Go to A-Z Databases: Books & eBooks to search for more eBooks. Must access on campus or login with your COM account for off campus access.
Want more on finding books or eBooks? Try our How to Use Books & eBooks guides.
American Immigration: An Encyclopedia of Political, Social, and Cultural Change
This reference work covers American immigration from both historical and contemporary perspectives, tracing the scope and sweep of U.S. immigration from the earliest settlement to the present day. Major immigrant groups are examined through analysis of social, legal, political, economic, and demographic factors. Hot-topic current issues and controversies—from amnesty to U.S. border security—are also covered.
American Immigration and Citizenship by John R. Vile (Editor)
One of the most contentious issues in America today is the status of immigration. American Immigration and Citizenship shows that this issue is far from new. In this book, John Vile provides context for contemporary debates on the topic through key historical documents presented alongside essays that interpret their importance for the reader. The author concludes that a highly-interconnected world presents no easy answers and offers no single immigration policy that will work for all time. The book includes a mix of laws, constitutional provisions, speeches, and judicial decisions from each period. Vile furthermore traces the interconnections between issues of citizenship and issues of immigration, indicating that public opinion and legislation has often contained contradictory strains. Although the primary focus has been on national laws and decisions, some of the readings clearly indicate the stakes that states, which are often affected disproportionately by such laws, have also had in this process.
Border Brokers : Children of Mexican Immigrants Navigating U. S. Society, Laws, and Politics
Some 16.6 million people nationwide live in mixed-status families, containing a combination of U.S. citizens, residents, and undocumented immigrants. U.S. immigration governance has become an almost daily news headline. Yet even in the absence of federal immigration reform over the last twenty years, existing policies and practices have already been profoundly impacting these family units. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in San Diego over more than a decade, Border Brokers documents the continuing deleterious effects of U.S. immigration policies and enforcement practices on a group of now young adults and their families. In the first book-length longitudinal study of mixed-status families, Christina M. Getrich provides an on-the-ground portrayal of these young adults' lives from their own perspectives and in their own words. More importantly, Getrich identifies how these individuals have developed resiliency and agency beginning in their teens to improve circumstances for immigrant communities. Despite the significant constraints their families face, these children have emerged into adulthood as grounded and skilled brokers who effectively use their local knowledge bases, life skills honed in their families, and transborder competencies. Refuting the notion of their failure to assimilate, she highlights the mature, engaged citizenship they model as they transition to adulthood to be perhaps their most enduring contribution to creating a better U.S. society. An accessible ethnography rooted in the everyday, this book portrays the complexity of life in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. It offers important insights for anthropologists, educators, policy-makers, and activists working on immigration and social justice issues.
The Criminalization of Immigration: Truth, Lies, Tragedy, and Consequences by Robert Hartmann McNamara
This book offers a comprehensive understanding of past and current immigration policy in the United States and exposes falsehoods in the rhetoric and narrative portraying Latino and Mexican immigrants in the U.S. Much support for intensified immigration enforcement and deportation is based on repeated statements by federal officials, including the U.S. president, that immigrants pose a threat to national security, contribute to crime, and take jobs away from native-born residents. The evidence has consistently concluded that these narratives are inaccurate. This text examines white nationalism as a backdrop to understanding the rationale behind current immigration policy and tactics. It examines how political and economic factors, broadly defined as neoliberal policies, shape the immigration narrative. It addresses the criminal justice system's applicability to immigration, law enforcement efforts, problems with immigration courts and judges, and how the detention of immigrants is part of a larger mass incarceration of people of color. Finally, the text offers insight into the reasons for massive migration, with the U.S. contributing to the problem by supporting regimes that endorse or allow humanitarian crisis.
