Immigration Books

This book is a reprinted edition of a book originally published in 1990 and no longer in print in its original edition.

It examines the phenomenon of minority business development in industrial societies. Everywhere immigrants settle in advanced Western societies, ethnic minority businesses flourish - whether they be Turkish tailors in Amsterdam, Moroccan grocers in Paris or Chinese restaurateurs in New York.

Contributions by seventeen of the leading business researchers in the world challenge the conventional `wisdom' which claims that immigrants do well in business because their culture makes them entrepreneurial. Rather, the authors show how the development of a particular ethnic minority business is always the product of unique, historical circumstances. These include opportunities for newcomers, ethnic group characteristics, and strategies used to exploit entrepreneurial options.

The authors also show that not all groups are equally interested in the business ownership option for advancement or equally successful at it. They explain why immigrants from diverse ethnic groups differentially attempt to go into business and why their fates differ. Using data on the success of various ethnic groups in business in the United States, the United Kingdom and France, the authors suggest policy options which might help the economic advancement of ethnic minority communities through business ownership.

The volume is a blend of quantitative, historical and case study data supporting a well-argued thesis, drawing on the literature of a variety of disciplines and approaches. It is recomended for scholars studying race relations or involved in small business research, cross-cultural reseach and other related subjects.

This is one of the finest books I've read on the Laotian refugee experience. The author covers the facts and experiences that have shaped the refugee communities. More than that, it chronicles how his interaction with these gentle people affected his life. Being intimately involved with such a community, I have experienced many of the same emotions and conflicts expressed so vividly by the author

I've heard lectures and workshops from one of the authors, and they are always full of interesting information (sometimes more than you need, but it's good to have it there). What is really fantastic is crossing over into different areas of law. How often do you have a situation with a latino/a client where ONLY immigration is involved? This book should be a one-stop shop for key areas impacting that constituency.

This book was an excellent way of telling history through a story. The characters are strong, interesting, and true to the Chinese-Canadian heritage. The difficulties in China during the Communist revolution, and the tales of the desire to come to Canada are truthful, and are filled with emotion. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates true literary masterpieces. One of my favourite novels.

a wonderful book, very insightful essays about the complicated nostalgia for lost languages,"identity," citizenship and belonging that the contemporary global diaspora has left us with.

Ethongraphy, Anthology, Short Stories, Interviews, whatever you call it, this book is full of splendid information; the kind of information that was about to get lost in time. There are first hand experiences from the ones who strengthened the revolution but were disappointed and betrayed by it.

The story of the clandestine immigration ship, Exodus, is known to most people due to the best selling novel by Leon Uris. Many other books have tried to present more complete and historically accurate descriptions of the Exodus and the other clandestine Jewish immigrations to Palestine but none are as compelling or riveting as the recent publication, Exodus Calling, by Nissan Degani. This is the definitive book on the Exodus 1947.

It is the only oral history on this important aspect of Jewish history. Mr. Degani has interviewed many of the people who were on board the ship, including former Palyam colleagues who made up the crew and many of the refugees who sought a new start in their ancestral homeland. He has also spoken with several of the British sailors who were ordered to attack the ship. The English text is not always as polished as we might be accustomed to, but this only increases the sense of authenticity of what the people are saying. It is obvious that the people speak for themselves. This is their story as it has never been told before and it is as thrilling as it is heartbreaking.

As Nissan Degani has said, "The Exodus is the bridge that unites the founding of Zionism (1897) and the establishment of the modern State of Israel (1948). The Exodus demonstrates what the Zionist ideology can lead to -- a dynamic Jewish State."

Peter Laufer's Exodus To Berlin covers the aftermath of the Holocaust, when the small Jewish community left in Germany faced the fall of the Berlin Wall and the possibility of a new life in a democratic country. This tells of the story of their migration to Germany, the newfound appearance of Jewish peoples in Germany, and the odd idea that modern Jews are finding sanctuary in Germany from the anti-Semitism of the former Soviet Republic. Current events and social changes spring to life in this eye-opening coverage.

Tessa Morris-Suzuki has written a remarkable account of the various forces behind the emigration of as many as 90,000 Koreans from Japan to North Korea in the late 1950's into the 1960's. By dint of thorough research, she has shone a light on the unexpected origins of that exodus. Perhaps most Westerners who are aware of that migration know that the vast majority of the Korean "returnees" were not of northern Korean origin but from southeastern Korea or from Cheju Island. However, far fewer probably realize the tangled origins of their departure from Japan. I have worked on Korean affairs fairly steadily for much of the past thirty years and was generally familiar with the emigration story. However, I thought the movement started as a result of North Korean propagandizing among the sad and badly treated Koreans in Japan, who numbered perhaps 600,000 in 1952 when Japan regained its sovereignty through the San Francisco Treaty.

"Exodus to North Korea" shows that the impetus for emigration came not from Kim Il-Sung or from the Chosen Soren, the North Korean front organization in Japan, but from Japanese officials. Only several years later and for his own purposes did Kim Il-Sung buy into the migration idea. The author points out that one of Kim's motives was a need for laborers, including in North Korea's mines, after the 1958 withdrawal of the last Chinese People's Volunteer units. For five years after the armistice those soldiers did a lot of reconstruction work in the North. Professor Morris-Suzuki points out the irony that many of the Koreans who went to the North had been taken to Japan in the first place as conscripted miners; they would wind up being used by the North Koreans for the same kind of dangerous labor.

Professor Morris-Suzuki identifies Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu as one of the protagonists behind the exodus. There was no reason to expect sympathy toward Koreans of any political stripe from him. The reason he had to limp aboard the USS Missouri to sign the surrender as foreign minister in 1945 was that a Korean nationalist had blown his leg off with a bomb at a Shanghai railway station in the 1930's. (For some reason, despite all her detailed research, Professor Morris-Suzuki does not mention that factoid.) It would undoubtedly be incorrect to describe the entire Japanese motivation for the exodus as "Shigemitsu's Revenge," but the project must have given him a great deal of satisfaction. The Japanese wanted to get rid of a troublesome minority that was no longer needed or useful, people whom the Japan stripped of their colonial-era Japanese nationality as quickly as legally possible. Their existence in Japan was not only politically troublesome and a drain on the welfare budget, but also a reminder that Japan's population was not as homogeneous as the national mythology maintained.

The International Committee of the Red Cross does not come off well in this account. The Japanese Government and Red Cross and the North Koreans drew the ICRC into their ostensibly humanitarian plans. The Geneva officials, despite misgivings about Japanese motives and largely in ignorance of what awaited the Koreans who left for the North, failed in a basic duty: to satisfy themselves that each person was making an informed and willing decision to leave Japan for North Korea, a place almost none of them had ever seen.

Professor Morris-Suzuki honestly identifies gaps in her excellent work, pointing out that she had no chance to talk with returnees still in North Korea and also that she barely addresses the South Korean dimension of the story. On the first point, she is too hard on herself; it would be impossible for anyone to do. Exploring the second point may be worth another book. She did interview several returnees who managed to escape from North Korea in recent years. This book is a major contribution to understanding many of the tensions and animosities that still color relations between Japan and the two halves of the Korean Peninsula. It is a wrenching and troubling story.

Exploring contemporary migration is an excellent book for graduate students as well as professionals in this field. I highly recommend this book for al migrationists.