Boston College alumnus Hidetaka Hirota has been honored with the First Book Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society for his book Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy (Oxford University Press). The award recognizes the work of early career scholars in the field of U.S. immigration and ethnic history and honors the book judged best on any aspect of the immigration and ethnic history of the United States and/or North America. Hirota earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in history from BC.