The Deportation Machine by Adam Goodman
The unknown history of deportation and of the fear that shapes immigrants' lives Constant headlines about deportations, detention camps, and border walls drive urgent debates about immigration and what it means to be an American in the twenty-first century. The Deportation Machine traces the long and troubling history of the US government's systematic efforts to terrorize and expel immigrants over the past 140 years. This provocative, eye-opening book provides needed historical perspective on one of the most pressing social and political issues of our time. In a sweeping and engaging narrative, Adam Goodman examines how federal, state, and local officials have targeted various groups for expulsion, from Chinese and Europeans at the turn of the twentieth century to Central Americans and Muslims today. He reveals how authorities have singled out Mexicans, nine out of ten of all deportees, and removed most of them not by orders of immigration judges but through coercive administrative procedures and calculated fear campaigns. Goodman uncovers the machine's three primary mechanisms--formal deportations, "voluntary" departures, and self-deportations--and examines how public officials have used them to purge immigrants from the country and exert control over those who remain. Exposing the pervasive roots of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, The Deportation Machine introduces the politicians, bureaucrats, businesspeople, and ordinary citizens who have pushed for and profited from expulsion. This revelatory book chronicles the devastating human costs of deportation and the innovative strategies people have adopted to fight against the machine and redefine belonging in ways that transcend citizenship.
Immigration by Scott London; Mary Engal
The immigration issue affects virtually every American, directly or indirectly, often in deeply personal ways. This guide is designed to help people deliberate together about how we should approach the issue. The three options presented here reflect different ways of understanding what is at stake and force us to think about what matters most to us when we face difficult problems that involve all of us and that do not have perfect solutions. The US government essentially shut down immigration, at least temporarily, during the coronavirus pandemic. But as our country begins to reopen, difficult questions remain: Should we strictly enforce the law and deport people who are here without permission, or would deporting millions of people outweigh their crime? Should we welcome more newcomers to build a more vibrant and diverse society, or does this pose too great a threat to national unity? Should we accept more of the millions of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing gang violence and war, or should we avoid the risk of taking in people whose backgrounds may not have been fully checked? Should our priority be to help immigrants assimilate into our distinctively American way of life and insist they learn English, or should we instead celebrate a growing mosaic of different peoples? The concerns that underlie this issue are not confined to party affiliation, nor are they captured by labels such as "conservative" or "liberal." The research involved in developing the guide included interviews and conversations with Americans from all walks of life, as well as surveys of nonpartisan public-opinion research, subject-matter scans, and reviews of initial drafts by people with direct experience with the subject. About National Issues Forum The National Issues Forums (NIF) is a network of organizations that brings together citizens around the nation to talk about pressing social and political issues of the day. Thousands of community organizations, including schools, libraries, churches, civic groups, and others, have sponsored forums designed to give people a public voice in the affairs of their communities and their nation. For more information about NIF and for additional publications, see NIF's website at www.nifi.org.
Opinions Throughout History: Immigration
This new series from Grey House offers in-depth, single volumes that follow the debate, or path, to a decision on a controversial topic as it evolved throughout history. Each volume offers a wide range of opinion essays and editorials, speeches, and journal articles and expert analysis.
Selling America: Immigration Promotion and the Settlement of the American Continent, 1607–1914
An in-depth look at the motivating factors behind immigration to America from 1607 to 1914, including what attracted people to America, who was trying to attract them, and why. * Features a synthesis of 35 state promotional policies regarding immigration * Challenges the commonly held view that the 19th century was a period of "laissez faire" immigration policy * Examines the question of why immigrants migrate to certain areas * Highlights the corporate, for-profit nature of English colonization in the 17th century * Includes private corporate, religious, and philanthropic promotional activities * Analyzes why policymakers favored certain immigrant groups over others
Socially Undocumented by Amy Reed-Sandoval
What does it really mean to be "undocumented," particularly in the contemporary United States? Political philosophers, immigration policy makers, and others have tended to define the term "undocumented migrant" legalistically - that is, in terms of lacking legal authorization to live and workin one's current country of residence. In Socially Undocumented, Reed-Sandoval challenges this "legalistic understanding" by arguing that being socially undocumented is to possess a real, visible, and embodied social identity that does not always track one's legal status. She further argues thatachieving immigration justice in the U.S. (and elsewhere) requires a philosophical understanding of the racialized, class-based, and gendered components of socially undocumented identity and oppression.Socially Undocumented offers a new vision of immigration justice by integrating a descriptive and phenomenological account of socially undocumented identity with a normative and political account of how the oppression with which it is associated ought to be dealt with as a matter of social justice.It also addresses concrete ethical challenges such as the question of whether open borders are morally required, the militarization of the Mexico-U.S. border, the perilous journey that many migrants undertake to get to the United States, the difficult experiences of the women who cross U.S. bordersseeking prenatal care while pregnant, and more.
