different from our ancestors than they are in reality. Her research into the present-day consequences of our misconceptions led her to write Lockout as a way to correct false myths and help America keep from repeating the same old mistakes in immigration policy and attitudes toward newcomers.

Michele maintains close ties with the Dominican Republic and Haiti and supports the work of groups including the National Coalition for Haitian Rights and Batey Relief Alliance.  Michele is a member of the advisory board for the Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring Project (DREAM).  She is a Fellow of the RSA and a member of the Authors Guild, Council on Foreign Relations, Immigration and Ethnic History Society, and PEN America. Michele volunteers for Adopt a Boxer Rescue.  

Nina
In Loving Memory
May 23, 2008

Last updated June 26, 2008