Transforming America: Perspectives on US Immigration
Utilizing multiple perspectives of related academic disciplines, this three-volume set of contributed essays enables readers to understand the complexity of immigration to the United States and grasp how our history of immigration has made this nation what it is today.Transforming America: Perspectives on U.S. Immigration covers immigration to the United States from the founding of America to the present. Comprising 3 volumes of 31 original scholarly essays, the work is the first of its kind to explore immigration and immigration policy in the United States throughout its history.These essays provide a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives from experts in cultural anthropology, history, political science, economics, and education. The book will provide readers with a critical understanding of the historical precedents to today's mass migration. Viewing the immigration issue from the perspectives of the contributors' various relevant disciplines enables a better grasp of the complex conundrum presented by legal and illegal immigration policy.
U. S. Immigration Policy, Ethnicity, and Religion in American History
This invaluable resource investigates U.S. immigration policy, making connections between the ethnic and religious affiliations of immigrants and trends in immigration, both legal and unauthorized.U.S. Immigration Policy, Ethnicity, and Religion in American History is rich with data and document excerpts that illuminate the complex relationships among ethnicity, religion, and immigration to the United States over a 200-year period. The book uniquely organizes the flow of immigration to the United States into seven chapters covering U.S. immigration policymaking:· the Open Door Era, 1820-1880· the Door Ajar Era, 1880-1920· the Pet Door Era, 1920-1950· the Dutch Door Era, 1950-1985· the Revolving Door Era, 1985-2001· the Storm Door Era, 2001-2018Each chapter analyzes trends in ethnicity or national origin and the religious affiliations of immigrant groups in relation to immigration policy during the time period covered.
The Walls Within by Sarah R. Coleman
A history of the battles over US immigrants' rights since 1965--and how these conflicts reshaped access to education, employment, civil liberties, and more The 1965 Hart-Celler Act transformed the American immigration system by abolishing national quotas in favor of a seemingly egalitarian approach. But subsequent demographic shifts resulted in a backlash over the social contract and the rights of citizens versus noncitizens. In The Walls Within, Sarah Coleman explores those political clashes, focusing not on attempts to stop immigration at the border, but on efforts to limit immigrants' rights within the United States through domestic policy. Drawing on new materials from the Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations, and immigration and civil rights organizations, Coleman exposes how the politics of immigration control has undermined the idea of citizenship for all. Coleman shows that immigration politics was not just about building or tearing down walls, but about employer sanctions, access to schools, welfare, and the role of local authorities in implementing policies. In the years after 1965, a rising restrictionist movement sought to marginalize immigrants in realms like public education and the labor market. Yet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, restrictionists faced countervailing forces committed to an expansive notion of immigrants' rights. In the 1990s, with national politics gridlocked, anti-immigrant groups turned to statehouses to enact their agenda. Achieving strength at the local level, conservatives supporting immigration restriction actually acquired more influence under the Clinton presidency than even during the so-called Reagan revolution, resulting in dire consequences for millions of immigrants. Revealing the roots behind much of today's nativist sentiment, The Walls Within examines debates about who is entitled to the American dream, and how such dreams can be subverted for those already calling the country home.